WEST, Richard.
One of Captain Lowther's crew. Hanged at St. Kitts in March, 1722.
WETHERLEY, Tee.
A Massachusetts pirate, with only one eye. Captured in 1699 with the pirate Joseph Bradish and put in prison. They escaped two months later. A reward of £200 was offered for the recapture of Wetherley, which was gained by a Kennekeck Indian called Essacambuit, who brought him back to prison. He was taken, in irons, to England in H.M.S. Advice in 1700, and tried and hanged in London.
WHETSTONE, Sir Thomas, or Whitstone. Buccaneer.
In 1663 he commanded a ship, a Spanish prize, armed with seven guns and carrying a crew of sixty men. In August, 1666, Sir Thomas was with a small English garrison of some sixty men in the buccaneer stronghold of New Providence in the Bahama Islands. Suddenly a Spanish fleet arrived from Porto Bello, and after a siege of three days the garrison capitulated. The three English captains were carried prisoners to Panama and there cast into a dungeon and bound in irons for seventeen months.
WHITE, Captain Thomas. South Sea pirate. An Englishman. Born at Plymouth.
As a young man he was taken prisoner by a French pirate off the coast of Guinea. The French massacred their prisoners by painting targets on their chests and using them for rifle practice. White alone was saved by an heroic Frenchman throwing himself in front of him and receiving the volley in his own body. White sailed with the French pirates, who were wrecked on the coast of Madagascar. White himself managed to escape, and found safety with a native, King Bavaw, but the French pirates were all massacred. White not very long afterwards joined another pirate ship, commanded by a Captain Read, with whom he sailed, helping to take several prizes, amongst others a slave ship, the Speaker. White soon found himself possessed of a considerable fortune, and settled down with his crew at a place called Methelage in Madagascar, marrying a native woman, and leading the peaceful life of a planter. The call of piracy at length proving irresistible, he sailed before the mast with Captain Halsey, then returned to his native wife and home, shortly afterwards to die of fever.
In his will, he left legacies to various relatives and friends, and appointed three guardians for his son, all of different nationalities, with instructions that the boy should be taken to England to be educated, which was duly done.
White was buried with the full ceremonies of the Church of England, his sword and pistols being carried on his coffin, and three English and one French volley fired over his grave.