Kennedy was part of the naval force sent with Woodes Rogers in an expedition to the Bahamas, to “recover that island by reducing the pirates, who then had it in their possession” and had “fortified themselves in several places.” Kennedy’ s personal purpose, it seems, was not to assist in suppressing the pirates but rather to find and join them. Here he heard the stories told on the lower deck about “the exploits of the pirates, both in the East and West Indies, and of their having got several islands into their possession, wherein they settled, and in which they exercised a sovereign power.” Kennedy “became more than ordinarily attentive whenever stories of that sort were told, and sought every opportunity of putting his fellow sailors upon such relations.” He learned of the adventures of Morgan, Avery, and other “maritime desperadoes,” committing to memory their “principal expeditions.” These tales “had wonderful effect on Walter’ s disposition,” creating in him “a secret ambition of making a figure in the same way.” The yarns set him on his life’ s course. Kennedy promptly gave his father’s effects to his mother and brothers and “followed his own roving inclinations and went to sea.” He served a long stint on a man-of-war in the War of Spanish Succession. Meanwhile he served an apprenticeship to his father, but this came to an abrupt end when the old man died. It was said that in his childhood he was “bred a Pick-Pocket,” and that he later became a house-breaker. His father was an anchor-smith “who gave his son Walter the best education he was able.” The times were hard and so was young Kennedy B he was poor, illiterate, known to have “a too aspiring temper,” and often on the wrong side of the law.
Kennedy’ s family, like his community, lived by the sea. Walter Kennedy was born at Pelican Stairs, Wapping, the sailor town of London, in 1695, the year in which Henry Avery, “the maritime Robin Hood,” led a mutiny, turned pirate, and captured a treasure ship in the Indian Ocean. Index Excerpt from Chapter Three, “Who Will Go a Pyrating?” Villains of All Nations Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age Table of ContentsĬhapter 2: The Political Arithmetic of PiracyĬhapter 4: “The New Government of the Ship”Ĭhapter 4: The Women Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary ReadĬhapter 5: “To Extirpate Them Out of the World”
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