Notorious Pirate, Captain William Kidd, is reportedly sighted off the coast of Cape Town

Perhaps one of the most notorious pirates in history, Captain William Kidd, was thought to have become familiar with the practice of piracy while serving as an apprentice on board a pirate ship. In 1689, he and the other members of a pirate crew mutinied and headed for the English colony of Nevis. There they defended the island against French invasion. Kidd was then employed as a privateer by the English and was offered the captaincy of the Adventure Galley - a ship with a mission to capture all French vessels as well as the pirates of Madagascar.

Seeking to find a crew, Kidd sailed to New York where he selected former pirates and mercenaries to serve with him. In 1696, Kidd set course for the Cape coast, where his vessel was reported to have been spotted on 20 January 1697. By this time, the Adventure Galley had not been at all successful in its mission. A third of the crew had been struck by cholera, and the pirates anticipated in Madagascar had not been found. Kidd then sailed to the Red Sea also in search of pirates but failed to find any. As an alternative, he captured an Armenian ship, the Quedagh Merchant, which was laden with gold, silver and valuable silk. This was considered to be an act of piracy, as Kidd was only commissioned to attack French ships and the Quedagh Merchant was captained by an Englishmen. It was this attack that led to Kidd's arrest in 1699.

After a period in solitary confinement, he was put on trial and charged with 5 counts of piracy and one of murder. Kidd was found guilty on all these charges and was hanged on Execution Dock in London in 1701. Some sources state that Kidd's notoriety was considered to have stemmed from his harsh treatment of his crew rather than his affinity for piracy. His story is often linked to tales of buried treasures around the islands of New England.