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| The Devil and Tom Walker 1824-Source of the Oak Island Hoax |
Happy Memorial Day, today is a holiday to remember the people who died serving The United States Military.
The True Story of William Kidd and His Treasure
In researching the History of the Country of Nova Scotia I have come across the possibly true story of Oak Island as written in my previous post.
In reality, Oak Island has nothing to do the with story of William Kidd but looks like it was added into his story later with the hoax at Oak Island in the 1850's.
Now I will reveal the true story of William Kidd and his treasure.
Today reading these old stories it's hard to imagine that anyone every believed any of this, when you examine the texts today they look like stories invented for babies under evaluation.
The story of William Kidd is fiction written in 1824 by Washington Irving called The Devil and Tom Walker.
Today the story is in the public domain and you should be able to find it as a free ebook.
The Devil and Tom Walker is the first account of the real or actual story of William Kidd that I can find, all other materials reference this text. Any Historical accounts of William Kidd all come from after 1824.
The story was later popularized by Edgar Allan Poe in The Gold Bug in 1843 and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island in 1883. Today all free public domain ebooks.
The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving is possibly the "start" of pirate books and treasure island stories like today's Pirates of the Caribbean.
William Kidd is a character first written about in 1824 by Washington Irving and popularized stories in the 1800's about pirates on ships in the late 1600's.
Hysteria around stories of pirate ships in the 1800's probably led people to try and document this in historical text and along with hoax's like the Oak Island story.
Under examination, the story of William Kidd falls apart and is not possible.
The story is also the reference material for the hoax at Oak Island with I will now explain.
William Kidd is the original pirate character, invented by Washington Irving in 1824. All his references date back to the mid 1600's nearly 150 years earlier and there are no original accounts of William Kidd before 1824.
His biography was all written after 1824.
So these are pirate characters in the 1600's that were invented in the 1800's with no historical background.
The connection to Nova Scotia is that William Kidd was born in Scotland, and is said to have visited Nova Scotia shortly before he was imprisoned in New York and probably written into the story later during the popular pirate story days of the 1800's.
William Kidd was born in 1654 and executed in 1701 at 47 in England for piracy.
So this whole story takes place in about 25 years around William Kidd from his adulthood to execution in England at 47.
His name was Kidd but his parents were Kyd , the name has no baptismal records in Scotland.
The actual date of William Kidd's treasure is 1698.
The treasure is said to be from a ship called the "Quedagh Merchant" which is a cargo ship from India. The ships only historical account comes from the story of Captain Kidd.
The ship like William "Captain" Kidd first appears in his story.
The idea of the Oak Island hoax is that the layers of materials they found in the hole exactly match the ships cargo of the Quedagh Merchant.
So when you examine the story of the Quedagh Merchant, it's cargo is what they said was buried in in the layers in the hole at Oak Island.
They made this up and added it to the story in the 1850's.
The idea of the hoax is they are saying that the treasure is at the bottom of the hole from the ship, then the cargo of the ship was buried on top of the treasure in layers every ten feet.
Then when you did up the hole the layers are supposed to be cargo from the ship, as you keep going and penetrate the layers you are supposed to be getting closer to the treasure by going through the ships cargo from top to bottom.
The "platforms" they said that were every ten feet may even supposed to be pieces of wood from the ship that they dismantled.
So the treasure from the Quedagh Merchant is supposed to be at the bottom of the hole with the rest of the cargo from the ship placed on top of it every ten feet.
Then when you read the story of the Quedagh Merchant the ship was on route for the French East India Trading Company and it's Cargo was supplies like cloth and linens etc. and gold manufactured in India and said to be dumped in hole at Oak Island.
Oak Island has other names in the story and is also referenced as "money cove" in the story of the Quedagh Merchant.
The point here is, you have to understand the context they are talking about in these old stories. When you get the context and say it in modern terms the story falls apart because it's not possible and looks like a story for babies about pirates.
This is the actual story of Willam "Captain" Kidd the pirate from the late 1600's.
William Kidd was born in Scotland and ran a pirate ship crew that was English and French during the British and French wars.
He worked for the King of England who on his private time paid Captain Kidd money to help him loot French ships and towns in the Caribbean for a 10% cut.
This is not possible because the King of England didn't need to do that to earn money, he owned everything.
Captain Kidd also worked for The Governor of New York who sent him on looting missions in the Atlantic Ocean.
His wife was in her early 20's and widowed twice and one of the wealthiest women in New York because she inherited money from her two dead husbands.
Obviously her first two husbands were also pirates who were killed and left her money, her third husband William "Captain" Kidd was also a pirate and executed at 47 by England.
The French-English pirate ship would sail under both flags and changed them as they needed depending on the situation.
The crew was not paid and and had to loot French ships to earn money and switched several times with other crew members being forced into Military service for disrespecting the British Navy, Kidd left and had to get a new crew and ship.
The ship was apparently always in need of repair and they had to work hard to keep it going, most likely damage from other ships defending themselves from their pirate attacks.
The crew would raise their French flag before attacking French ships to trick them and in one case the crew even destroyed and looted an entire French town in the Caribbean, not bad for 150 people who took out an entire town in the Caribbean.
Their last adventure was the capture of the Quedagh Merchant from India traveling for the French East India trading company.
Shorty before the adventure William Kidd changed crew members again and this time has a black man who would have been a slave at the time in America as one of his ship mates, the crew attacked and looted the Quedagh Merchant and then hid in Madagascar off the Coast of Africa with their French and English crew with the new black crew member who who helped them escape in Africa.
The ship they looted however was off limits from the King of England because it was not French, and Kidd was ruled a pirate in England.
Captain Kidd later returned to New York City where he was eventually captured and the Governor of New York to avoid implications from his earlier dealings with Kidd sent him to England where he was executed at 47.
This story is obviously fiction from 1824, and hysteria around pirate stories in the 1800's led them to try and prove these tales or hoax them into the History books.
The actual date of the treasure was 1698, then he hid in Madagascar and then captured in New York in 1700.
The time period for the Oak Island Treasure wound then be about 1699, and the story makes no mention of him going to Nova Scotia, only that he was born in Scotland.
There is a claim that the ship Quedagh Merchant was recently found sunk in the Caribbean in 2007, but it is only a theory. In fact the ship's historical record is that is actually came from the fictional story of Captain Kidd so it is not real.
This discovery in the Caribbean claiming to be the fictional ship also led to the launch of the television show "The Curse of Oak Island" a few years later.
The actual "Curse" of Oak Island is from the story by Washington Irving. The curse is that Captain Kidd made a deal with the devil who protects the treasure and then was executed before he could claim it.
Then the devil is supposed to never release the treasure and is protecting it. That is the tale of the curse at Oak Island.
The truth is that they were hoaxed by the story and people were killed digging in an old water well from the British Navy.
Captain Kidd's Treasure was from 1698 and Oak Island in Lunenburg was founded fifty years later in the 1750's.
So the area said to be the treasure of Captain Kidd fifty years later was occupied by the British Navy and was heavily fortified. Obviously, they would have surveyed the area and found the hole if it was real. When if fact it was probably a salt water well used for putting out fires in the Harbor in Lunenburg County.
The story of Captain Kidd was written by Washington Irvin in the short story The Devil and Tom Walker, then later popularized by Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson later in the 1800's in books like Treasure Island.
When you read the story knowing all this it looks completely fictional and time dated for children from the 1800's.
**edit**
You can read The Devil and Tom Walker online here in the book of short stories "Tales of a Traveler" by Washington Irving from 1824 in various formats.
William Kidd is the back story apparently for the Tom Walker story and there is a separate story about William Kidd in the book. I think what they are saying is William Kidd is the back story in the adventure of Tom Walker.
This is in the public domain and anyone can use them for free.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13514
**edit**
You can read The Devil and Tom Walker online here in the book of short stories "Tales of a Traveler" by Washington Irving from 1824 in various formats.
William Kidd is the back story apparently for the Tom Walker story and there is a separate story about William Kidd in the book. I think what they are saying is William Kidd is the back story in the adventure of Tom Walker.
This is in the public domain and anyone can use them for free.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13514
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