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| Depiction of Edward Jordan's fate as a convicted pirate |
When most of us think of pirates wreaking havoc on the high seas, I suspect that we imagine the brigands of Stevenson, or the swashbucklers played by Flynn, or in more modern times, the quirky characters from Pirates of the Caribbean.
In truth the pirates featured in the miniseries Black Sails -- which I think can still be found streaming somewhere -- come closer to what history tells us pirates were like.
But when you think of pirates your thoughts probably don't turn your imagination to such exotic places as Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. But Canada had its share of scoundrels plying it's coastal waters.
I ran across two of them while reminiscing about ort recent, brief sojourn in Halifax. One's career was short lived but left a gruesome mark on history. The other was a cruel marauder who terrorized his victims.
Edward Jordan seems an unlikely pirate when you know the details of his life and crime. The Irishman had participated in In the Irish rebellions at the end of the 18th century. He managed to obtain a pardon for his activities and immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, where he tried to make a living fishing in a village called Gaspe. He did well enough in the beginning and had his own boat built, The Three Sisters, or as one source has it, The Three Daughters, named for his children
But Jordan ran up a massive debt with local merchants and wound up mortgaging his boat with one of the companies he traded with, J&J Tremaine Merchants. One day he went to Halifax to purchase supplies, and the merchant had him arrested for nonpayment of his debt. He managed to get bailed out, and when did Tremaine demanded he either pay his debts or hand over the boat. He refused, and the company hired men to seize the boat. At that point, Jordan negotiated a deal allowing him and his family to ride as passengers on the boat on a journey to Halifax, where he said he intended to relocate.
Jordan befriended one of the crew and enlisted him in a plan to retake the vessel. Three days in, Jordan and his accomplice struck. Jordan, his accomplice and his wife stole pistols from the captain's cabin while the captain and crew were on deck.
Jordan fired the first shot, intending to hit the captain, but his aim was a bit off, and the shot passed through the captain cheek and struck a crewman in the chest, killing him. Jordan subdued the remaining crewman while his wife began attacking the captain, who saved himself by jumping into the ocean. Jordan his accomplice set a course for Newfoundland.
A passing boat found the captain and learned of the plot, which was duly reported to naval authorities. On his way to Newfoundland, Jordan managed to pick up some crewmen by stopping in villages along the coast. He decided he had enough crew to manage a crossing and planned to return to Ireland.
He had taken refuge in the harbor at St. John's before starting the journey, but as the left the harbor, they encountered a British ship that chased them down. Jordan was arrested for piracy and murder and returned to Halifax.
After being tried and convicted, Jordan was sentenced to hang in accordance with British law. After his death on the gallows, his body was taken down, tarred,placed in an iron cage, known as a gibbet, and hung in a prominent beach in the area known as Point Pleasant.
Coincidentally a group of mutineers had been hung and their bodies displayed on an island across the water from Point Pleasant, a gruesome reminder and warning to ships sailing into the harbor of the consequences of committing naval crimes in British waters.
For reasons I haven't uncovered, Jordan's body was left to hand in the gibbet for about three decades. You can imagine for yourself what that must have been like, but the various descriptions aren't pleasant.
Jordan is sort of an accidental pirate -- the laws demanded the description because the boat was not his, so he couldn't take it back by force. In the next post, we'll look at the second pirate I mentioned in the beginning.
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