October 18th, 1717

(from the Shipwrecked with Captain Marrow Facebook page)

On the 18th of October, 1717, the surviving crew of pirate Captain Sam Bellamy's ship the Whydah (which had sunk during a storm off the coast of Massachusetts near current-day Marconi Beach on April 26th earlier that year), had their trial in Boston. 

Only two men had survived the sinking of the Whydah, of nearly 150 on board, the ship's pilot John Julian, and their carpenter Thomas Davis. While the Whydah had sunk with all of its treasure, in Bellamy's flotilla was also another vessel (recently captured) named the Mary Anne that was manned by only ten crew. The Mary Anne had also sank, and while the crew all survived, they were rounded up and all thrown in the Barnstable Gaol. For those interested, the jail is supposedly haunted, and also has ties to Bellamy's alleged lover Maria "Goody" Hallet which is discussed in my recently released book "Pirate Ghosts & Buried Treasures of the Northeast Coast: A Historical Assessment on Pirate Folklore."

While all of them would be found guilty of piracy and sentenced to be hanged (which would eventually happen the following year), the Whydah's carpenter Thomas Davis, and the Mary Anne's carpenter, Thomas South, were both spared death because they had been threaten to be killed if they did not join Bellamy's crew. Although John Julian, who was a 16 year old Miskito Indian, was however sold into slavery to future U.S. president John Quincy Adams' great grandfather.