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Captain Kidd

  • (Trad)

    My name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed
    My name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed
    My name is Captain Kidd, and God's laws I did forbid
    And most wickedly I did, as I sailed, as I sailed

    My father taught me well as I sailed, as I sailed
    My father taught me well as I sailed, as I sailed
    My father taught me well to shun the gates of hell
    But against him I rebelled as I sailed, as I sailed

    I murdered Willie More as I sailed, as I sailed
    I murdered Willie More as I sailed, as I sailed
    I murdered Willie More and I left him in his gore
    He was dead for ever more as I sailed, as I sailed

    I steered from sound to sound as I sailed, as I sailed
    I steered from sound to sound as I sailed, as I sailed
    I steered from sound to sound, ran many ships aground
    And many more I burned as I sailed, as I sailed

    With all men I had my will as I sailed, as I sailed
    With all men I had my will as I sailed, as I sailed
    With all men I had my will, and my gunner I did kill
    And his precious blood did spill as I sailed, as I sailed

    The King's ship captured me as I sailed, as I sailed
    The King's ship captured me as I sailed, as I sailed
    The King's ship captured me, no more of piracy
    No more to roam the seas as I sailed, as I sailed

    To the Execution Dock I must go I must go
    To the Execution Dock I must go I must go
    To the Execution Dock while the crowds around me flock
    I'll be the hangman's lock as I go, as I go

    A warning take by me, I must die I must die
    A warning take by me, I must die I must die
    A warning take by me and shun all bad company
    Lest you come to hell with me asI die, as I die

    As sung by Alex Campbell

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  •  [1981:] William Kidd (nicht Robert Kidd, wie oft zu lesen ist) fuhr mit einem Kaperbrief der englischen Krone. Als der Brief nicht mehr verlängert wurde, drängten ihn seine Leute, das einträgliche Geschäft auf keinen Fall aufzugeben. William Kidd segelte weiter und führte ein abenteuerliches Leben als vogelfreier Seeräuber [sic!]- bis er mit sechs seiner Leute auf dem Galgendock in London gehängt wurde. Kurz darauf erschien sein Lied als warnendes Flugblatt. Wie sehr Captain Kidds Taten Robert Louis Stevenson beeindruckt haben, weiß jeder Schatzinsel-Leser.

    Vom William-Kidd-Lied sind Fassungen mit mehr als 25 Strophen bekannt. Was ein richtiger Shantyman war, erfand aus gegebenem Anlaß auch neue hinzu - oder er spann den Faden in Rabelaisischer Manier über unwahrscheinlichste Frauenabenteuer seines Helden fort, so daß Stan Hugill in seiner Sammlung 'Shanties from the seven seas' auf eine Wiedergabe verzichtete. Daß man die eindrucksvolle Weise auch zum Kirchenlied gemacht hat, ist verständlich. Aber was bis auf unsere Tage entlang der Atlantikküste gesungen wird, hält sich an andere Texte.

    Das Schicksal William Kidds, geboren 1655 in Greenock in Schottland als Sohn eines Geistlichen und in Wapping am 23. Mai 1701 gehängt, ist bezeichnend. Nachdem er sich als tüchtiger Seemann und Kaperer im Auftrag der Kolonialregierung von New York bewährt hatte, erteilte König William III. seinem "geliebten Freund William Kidd" den Auftrag, einige unbequem gewordene Freibeuter aufzubringen, und es war Lord Bellomont, der ihm die Galeere Adventure ausrüsten und das Unternehmen finanzieren ließ. Aber dann verschwand Kidd für drei Jahre, so daß er vom inzwischen ergangenen Generalpardon selber ausdrücklich ausgenommen wurde. Als er dann plötzlich im Mai 1699 mit reicher "legaler" Beute in New York einlief und seinem dort mittlerweile als Gouverneur eingesetzten Gönner Lord Bellomont die Dokumente seines erfolgreichen Kaperkrieges übergab, hatte sich das Blatt gewendet. Die Admiralität brauchte ein abschreckendes Beispiel. Die Dokumente verschwanden (sie wurden erst 200 Jahre später [wieder] aufgefunden), und William Kidd wurde wegen Mordes (einen Grund mußte man schließlich finden) an [seinem] Artilleriechef William Moore zum Tode verurteilt - obgleich sich der "gunner" Moore, den Kidd kurzentschlossen mit einer eisenbereiften Pütz niedergeschlagen hatte, in offener Meuterei befunden hatte. (Scherf 34ff)

  •  [1962:] Of all the notorious murderers of fact and folklore, few have acquired as fierce a reputation for cruel and villainous conduct as Captain William Kidd. A closer look at history, however, has shown that Kidd's unsavoury reputation is largely the result of an exceptionally talented ballad-maker's fancy, and that, if the truth be known, Captain Kidd's conviction and execution may be a gross miscarriage of justice. Kidd was hung at Wapping on the shore of the Thames [...], May 23, 1701, following a trial in which the accused was denied the right of counsel and the leading witnesses for the Crown were "turncoat" government informers who thereby saved their own necks. Kidd, a highly-respected Scottish sea captain, was enlisted as a commissioned privateer for the Crown in 1696, with specific instructions to operate against pirates as well as craft of "unfriendly" nations.

    After a number of complex turns of the wheel of politics, Kidd was publicly proclaimed a "pirate" and arrested in 1700. Specifically, he was charged with murdering a seaman by the name of William Moore, although Kidd later claimed that the killing took place as a suppression of mutiny. (Let it be said, without defending Kidd's actions, that sea captains had a vast amount of authority in those days, and that it was most unlikely for a captain to be charged with such a murder unless there was some other motivation behind it.)

    Kidd's trial commenced on May 8, 1701, and barely two weeks later he was dead. Within hours of Kidd's execution, the stall-ballad writers were turning out songs on the notorious captain. The most famous of these, written to a variant of the tune best known today as Sam Hall, had a repentant Kidd telling his long and gory story in the first person. A 25-stanza version popular in the United States early in the 19th century has Kidd confessing to a host of crimes and to a series of sacrilegious sentiments [...]

    The remorseful last verses are in striking contradiction to all reports of the time which have Captain Kidd protesting his innocence up until the very moment of death. And even though the verdict of history is more and more being questioned and new facts come to light (See "Fair Trial" by Richard B. Morris, Knopf Publ., NYC), the verdict of folksong seems irreversible. (Reprint Sing Out 4, 218)

  •  [1963:] An old broadside ballad. There is some doubt as to whether Kidd was as much a victim of a miscarriage of justice as his reputation was a victim of the imagination of a talented ballad writer. But at least, as Pete Seeger says, "the verdict of folk singers seems irreversible" and Kidd remains a rascal. (Eric Winter, notes 'Alex Campbell Sings Folk')

  •  [1966:] [Belongs to] the genre of 18th Century songs known as "Good-night Ballads" in which the exploits of the condemned, usually felons, were sung to the mob on the three mile journey from Newgate prison to [the gallows at] Tyburn. Many were commissioned by prisoners and often great artistic licence was applied in writing them. In 1701 Captain Kidd was rescued from the gallows for a time by a crowd whose favour had been aroused by such a ballad. (Notes The Critics Group, 'A Merry Progress To London')

  •  [1982:] Tune known as the Admiral Benbow air though it was already used for a broadside about Captain Kidd's execution in 1701. In 1702 Benbow defeated the French fleet after a four-day battle in the Caribbean, and the tune was used again for a broadside about the victory. (Pollard, Folksong 6)

    Gallows songs, printed for sale at public executions, were a popular form of broadside until public hanging was abolished in the mid nineteenth century. These events attracted great crowds [...] and provided an eager market for broadside sellers. [...]. There must have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gallows songs telling the stories of murderers, pirates, traitors and other felons. They fulfilled a similar role to that of today's more sensational Sunday newspapers, and when more popular newspapers came on the market from the mid nineteenth century, gallows songs faded away, though many went on being sung in oral tradition. Some were noted by the early collectors, who tended to reject them as 'vulgar'. (Pollard, Folksong 32)

  •  [1995:] Captain Kidd in 1696 sailed 'with a company recruited from the dregs of the waterfront, "men of desperate fortunes and necessities", thirsty for treasure and with few scruples about how they obtained it.' [...]

    Pirates could also make useful scapegoats for the bigger crimes committed by companies and national leaders. Historians have pointed to the case of Captain Kidd, a privateer and unsuccessful New York businessman who was hanged, as an illustration of this: 'There is little doubt that Kidd committed a number of outright piracies in the Indian Ocean ... [but] it is equally clear that his trial provided a scapegoat for the establishment figures who had employed him: a full investigation would have exposed both their greed in organising an anti-piracy mission for their own profit, and their incompetence in choosing a commander so unsuited to the task.' (Stanley, Breeches 148/155)

Quelle: England

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20.12.2000, aktualisiert am 09.04.2003