Captain Thomas Green
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Thomas Green (?-1705) was an alleged English pirate, who was captain of the Worcester. He was hanged on Leith sands in Scotland along with four of his crew on the 4th of April 1705.
Green was celebrated in a contemporary ballad:
- Of all the pirates I’ve heard and seen
- The basest and the bloodiest is Captain Green
The Worcester was seized by investors of the Scottish African company, when she came into the Firth of Forth simply to weather a storm; Green and his crew were alleged to have boarded a ship off the Malabar coast in India, killed the crew, stolen the goods on board, then sold the ship. However, the evidence against Green has been considered flimsy; during the trial, the ship in question was never named, and neither the ships owner nor any next of kin of the alleged deceased came forward. Furthermore, the exact time and place of the incident were never specified ("upon one or other Days of the Months of February, March, April or May, in the year 1730"). As the alleged incident was outside of Scottish waters, the veracity of the trial was also called into question; however the prosecution argued that the subjects of the piracy had, according to different witnesses, either sailed under an English flag or had spoken English, and as such, Green and his crew were subject to the justice of Admiralty. Green, along with four of his crewmwmbers, was found guilty and executed.
[edit] References
- ↑ "Tryals for High Treason and Other Crimes with Proceedings and Impeachments for Three Hundred Years Past", vol. 4 (1720): pp448-463
- Menefee, Samuel P.,"Greene, Thomas," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 23 (2004): pp. 532-33.
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