
































Microsoft Word - Review Capt Kidd_with comments1.doc


 
In Search of Pirates 
 
Review by Russell K. Skowronek  
June 2020 
 
 
Captain Kidd’s Lost Ship, The Wreck of the Quedagh Merchant ISBN 13: 9780813056227 
$85.00 
By Frederick H. Hanselmann 
University Press of Florida, 2019        
 
Frederick “Fritz” Hanselmann is one of the rising stars in twenty first century underwater 
archaeology.  In little more than a decade he has worked on submerged Pleistocene deposits in 
coastal Texas, conducted shipwreck surveys in Colombia, searched for Henry Morgan’s ships off 
Panama, and worked on Gold Rush era ship sites in California.  Around these he also was 
involved in the discovery of the 200-year-old Monterrey deep water (4300 feet) wrecks in the 
Gulf of Mexico. In this same period, he has notched an enviable list of publications, reports, and 
film credits.   
 
In 2008, as a graduate student at Indiana University, Hanselmann and his professor Charles 
Beeker began the investigation of the site that would be identified as Kidd’s Quedagh Merchant 
in the Dominican Republic.  This book grew out of his dissertation and a 2016 book chapter 
titled, “The Wreck of the Quedagh Merchant, The Lost Ship of Captain William Kidd” which 
appeared in Pieces of Eight, More Archaeology of Piracy. I note this to underscore and cement 
Hanselmann’s place in the study of pirates in the archaeological record. It was only a decade 
before his dissertation and his chapter that “pirate archaeology” was first examined within the 
framework of anthropological archaeology in X Marks the Spot, The Archaeology of Piracy 
(2006). In Captain Kidd’s Lost Ship, The Wreck of the Quedagh Merchant Hanselmann 
demonstrates his prowess as a writer and scholar and the field is better for it. 
 
 
Hanselmann opens with a discussion of the guiding principles he used to frame his examination 
of his data.   These include World Systems, Network, and Agency Theory.  He notes that these 
theoretical models provide insights into the social processes involved in the creation, function, 
and abandonment of the Quedagh Merchant.  Generally, in anthropology the behaviors 
associated with these processes provide a snapshot of the past.  But in historical archaeology the 
documentary record can illuminate the agency of individual actors. 
 



With this perspective Hanselmann dives deep into the birth of globalization in the Early Modern 
era.  This includes European competition for New World colonies and commerce, and Old-
World trade with South Asia. Competition, whether through war or the machinations of the East 
India Company or British Crown, result in a complex set of relationships where it could be 
difficult to know friend from foe.  The fluidity which this created meant an individual privateer 
acting as an agent for his sovereign might slide into the world of piracy. 
 
Captain William Kidd was an individual who fell in the grey region between privateer and pirate.  
Hanselmann situates Kidd as an individual caught between two eras.  One the older model of 
commissioning privateers who, acted not only in the interest of the parent state but in their own 
self-interest to the modern centralized professional navy.  
 
 Kidd serves on a successful privateer and finds himself a wealthy man by 1691.  By the end of 
King William’s War in 1697 many of Kidd’s former privateer colleagues had already gone 
rogue. In the 1690s the Indian Ocean was filled with pirates whose attacks are stifling commerce 
in the region.  Kidd and fellow New Yorker Robert Livingston make common cause with the 
Earl of Bellomont to suppress the pirates and to profit from their capture, but that was easier said 
than done.  Kidd arrives in the Indian Ocean and fails to find the pirates.  Instead he captures first 
a Portuguese vessel, and later a Moorish ship carrying “French passes” meaning it was a 
legitimate “target” as France was the enemy of England.  Then, early in 1698 they captured the 
Quedagh Merchant. It too carried “French Passes” but had an English captain affiliated with the 
English East India Company.  Furthermore, most of the rich cargo belonged to a courtier of the 
emperor of Mughal India who controlled trade with the East India Company.  He denounced 
English pirates and threatened the Company.    
 
Kidd’s crew decided to keep the prize and steer for St. Mary’s Island off Madagascar. At this 
pirate lair Kidd moved to the Quedagh Merchant.  Six months later the rechristened Quedagh 
Merchant or Adventure Prize sailed for home. By the time Kidd arrived in the West Indies in 
April of 1699 he was wanted for piracy.  He left the Quedagh Merchant off Hispaniola at 
Catalina Island where it was burned and abandoned and returned to New York.  There the Earl of 
Bellomont had him arrested and confiscated the plunder.  Kidd’s letter of marque and the 
“French Passes” were “lost” at his trial (and only discovered misfiled two centuries later).  Kidd 
was hanged for piracy in 1701. 
 
How would you identify the resting place of the Quedagh Merchant or Adventure Prize?  The 
vessel was built and outfitted in Surat, India. Three centuries later in 2008 Hanselmann and his 
team investigated a wreck site in the Dominican Republic.  While no hull structure was initially 
observed there were broken anchors, 28 iron guns dating to the 17th century and a large 
unidentifiable ferrous magnetic anomaly. Using the documentary record of a deposition given by 
Kidd in 1699 noted that when he left the Quedagh Merchant it contained ten tons of scrap iron, 
fourteen or fifteen anchors, and about twenty guns in the hold. Other valuable and easily 
transportable bales of cloth and sugar were probably taken before the ship was burned.  As the 
site had not been touched for three centuries the archaeological work was limited to testing so as 
to not disturb the wreck beyond obtaining basic information regarding the possibility it was the 
Quedagh Merchant. To build the case certain questions needed to be answered.  What is the age 
of the wreck? Where was it built? Where had it sailed?  



 
Analysis of one of the “great guns” revealed that in its form it “fit’ the 17th-century timeframe.  
The test excavations revealed that some of the wooden hull timbers had survived.  Testing of a 
sample revealed it was teak (Tectona grandis), indigenous to Southeast and South Asia where it 
was used for shipbuilding.  Other articulated aspects of the hull were suggestive of Indian ship-
building techniques.  The final piece of the puzzle was the analysis of ballast stones. They were 
identified as basalt specifically associated with northwest India and two rivers from these 
deposits flow into Surat. 
 
Most archaeologically themed studies end with a discussion of the findings and their 
interpretation.  Hanselmann recognizes that the story does not end with his book. Rather the site 
and its story can continue for future generations as a “Museum in the Sea.”  The creation of a 
marine protected area around the wreck site can create opportunities for economic benefit 
through cultural and natural heritage tourism.  Conservation of marine resources including coral 
reefs and fish, combined with a compelling story replete with pirates is a winning combination.   
 
Hanselmann chose well to publish with the University Press of Florida.  Since its establishment 
75 years ago in 1945 the University Press of Florida has become an important player in the 
publication of anthropology and archaeology topics.  Currently these comprise 333 of nearly 
2,000 in-print titles.  Of these nearly fifty would best be characterized as dealing with maritime 
archaeology and history, and underwater archaeology more generally.  Coming in at 222 pages 
with references and index this is an attractively produced book illustrated with 43 black and 
white figures and tables.  A bonus is a timeline or “Chronology of Events” which provides a 
useful scaffolding for the reader. With the exception of one graph which unfortunately refers to 
colors (orange and purple) undoubtedly present in the original work all help the reader 
understand Kidd, the archaeological investigations and findings, and how the site was turned into 
a “Living Museum in the Sea.”   
 
Captain Kidd’s Lost Ship, The Wreck of the Quedagh Merchant is a must read for those 
interested in the archaeology of piracy.  And, in an era when funding is limited for the 
preservation of archaeological sites how a marine protected area can be sustained through 
heritage tourism.  I am pleased to have this book in my library and look forward to Fritz 
Hanselmann’s future publications. 
 
 
References 
Hanselmann, Frederick H. and Charles D. Beeker 
2016 The Wreck of the Quedagh Merchant, the Lost Ship of Captain William Kidd. In. Ewen,  
Pieces of Eight, More Archaeology of Piracy. Charles R. and Russell K. Skowronek, Editors 
University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL. 
 
Skowronek, Russell K. and Charles R. Ewen, Editors 
2006 X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy.  University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 
FL   
 
 



 
Russell K. Skowronek holds the Houston Endowment Chair for Civic Engagement and is 
professor of anthropology and history at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where he 
also serves as Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and as the founding director of the 
Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program.  He is the co-
author or editor of three books dealing with piracy and maritime archaeology- X Marks the Spot: 
The Archaeology of Piracy, Pieces of Eight, More Archaeology of Piracy, and HMS Fowey 
Lost...and Found!  All published by the University Press of Florida. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
© 2020 Russell K. Skowronek 


