In May 1704, an 80-ton brigantine under Captain John Quelch slipped into the cove at Marblehead, Mass. carrying Brazilian sugar, hides, cloth, guns, and gold dust and coins worth over 10,000 sterling--a huge fortune for the time. It was this booty and the circumstances of the voyage of the Charles, that led to Quelch's arrest on charges of piracy and murder against the subjects of Queen Anne's newest ally, the King of Portugal. Quelch's trial, called by one historian the first case of judicial murder in America, greatly influenced pirates who followed, making them far more violent and...
In May 1704, an 80-ton brigantine under Captain John Quelch slipped into the cove at Marblehead, Mass. carrying Brazilian sugar, hides, cloth, guns...
In May 1704 an eighty-ton brigantine, the Charles, quietly slipped into the cove at Marblehead, Massachusetts. Her sudden and unexpected appearance, some ten months after she had left Marblehead under mysterious circumstances, started tongues wagging down at the docks and in the town's dim, cramped, seafront taverns. During the following three weeks, a drama played out involving the crew of the Charles; her commander, John Quelch; and the colonial governments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. In the hold of the Charles lay large quantities of Brazilian...
In May 1704 an eighty-ton brigantine, the Charles, quietly slipped into the cove at Marblehead, Massachusetts. Her sudden and unexpected appear...
