Captain Kidd Had a Public Relations Problem 1701 ~ Comfort Colors Tee

Had a Royal Commission ~ Still Ended Up the Headline

William Kidd sailed with a royal privateering commission in 1695. By 1698 he was declared a pirate. Arrested in Boston in 1699 and shipped to London, he became a political show, one party using him to embarrass the powerful men who had backed him. He was hanged at Execution Dock on 23 May 1701.

• For the one who manages the narrative: A gift for the publicist who survived a bad news cycle, the marketer who knows the story beats the facts, and the office scapegoat.
• Brand damage, total: License, backers, ship, and he still lost the only vote that counted, the jury's.
• Spun by: Part of Pirate History & Legends, where the men who hired him stayed out of the story and he became it.