It is believed that  Greenock was the birthplace of one of the most notorious and blood thirsty pirates ever to put to sea. He robbed and plundered from the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean,to the coast of North America. Having first set sail from the port of Greenock.

Captain William Kidd could have been a character from an adventure story, whom,legend has it, may have buried  a great treasure away. It is thought that he was born around 1645. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he dreamed of going to sea, becoming an apprentice on a pirate ship.

In 1689, aged 44, it is thought that he was a crewman on French English pirate ship sailing the Caribbean.However, Kidd, along with other mutineers, took control of the ship. An ever modest Kidd renamed it the Blessed William.Then, having removed the captain, Kidd  headed for an English island colony named Nevis.

The governor Christopher Codrington, it is felt,may have appointed him the new ships captain. The English were at war with The French at the time, so Codrington asked Kidd to allow The Blessed William to join a small fleet he had put together to fight them. He allowed Kidd and his crew to keep what spoils they may recover from the defeated French. They then attacked and looted the town on the French island of Mariegalante.

Kidd also served in the  War of Grand Alliance. Under orders from the province of New York, Massachusetts he was commissioned to destroy a privateer, ofNew England. He also privateer-ed in the Caribbean Then, twelve months later,Kidds ship was stolen from him at Antigua in the West Iandies by a rival pirate named Captain Gulliford.

Then, in 1695, the tide began to turn when William 111 of England  had the notoriously corrupt governor Benjamin Fletcher  removed. He had taken money to allow the trading of pirate loot.

In New York City, Kidd travelled to New York, where he took an active role in the construction of the  The Trinity of New York The pirate engaged in many other adventures.In (1696) Kidd attacked a Mugal convoy. If this is true this was said to mark Kidds foray into piracy.

He travelled to Madagascar, in 1698, where he came across  Captain Culliford, the rival pirate that had stolen his ship, also that year, he disguised The Blessed William as a French vessel and took an Armenian ship. A personal triumph at the time.

However, his luck ran out, in 1699, when Kidd was arrested in Boston and placed in Stone prison. He was sent back to England twelve months later to stand trial. Kidd was detained at the notorious Newgate Prison.

Captain William Kidd and was found guilty of all charges and was hanged on May 23rd 1701 at Execution Dock', Wapping in London.

He may have been a pirate,a thief ,a liar and a rogue, but Greenock has taken him as a local hero. Despite some recent claims that he may have, in  fact, been born in Belfast or Dundee. However, Kidd stated on the gallows that he was indeed from Greenock, so we will take his word for it.

Because if you cant trust a liar, a thief and a rogue, then who can you trust?