pirates in the cove, 288 years ago today

" Upon Friday, June 15th, 1722. After I had been out for some time in the Schooner Milton, upon the Fishing grounds, off Cape Sable Shoar, among others I came to sail in company with Nicholas Merritt, in a shallop, and stood in for Port Rosaway, designing to harbour there, till the sabbath was over; where we arrived about four of the clock in the afternoon. When we came into the harbour, where several of our fishing vessels had arrived before us, we spied among them a brigantine, which we supposed to have been an inward bound vessel from the West Indies, and had no apprehension of any danger from her; but by that time we had been at anchor two or three hours, a boat from the brigantine, with four hands, came along side of us, and the men jumped in upon our deck, without our suspecting anything but that they were friends, come on board to visit, or inquire what news; till they drew out their cutlasses and pistols from under their clothes, and cocked the one and brandished the other, and began to curse and swear at us, and demanded a surrender of ourselves and our vessel to them ...

When the boat went off from our vessel, they carried me on board the brigantine, and who should it prove but the infamous Ned Low, the pirate, with about 40 hands, 2 great guns, and 4 swivel guns. You may imagine how I looked, and felt, when too late to prevent it, I found myself fallen into the hands of such a mad, roaring, mischievous crew...." *

So begins the tale of Philip Ashton, a young fisherman from Marblehead Massachusetts who had the misfortune to be captured by the nefarious pirate Ned Low in Port Roseway (now Shelburne Harbour) on June 15, 1722. Local folks say Low's piratical ambush took place here, in the island's sheltered cove along the western channel. There's no way to know the exact location for sure. It's interesting, though, that Marblehead fishermen were in the habit of using Port Roseway as a harbour at least as early as 1722. And it could have happened here in the cove ...

You can read more about the island's connection with the pirate Ned Low in Greg's book...

* From Ashton's Memorial. An History of the Strange Adventures, and Signal Deliverances, of Mr. Philip Ashton, Who, after he had made his Escape from the Pirates, liv'd alone on a Desolate Island for about Sixteen Months, &c. (Boston, 1725), reprinted in Donald P. Wharton, ed., In the Trough of the Sea: Selected American Sea-Deliverance Narratives, 1610-1766 (Greenwood Press, 1979), 171-210.

image of Ned Low's flag from Wikipedia