Captain Kidd, Wapping

You are standing near the site of one of London's most grim historical chapters. The Captain Kidd pub is named for the Scottish privateer William Kidd, who was executed just steps away at the notorious Execution Dock in seventeen hundred and one. The authorities were particularly cruel in their display of power, as the rope snapped during his first hanging attempt, forcing a second, successful attempt before his body was tarred and hung in a metal gibbet cage over the Thames for three years as a warning to other sailors. Continue