Captain William Death was an 18th-century

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

from

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

who died in battle December 1756, in the first year of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

. Captain Death was in command of the ''Terrible'', a ship equipped with twenty-six carriage guns, and manned with 200 sailors.Smollett, 201 On 23 December 1756, the ''Terrible'' engaged the ''Alexandre le Grande'', a large French ship sailing from Saint-Domingue. The ''Alexandre le Grande'' was captured, but 4th Lieutenant John Death, Captain Death's brother, died in battle, and 16 other men were lost. Captain Death assigned 40 men to secure the French ship, and they made for Plymouth, England.Long, 44 As the ships entered the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

on 27 December, they met the French '' Vengeance'', a privateer from

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, with 36 large cannon and 360 men. The ''Vengeance'' sailed towards the ''Terrible'' under an English ensign, but hoisted the French colours when she came near, sailing between the faster ''Terrible'' and the slower ''Alexandre le Grande''. The French retook the ''Alexandre'' and doubled up on the ''Terrible,'' which lost her main-mast in first broadside. When the battle ended, the French commander, his second in command, and 2/3 of his company were lost. The French boarded the ''Terrible'' and found only 26 men alive, 16 of whom were severely wounded. John Withy, the 3rd Lieutenant of the ''Terrible'' and a survivor of the battle, claimed that Captain Death initially survived the battle, but was shot after he had struck the colours. His body was tossed into the sea. The badly damaged ''Terrible'' was towed to Saint-Malo.Smollett, 202 When word of the battle reached England, funds were raised for William Death's widow, as well as the survivors. Captain Death's battles against the French were cited as examples of English courage against superior odds. A young

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

had intended to join Captain Death's crew, but was dissuaded by his father. In his 1776 pamphlet

Common Sense ''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arg ...

, Paine cited Captain Death's battles in his argument that the American colonies should raise a naval fleet. An English folk ballad titled "Captain Death" was printed as early as 1783, and laments the loss of the "brave Captain Death." It is said that the ''Terrible'' was equipped at

Execution Dock Execution Dock was a place in the River Thames near the shoreline at Wapping, London, that was used for more than 400 years to execute pirates, smugglers and mutineers who had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The "dock" consisted of ...

, commanded by Captain Death, Lieutenant Devil, and had a surgeon named Ghost.

In popular culture

Perhaps coincidentally, recurring a

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

Captain Marvel supervillain is also named Captain Death. The character, a captain of a gigantic submarine, engaged kidnapping, smuggling and

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

.The Shazam Archives, vol. 1 (1999)

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Death, William British people of the Seven Years' War English privateers 18th-century births 1756 deaths Sailors from London