I was reading a book not too long ago, Pirates in the North Atlantic: Robbery Murder and Mayhem off the Canadian East Coast, by Dan Conlin, and I was dumbfounded to read that, (at least for a period of time), Ned Low, of all pirates, had pets. Plural. Not cats, Not parrots. Not monkeys. Ned Low had dogs aboard his ship. Dogs!! Ned Low kept pet puppers on board his ship while he terrorized and tortured his way across the high seas.
What?!
I mean, if you aren’t aware, the pirate Ned Low was a psychopath. Truly. He used all kinds of really nasty tortures on his victims. Really nasty ones.
(If you don’t care for a few heinous details of Low’s tortures, skip the next paragraph).
WARNING: HEINOUS DETAILS BEGIN
Along with fatally shooting and mercilessly stabbing numerous individuals, (usually because they had pissed Low off), Low also cut off one fellow’s lips, cooked the lips, and then made that same fellow eat the cooked lips. Low taught one of his signature torture techniques to a fellow pyrate: Low would tie a victim’s hands with rope, and then intertwined the rope between and around each finger, and then set the rope aflame. The victim’s hands would burn down to the bone.
END HEINOUS DETAILS
Soooo…what was Ned Low doing with puppers? Do psychopaths somehow love animals? Any animal? I went and plundered the world (wide web) for that answer. It took about a half minute. The answer is: No, psychopaths don’t love animals. They DO, however, keep pets; but, it’s not for love or companionship. A pet is no different from another human being to people like Ned Low. They’re a means to an end, a status symbol…a useful (or not) extension of the psychopath themselves.
Okay, let’s move away from the crazy talk and back to pyrate talk…
Early morning, June 15, 1723, Ned Low, with (at least one) pet dog, and his crew of 44 men sailed into Port Roseway in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Low’s brigantine, with four swivels and two cannons, was outnumbered by the fishing vessels in port both in number and in guns. Low’s crew were also facing hundreds of fishermen, if the port determined to resist.
But, the fishermen did not resist. When Ned Low raised his pyrate flag and shouted that everyone would die if anyone dared to challenge him, the port was surrendered without a shot being fired or a sword being drawn. No one even tried to leave, by land or by sea. For three days, Low and his crew pillaged and plundered unhindered.
And where was the dog in all of this? Ned had set his pupper ashore while the plundering took place: “Low even had time to put his favourite dog ashore to roam free from wooden decks,” (p.35 Pirates in the North Atlantic: Robbery Murder and Mayhem off the Canadian East Cost, D.Conlin). By the third day, there was nothing left to plunder. Low and his crew, (plus a few new and very reluctant crew members – formerly fishermen), prepared to leave the port. Low took a new ship from amongst the fishing vessels and was raising anchor to sail when, “Howls from the shoreline reminded the pirates to bring Low’s dog aboard…”, (p. 36). Low delayed their departure so that his dog could be brought back to the ship.
Maybe it’s just me, but that kinda sounds like pyrate love. Maybe I just want there to be something redeeming about Ned, but it sorta feels like he might have cared about that pupper. Annnd… Maybe I’m thinking a bit too much about Ned and his dog.
Yea? No? Maybe? Just me?
I think I’ll ponder this some more…with some grog! ARRRR! At any rate, it’s definitely one of the stranger pirate histories that I’ve read.
I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts!
Next time…The Hundred-Year-Old Pyrate…until then, keep plunderin’
Virginia Chandler 