|
Captain Edward "Ned" Low (also spelled Lowe or Loe; ca. 1690 – ca. 1724) was a notorious English pirate during the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century. He was born around 1690 into poverty in Westminster, London, and was a thief from an early age. Low moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man. His wife died in childbirth in late 1719. Two years later, he became a pirate, operating off the coasts of New England and the Azores, and in the Caribbean. He captained a number of ships, usually maintaining a small fleet of three or four. Low and his pirate crews captured at least a hundred ships during his short career, burning most of them.〔 Although he was active for only three years, Low remains notorious as one of the most vicious pirates of the age, with a reputation for violently torturing his victims before killing them. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Low as "savage and desperate," and a man of "amazing and grotesque brutality". ''The New York Times'' called him a torturer, whose methods would have "done credit to the ingenuity of the Spanish Inquisition in its darkest days". The circumstances of Low's death, which took place around 1724, have been the subject of much speculation. ==Early life== According to Charles Johnson's ''A General History of the Pyrates'', Edward Low was born in Westminster, London, England, around 1690.〔 Some content available on Google Books: ().〕 He was described as illiterate, having a "quarrelsome nature", and always ready to cheat, running "wild in the streets of his native parish".〔 Some content available on Google Books: ().〕 As a young man, he was said to be a pickpocket and gambler, playing games of chance with the footmen of the nearby House of Commons.〔 Most of his family appear to have been thieves. While young, his brother, Richard, was small for his age and is said to have been carried around in a basket on a friend's back; in a crowd, Richard would snatch the hats and wigs of passers-by. Richard Low later took to other forms of criminal activity and ended up hanged at Tyburn in 1707 for the burglary of a house in Stepney.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edward Low」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|