Edward Low - Biography of Famous Pirates

Edward Low (born around 1690, died around 1724) was one of the most notorious pirates that ever operated in the waters of the Caribbean. During his short career he managed to capture over 100 ships, and together with his crew he tortured, maimed and killed hundreds of people. His vicious nature soon gave him reputation that prompted action from the European and American governments, who soon united their military fleets and started weeding out the piracy in the Atlantic and Indian Sea. As for Low himself, he met his doom by the hands of his own crew who mutinied and left him marooned on an island. To this day there are conflicting reports about his death.

Edward Low was born around 1690 in Westminster, London in a very poor family. Ever since he was young, he had bad nature. The loved to fight, cheat and cause mischief. Soon, encouraged by his criminal family, he started pickpocketing, gambling and stealing even after his brother Richard was hanged in 1707 for burglary and other crimes. Eventually, Edward became bored with live in England and he traveled alone to America around 1710. At after a period of drifting across eastern coast, he settled in Boston, Massachusetts where he married his wife Eliza Marble on 12 August 1714 (she died shortly after giving birth to his daughter Elizabeth in 1719).

After the death of his wife, he left her daughter on land and started working at the ship. At first he worked an honest job of rigger on a small shit that transported tree logs. After witnessing horrific conditions of crew and vicious command of his captain, Edward tried to mount a mutiny. After they were forced to leave, Edward Low with a help of 12 men soon managed to steal small sloop of the coast of Rhode Island and start his pirate career. At first they operated in the waters between Boston and New York. After plundering two ships, they stole enough loot to start their transition to Grand Caymans. There Edward started working as a lieutenant to the veteran pirate Captain George Lowther who operated from his 100-ton sloop "Happy Delivery". After several successful raids, Captain Lowther gave Edward command of a large 6-gun Librantine ship called "Rebecca".

The most notable raid from Edward Low's early pirate career was the one when he successfully captured 13 fishing vessels in the harbor of Port Roseway, Shelburne, Nova Scotia. After the fisherman surrendered seeing that Low will give no mercy if they fought, Pirates managed to steal much goods and took the largest 80-ton schooner to be their flagship called "The Fancy". In the following years, Low continued to attack shipping lanes in the waters of US, Brazil and Caribbean. Eyewitnesses from these raids started to tell the tales of their horrific experiences, which gave birth to the Low's notorious reputation (according to their stories he mutilated, chained, and even burned captives). Modern historians describe Low as a psychopath who sought the way to inflict violence onto others. However, he carried deep sadness toward him leaving daughter back home, and because of that he never hurt women and never demanded of married sailors to join his crew.

After terrorizing shipping lanes in the Azures, vicious nature of Low's attack brought him under attention of authorities. Even though that area was full of countless pirates, authorities wanted as soon as possible to destroy Low. On 10 June 1723 Low suffered a resounding defeat in a battle with heavily armed English warship HMS Greyhound, which was under command of Captain Peter Solgard. Although Low managed to escape on "The Fancy" with small skeleton crew and majority of his wealth, majority of his pirate crew was captured by Solgard and promptly hanged for the crimes of piracy and robbery.

Enraged by the loss of his crew, Low managed to capture whaling ship that far out in the sea and viciously tortured and murdered much of his crew. As a final act of torture, he stripped entire ship from supplies and food and left the surviving fishing crew to die from starvation (they however managed to reach the coast after very difficult journey). Soon his torturing rose in intensityso much, that even Low's crew started refusing following his commands. In 1724, all records of Edward Low vanished from existence. There are several theories about his death. Some claim that he continued sailing with the crew of his last surviving ship "Merry Christmas" until he died in a storm near a coast of Brazil, but other claim that he was marooned by his crew on a lonely island after he killed one of his subordinates in his sleep. He was subsequently rescued by French, and executed in Martinique in late 1724.