35 Facts About Edward Low

Edward Low was a pirate of English origin during the latter days of the Golden Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century.

Edward Low moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young man.

Edward Low captained a number of ships, usually maintaining a small fleet of three or four.

Edward Low was described as illiterate, having a "quarrelsome nature", and always ready to cheat, running "wild in the streets of his native parish".

Edward Low spent three to four years in various locations, before settling in Boston, Massachusetts.

Edward Low would allow women to return to port safely.

Edward Low was employed as a patron, supervising the loading and carrying of the logs.

At this, Edward Low "took up a loaded musket and fired at the captain but missed him, [and] shot another poor fellow through the throat".

Edward Low, using his newly captured ship, lay in wait on a popular shipping route between Boston and New York.

Edward Low's crew cut the rigging away to prevent the sloop returning too quickly to port to raise the alarm.

Edward Low then captured a number of unarmed merchantmen near Port Rosemary.

Fast acquiring a taste for cruelty, Edward Low taught Spriggs a torture technique that involved tying a victim's hands with rope between their fingers and setting it alight, burning their flesh down to the bones.

Edward Low chose the largest, an 80-ton schooner, which he renamed The Fancy, armed with 10 guns, to become his flagship.

Edward Low sank the other ships of the fleet and abandoned the Rebecca.

Edward Low's tactics consisted primarily of hoisting false colours and approaching an unsuspecting vessel.

Edward Low moved on to Conception Bay, capturing a number of boats around the Grand Banks southeast of Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic to the Azores.

Edward Low captured an English vessel with two Portuguese passengers aboard.

Edward Low had his crew hoist them up and drop them back down from the yard arm several times, until they died.

Edward Low moved on to the Canaries, Cape Verde and then back to the coast of Brazil, where he was driven back by foul weather.

Edward Low abandoned his plans of plundering the rich shipping trade off the coast of Brazil, and moved on to the Caribbean.

Still relatively inexperienced, Edward Low ordered too many men to the outside of the boat to work on the buildup, and the Rose Pink tipped too far.

Edward Low, now commanding the captured sloop, gave the schooner Squirrel to Spriggs, his quartermaster, who renamed it the Delight, before sailing away in the middle of the night with a small crew following a disagreement with Edward Low over the disciplining of one of Spriggs' crew.

One of Edward Low's most noted episodes of cruelty followed: in his rage, he slashed off the Portuguese captain's lips with a cutlass, broiled them, and forced the victim to eat them while still hot.

One story describes Edward Low burning a French cook alive, saying he was a "greasy fellow who would fry well"; another tells how he once killed 53 Spanish captives with his cutlass.

Historian Edward Leslie described Low as a psychopath with a history filled with "mutilations, disembowelings, decapitations, and slaughter".

Edward Low set the whaler's crew adrift with no provisions, intending them to starve to death.

Edward Low decapitated the ship's master, and sent the crew ashore.

Edward Low noted one rumour that Low was sailing for Brazil and another that Low's ship sank in a storm with the loss of all hands.

Charles Ellms suggests in The Pirates Own Book that Edward Low was set adrift without provisions by the crew of the Merry Christmas in a mutiny brought about by Edward Low's murder of a sleeping subordinate following an argument.

Edward Low's crew elected Captain Shipton to command the Merry Christmas; they would go on to sail alongside Spriggs in the Caribbean.

Edward Low had been among the fort's gun crews when the city was attacked by British forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Edward Low used a green silk flag with a yellow figure of a man blowing a trumpet; this Green Trumpeter was hoisted on the mizzen peak to call his fleet's captains to meetings aboard the flagship.

Edward Low that is found Guilty of Gaming, or Defrauding one another to the value of a Royal of Plate, shall suffer what Punishment the Captain and the Majority of the Company shall think fit.

Edward Low that sees a Sail first, shall have the best Pistol or Small Arm aboard of her.

Edward Low has featured on stamps and commemorative currency around the Caribbean.