Quedagh Merchant

The Quedagh Merchant, also known as the Cara Merchant and Adventure Prize, was an Indian merchant vessel, owned by a man named Coirgi. The ship was captured by Scottish privateer, William "Captain" Kidd on 30 January 1698. After this ship's capture, Kidd attempted a return to New York to share in the treasure with the Governor of that colony, then on to England to pay off his backers.

The capture of this Quedagh Merchant, as well as the Rouparelle, caused scandal throughout the British empire, hurting Britain's safe trading status along the African and Indian coasts. Although Kidd felt that both of these captures were legal, and following his commission by his Lords, word spread quickly that Captain Kidd was a pirate. Kidd was later imprisoned and ultimately executed for alleged acts of piracy, as well as murder.

The fate of the Quedagh Merchant rested in the hands of merchants hired by Captain Kidd to guard the ship and await his arrival back into the Caribbean in three months time. During Kidd's long imprisonment in New York and later in England, New York Governor Lord Richard Bellomont, attempted to extract a confession for the location of the ship, which was left anchored in a lagoon along Santa Catalina. When word reached New York that the merchants had sold off most of the goods, burned the ship, and sailed to Holland, Lord Bellomont sent a ship to verify that it had indeed been burned. The exact location of the remains of the Quedagh Merchant were a mystery, until they were discovered off the coast of Catalina Island, Dominican Republic, in December 2007.