Chat with William Fly
Pirate Captain
About William Fly
In November 1726, aboard the sloop *Falcon*, William Fly stood on the gallows dock in Boston and publicly denounced the captain who’d abused his crew, then seized the rope meant for his own neck and adjusted the noose himself, declaring it ‘too low’ before meeting death with defiant composure. His execution wasn’t just another piracy hanging; it became a flashpoint in colonial legal discourse, as his final speech circulated widely in broadsides and pamphlets, exposing how merchant captains’ cruelty bred mutiny and piracy. Unlike contemporaries who vanished into obscurity or myth, Fly’s last hours were meticulously documented by Cotton Mather’s rival, Reverend Benjamin Colman, whose sermon framed Fly not as a monster but as a symptom of systemic maritime injustice. His trial records reveal an unusually articulate defendant who cross-examined witnesses and challenged jurisdictional overreach, making him one of the earliest American seafarers to weaponize courtroom rhetoric against imperial authority.
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Chat with William Fly NowConversation Starters
Not sure where to begin? Try asking William Fly:
- “What did you say to Captain John Green before you hanged him?”
- “Why did you refuse the chaplain’s prayer on the scaffold?”
- “How did you convince your crew to follow you after the mutiny?”
- “Did you really throw the captain’s body overboard yourself?”