Piracy is the act of illegal violence or robbery at sea, or in this case, at the “Queen of American Lakes.”
The 32-mile-long Lake George may not be the Spanish Main (Spanish territory and waters in the Western Hemisphere ) of the 16th to 18th centuries, but over the years it has surprisingly had a few incidents of buccaneering.
The Warrensburgh News, December 10, 1908, called a local act of arson – “the black flag of piracy on Lake George waters.” Six days earlier, Jay Taylor, the “special protector” for the Conservation Commission, had his houseboat deliberately burned while it was at its anchorage off Floating Battery Island. Taylor’s wooden houseboat was valued at $800 and its contents were estimated at $700.
Taylor was employed by the agency that administered the state-owned islands on the waterway including enforcement of fish and game laws. The 1908 newspaper article stated the arson was due to Taylor’s “militant attitude in favor of the enforcement of the [lake’s] game laws.” Taylor had only recently been appointed a “special protector” (a game protector, or game warden).
The newspaper praised Jay Taylor for his “effective work.” He would go on to have a long career including eventually being put in charge of administering the 155 state-owned islands in Lake George.
Several years after the houseboat piracy, a treasure hunter showed up at Huletts Landing, New York, in pursuit of Captain William Kidd’s (c. 1645–1701) buried hoard of coins and jewels.
eeIn the summer of 1915, Daniel Beech, who worked at the Patent Office in Washington, DC, spent three weeks digging holes around northern Lake George, searching for the fortune of famed English sea rover.
Kidd had been employed by the English to attack pirates and the French. He spent time sailing off eastern Africa and around the Caribbean. When later accused of piracy he turned himself in with the understanding he would receive a pardon.
However, once in custody the English authorities revoked his pardon, and Kidd was put on trial. He was found guilty of both piracy and murder and was hanged in London, England.
Reportedly, before surrendering, Kidd hid his treasure in the Caribbean region and also along the coast of Long Island, New York, the latter over 250 miles from Lake George.
When Daniel Beech, who claimed he had a reliable map, departed Lake George, residents of Huletts Landing, where the adventurer vacationed, held a farewell gathering to mock the fruitless treasure hunt.
One of the more modern acts of “piracy” at the lake occurred 63-years ago. The Knickerbocker News (Albany, New York) of June 27, 1961 published an article with the headline – “Lake George Police Capture 4 Boys Accused of Piracy.”
A few weeks earlier on May 29, the 81-foot-long Sayonara, an excursion vessel, was stolen. It was taken on a short joy ride until it grounded 1.5 miles from its berth at the head of the lake.
Police in a patrol boat chased the stolen watercraft, but the thieves got away until the arrest. The vessel was not seriously damaged.
Illustrations, from above: Colored corrected image of an authentic pirate flag from the Åland Maritime Museum (Finland); detail from Howard Pyle’s fanciful painting of Kidd burying treasure from Pyle’s Book of Pirates: Fiction, Fact & Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main, New York (1921); and a postcard from the late 1950s, showing the 81-foot-long Sayonara in Paradise Bay, Lake George, New York.