In May 1704, an 80-ton brigantine under Captain John Quelch slipped into the cove at Marblehead, Massachusetts, carrying Brazilian sugar, hides, cloth, guns, and gold dust and coins worth over £10,000 sterling—a huge fortune for the time. It was this booty and the circumstances of the voyage of the Charles, that led to Quelch’s subsequent arrest on charges of piracy and murder against the subjects of Queen Anne’s newest ally, the King of Portugal.

Quelch’s trial, called by one historian “the first case of judicial murder in America”, greatly influenced pirates who followed, making them far more violent and destructive as they saw little point in turning themselves in. One can also see in the Quelch case the first stirrings of American rebellion against English rule. Whether pirate or privateer, Quelch suffered a travesty of justice, even by the legal standards of the time. His is a dramatic and tragic story about a man caught up in a world he no longer understands.