Alexander Dalzeel

Alexander Dalzeel (died 1715) was a Scottish pirate and privateer who sailed in French service. Details on Dalzeel's early life - his supposed career under pirate Henry Every and exploits against the Spanish - appears almost entirely in Alexander Smith's 1720 collection "A Compleat history of the lives and robberies of the most notorious highwaymen," while his later activities are corroborated by newspaper accounts and trial records.

Early history (purported)

Born in Port Patrick, Scotland, Dalzeel went to sea as a child and, by the age of 23, was captain of his own ship with six successful voyages to his credit. Earning a reputation for dishonesty, Dalzeel arrived in Madagascar in 1685 and soon enlisted into the ranks of Captain Avery. According to pirate lore, Dalzeel participated in the capture of the treasure ship Ganj-i-Sawai, which carried The Great Mogul's daughter to her arranged marriage. Every, who had decided to take her as his own wife, gave Dalzeel his own ship and crew within Every's fleet. Dalzeel would continue to serve under Every until finally leaving for the West Indies on his own.

Reports of Dalzeel's activities under Every may have come from his own bragging: The Original Weekly Journal and The Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer from December 1715 both reported that Dalzeel boasted of "one of Avery's Accomplices," and had spent "two years among the Pirates of Madagascar," though no other sources corroborate this. Smith's Compleat History was known to have printed "mythical" stories of other criminals.

Later history

During the War of the Spanish Succession, Dalzeel commanded the vessel Agrippa and was granted a commission by the French as a privateer. A Jacobite, Dalzeel sailed under the banner of James Stuart, who had fled to France after his father James II was deposed in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. He enjoyed considerable success against British and allied nations before his eventual capture. Taken back to England, he was tried and convicted in 1712 of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. However, at the behest of the Earl of Mar, Dalzeel received a royal pardon. Upon his release he sailed for French waters, where he captured a French ship near Le Havre. He then had the captured crew's necks tied to their heels and thrown overboard to watch them drown. Eventually captured in Scotland, (Dalzeel was arrested while trying to arrange passage to Sweden to serve as a privateer in Swedish service, as had fellow Jacobite pirate John Norcross.) Lorrain had acted as translator at Dalzeel's trial, presenting evidence in French for the English court. Because of this, Dalzeel blamed Lorrain for his sentence: "[Dalzeel] with his dying breath declared that I was the cause of his death, and he would do me some mischief or other before he died, or haunt me afterwards." Dalzeel even threatened to kick Lorrain down the stairs and tear up the Bible Lorrain had offered him. He later apologized and asked forgiveness, but "whether that repentance was sincere, and not too late, was much to be doubted."

Dalzeel was hanged on 15 December 1715.