The Legend of Nix’s Mate
“On Tuesday the 12th Instant, about 3 p.m. were executed here for Piracy, Murder & c. Three of the condemned Persons mentioned in our list, viz. William Fly, Capt. Samuel Cole, Quartermaster, and Henry Greenville, the other viz. George Condick, was Repriev’d at the Place of Execution . . . Fly behaved himself very unbecomingly even to the last; however advised Masters of Vessels not to be Severe and Barbarous to their Men, which might be a reason why so many turned Pirates . . . Their Bodies were carried in a Boat to a Small Island called Nick’s Mate, about 2 Leagues from the Town, where the abovesaid Fly was hung up in Irons, as a Spectacle for the Warning of others, especially Sea faring Men; the other two were buried there.”
Quote from a News-Letter written by John Campbell, July 14th 1726
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As the age of piracy took its rise in the infancy of America, Boston was no stranger, rather one of the key ports used by pirates in selling cargo, resupplying, making business connections and rendezvous. Nix’s Mate, by the Narrows and just north of Gallops Island was long known to stand for tragedy and terror now long forgotten by modern society. Until as late as 1835 those accused of piracy and severe crimes at sea were given the ultimate punishment. Sailors were hung on Boston Common in a public spectacle before being thrown back on a boat and taken far from the good people of town to Nix’s Mate. There atop a stone wall and foundation a large ominous pyramid stands which is still a notable landmark of the harbor today. Most would be buried at Nix’s Mate or Bird Island (which has since disappeared by the tides) however Nix’s mates’ pyramid was also used as the stage for the old practice of gibbetting. The bodies of the pirates would be hung up in a steel body shaped cage or simply hung with chains as a warning to other sailors the consequences of taking up a life of piracy. The positioning was paramount as the Narrows has long been a primary channel of ships entering Boston Harbor, passing Boston Light, Lovell’s Island and on into the inner harbor. The goal was to strike fear into sailors and sway their minds away from defecting to piracy, mutiny and crimes against the crown and country, and for most, it worked. So next time you’re on a pleasurable cruise through the Harbor Islands or maybe cautiously making your way in from sea on an eerie, foggy afternoon and you pass by a black and white pyramid on a small rock pile just remember all the lost pirate souls watching you from beyond their watery, isolated graves.
-Capt. Greg
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The Legend of Nix’s Mate, although a story without foundation, should be remembered. Late on a summer’s day in 1689 as darkness descended on the waters of Massachusetts Bay, Captain Nix was guiding his ship into Boston Harbor. He anchored off of what is now Nix’s Mate Island. During the night screams were heard coming from the vessel, and in the morning the captain was found murdered. Accused of the crime, the mate was conviceted by a Puritan jury, and sentenced to be hanged from the nearby island, The next morning, when they took him ashore to be executed, Nix’s mate asked permission to make a final statement. He declared that as proof of his innocence the island would someday wash away.
We cannot deny that the island did wash away, leaving a small area around which the present seawall was built in 1805, but there are reasons why the legend is false. The British Admiralty laws were very strict, so that any trial would have to be recorded, and any hanging of necessity had to take place between the rise and fall of the tide in Boston proper. There is no record of either the trial or the hanging. In addition, Nix’s Mate Island was so called at least forty years before the first marine execution took place in the colony.
A letter from Richard Brubeck to Nicholas Merrit in Marblehead, written around 1700, explains the mystery of the name. William Coddington, a passenger on the Jewel, one of Winthrop’s fleet, asked the Dutch pilot about an island near which they were anchored. At the time the waves were making a great noise as they madly dashed against the island cliffs. Burbeck’s story follows:
“Dirke Stone was on the deck of the Jewel, and Master Coddington, one of the passengers, ask’d Dirke, as Dirk did thinke, about the noise. And Dirke told him the name of the noise in Dutch. And so when Master Coddington saide, ‘What do you Dutch call that?’ Dirke said ‘Nixie Shmalt; I do not know how to spell it, but it meaneth the Wail of the Water Spirits . . . ‘ But Master Coddington thought it was the name of the island, and set it down on a map he had ‘Nix his Mate Island’.
“And after that, in order to account for the name, Dirke said saie that your Massachusetts people had made up a fairy Tale about a Captain Nix and his mate, and a killing and a hanging and a sheriff and a neckespeche with a prophecy.”
-Excerpt from “The Romance of Boston Bay” (1944) by Edward Rowe Snow
