Edward " Ned" Low - the sadistic Pirate
Like the Pirate Charles Vane, Edward Low was an extremely unpleasant companion and is said to have been even more brutal (Even if much lies in the dark, since there is a lack of documentation on his person). It is not certain exactly known when Low was born, but it is assumed to be 1690. He is said to have been very difficult even as a child and tried his hand at being a sailor as a teenager. Fed up with England, he moved to Boston in 1714 and after the loss of his wife, he was drawn to a ship in 1722 whose task was to transport wood that was cut in the Bay of Honduras. It is said that he got into an argument with the captain, who then abandoned Low and some of his comrades in a longboat. But they captured a small ship and eventually raised the Black Flag.
Allen & Ginter cigarette card insert, circa 1888, showing Edward Low and a scene of him “torturing a Yankee.” (x)
In the same year, he and his crew are said to have captured a number of merchant ships and then placed themselves under the command of the pirate Captain George Lowther. Their collaboration lasted only until May, when they parted company again and Low began to build up a fleet by carpering ships and manning them with deserted sailors and forced men. For two years he operated off the coasts of New England and the Azores, and in the Caribbean.
Notorious pirate Ned Low. Taken from : The Pirates Own Book,circa 1750
He made a name for himself as a sadist who loved to cut off his victims' lips, noses and ears and then watch as selected crew members had to eat them. In another case, he forced a mate to eat his captain's roasted heart. The violence was so cruel that many of his own crew members left him or begged him to stop. But this usually led to their own cruel deaths.
Low’s Flag was a red skeleton on black ground (above the Black Sails version -among it, the probably historically correct version) (x) (x)
Because of his actions, a bounty was placed. In June 1723, after a successful raiding expedition, he came across HMS Greyhound. The battle did not end in Low's favour. Not only did he lose his ship, but he also lost his escort ship. He escaped, but most of his crew were tried in Newport, Rhode Island. Twenty-five men were found guilty and hanged, two others were found not guilty and jailed, and eight others were found not guilty of piracy because they had been coerced.
Historians are not entirely sure what happened to Low. According to the National Maritime Museum in London, the pirate was never captured and spent the rest of his life in Brazil. Another story suggests that his crew tired of his cruelty (he is said to have shot a sleeping man he had been fighting with, causing the crew to despise him as a coward). Adrift in a small ship, he was found by the French and taken to Martinique for trial who hanged him there 1724. This seems the most likely account, although there is little documentation to support it. In any case, Low had not been active in piracy since 1725.