Atlantic Canada’s coves and bays offered shelter for pirates. Occasionally, however, this coastline was the scene of their ruin.
When the
barque Saladin sailed from Chile in February 1844 it was a law-abiding cargo vessel carrying 14 people. Three months later eight of these people had been murdered and four pirates awaited the hangman’s noose. The
Saladin, the source of all this tragedy, sat wrecked off of Nova Scotia’s Country Harbour.
The ringleader had been a passenger named George Fielding. During the voyage he decided to steal the ship and its valuable cargo of guano, copper, coins and silver bars. With his son, he convinced four disgruntled crew members to join the scheme. They chose a calm night in April to attack with axes and carpenter tools. The captain and five others were murdered and thrown overboard. Only two crew members were spared.
The mutineers started drinking brandy and, despite swearing an oath of allegiance among themselves, began arguing. Fearing betrayal, four of the original killers implicated the two innocent crew members by forcing them to throw Fielding and his son overboard. Finally, the undermanned ship ran blindly ashore near Country Harbour, Nova Scotia. Authorities captured the six remaining men. A trial absolved the two men forced to kill the Fieldings, and ordered the four convicted pirates hanged on Halifax’s South Common.
The British-built SALADIN. From an etching in London Illustrated News. Courtesy Dalhousie University Libraries, Special Collections
