Fascinating act of piracy by "Tardy the Pirate"...
NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER, Baltimore, June 30, 1827
- French pirate Jacque Alexander Tardy
- U.S. merchant brig Crawford hijack
Inside has nearly a full page article: "Piracy and Murder" which is prefaced: "We do not often publish articles like the following but there is something so peculiarly horrid in the piracy & murder committed on board the brig Crawford & in the history of Tardy..." with a bit more, & followed by the considerable detail of this fascinating event.
This article is followed by: "Tardy The Pirate" which takes over half a page. The internet not only has much on Tardy, but also on his last act of piracy on the ship Crawford.
Sixteen pages, 6 by 9 3/4 inches, nice condition.
Background: This specific issue of Niles’ Weekly Register from June 30, 1827, is exceptionally notable for capturing the dramatic real-time climax of Jacque Alexander Tardy’s criminal career—a rare case of a French-born "poisoner pirate" who used arsenic, forged papers, and deception rather than classic buccaneering—dedicating over a page to his brutal takeover of the brig Crawford, his subsequent suicide off Norfolk, Virginia, and a detailed profile of his decades-long spree. Beyond its historical content, the issue holds high bibliographic rarity and historical value; as Hezekiah Niles’s influential weekly news magazine was published in limited print runs on fragile, unragged paper and intended primarily for contemporary subscriptions, surviving original mid-1820s copies retaining full, uninterrupted multi-page feature coverage of high-profile piratical true-crime events are scarce and heavily sought after by early American imprints collectors and maritime historians alike.
As noted in Wikipedia, this title: "...(was) one of the most widely-circulated magazines in the United States...Devoted primarily to politics...considered an important source for the history of the period."