Pirate and prizefighter.

He was boatswain in the Elizabeth, of Bristol, in 1726, bound for Guinea. Heading a mutiny on May 27th, he tossed the captain over the ship's side, and slaughtered all the officers except the ship's surgeon. Fly was unanimousl...

Pirate and prizefighter.

He was boatswain in the Elizabeth, of Bristol, in 1726, bound for Guinea. Heading a mutiny on May 27th, he tossed the captain over the ship's side, and slaughtered all the officers except the ship's surgeon. Fly was unanimously elected captain by the crew. His first prize was the John and Hannah off the coast of North Carolina. The next the John and Betty, Captain Gale, from Bardadoes to Guinea. After taking several other vessels, he cruised off the coast of Newfoundland where he took a whaler. Fly was caught by a piece of strategy on the part of the whaler captain, who carried him and his crew in chains in their own ship to Great Brewster, Massachusetts, in June, 1726. On July 4th Fly and the other pirates were brought to trial at Boston, and on the 16th were executed. On the day of execution Fly refused to go to church before the hanging to listen to a sermon by Dr. Coleman. On the way to the gallows he bore himself with great bravado, jumping briskly into the cart with a nosegay in his hands bedecked with coloured ribbons like a prizefighter, smiling and bowing to the spectators. He was hanged in chains at Nix's Mate, a small island in Boston Harbour, and thus was brought to a close a brief though brilliant piratical career of just one month.