Execution Dock

Coordinates: 51°30′12″N 0°03′26″W / 51.50333°N 0.05722°W / 51.50333; -0.05722
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hanging of a buccaneer at Execution Dock

Execution Dock was a grisly place in the

smugglers and mutineers who had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts. The "dock" consisted of a scaffold for hanging
. Its last executions were in 1830.

History

Wax figure of a pirate hanged at Execution Dock. Madame Tussauds, London
Tom Idle goes to sea; execution beside the river in the background
Captain Kidd, gibbeted near Tilbury in Essex, following his execution in 1701.

The

British Admiralty's legal jurisdiction was for all crimes committed at sea. The dock symbolised that jurisdiction by being located just beyond the low-tide mark in the river. Anybody who had committed crimes on the seas, either in home waters or abroad, would eventually be brought back to London and tried by the High Court of the Admiralty
.

Capital punishment was applied to acts of mutiny that resulted in death, for murders on the High Seas, and specific violations of the

Marshalsea Prison (although some were also transported from Newgate Prison). The condemned were paraded across London Bridge and past the Tower of London. The procession was led by the High Court Marshal (or his deputy) on horseback. He carried a silver oar that represented the authority of the Admiralty. Prisoners were transported in a cart to Wapping; with them was a chaplain who encouraged them to confess their sins. Just like the execution procession to Tyburn
, condemned prisoners were allowed to drink a quart of ale at a public house on the way to the gallows. An execution at the dock usually meant that crowds lined the river's banks or chartered boats moored in the Thames to get a better view of the hanging. Executions were conducted by the hangmen who worked at either Tyburn or Newgate Prison.

With a particular cruelty reserved for those convicted of acts of piracy, hanging was done with a

Blackwall Point, on the River Thames, as a warning to all seafarers of the fate awaiting those who turned to piracy.[2]

An account from The Gentleman's Magazine, dated 4 February 1796, gives a vivid portrayal of a typical execution at London's Execution Dock.

This morning, a little after ten o'clock, Colley, Cole, and Blanche, the three sailors convicted of the murder of Captain Little, were brought out of Newgate, and conveyed in solemn procession to Execution Dock, there to receive the punishment awarded by law. On the cart on which they rode was an elevated stage; on this were seated Colley, the principal instigator in the murder, in the middle, and his two wretched instruments, the Spaniard Blanche, and the Mulatto Cole, on each side of him; and behind, on another seat, two executioners.

Colley seemed in a state resembling that of a man stupidly intoxicated, and scarcely awake, and the two discovered little sensibility on this occasion, nor to the last moment of their existence, did they, as we hear, make any confession. They were turned off about a quarter before twelve in the midst of an immense crowd of spectators.

On the way to the place of execution, they were preceded by the Marshall of the Admiralty in his carriage, the Deputy Marshall, bearing the silver oar, and the two City Marshals on horseback, Sheriff's officers, etc. The whole cavalcade was conducted with great solemnity.[3]

The infamous

gibbeted by the river Thames at Tilbury for three years.[4]

George Davis and William Watts, convicted for piracy for the Cyprus mutiny, were the final hangings at the dock on 16 December 1830.

Execution Dock was also popular in literature. Proof of this is the classic tale Peter Pan, in which the infamous Captain Hook's crew was said about them, "A more villainous-looking lot never hung in a row on Execution dock."[5]

Location

Rocque's map of 1746 showing location of Execution Dock Stairs at Wapping
, east London

Some sources state there is a large "E" on the Thames side of the building at Swan Wharf, indicating the site of Execution Dock.[6] Another source states it was approximately where the London Overground station now stands.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ "Execution Dock". www.historic-uk.com. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  2. ISBN 978-0-554-81481-0
  3. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, 4th February 1796
  4. ^ ^ "A brief history of piracy". Royal Navy Museum. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  5. ISBN 9780140302981
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-86011-116-7 p. 120
  7. ^ Gillian Tindall, "Walking Wapping's Streets", New York Times, 28 November 1999
  8. ^ Note that Macdonald along with some other sources, including Rocque's map, state that Execution Dock is at the junction of Brewhouse Lane and Wapping High Street, but the road layout has changed since the map was drawn and Brewhouse Lane now runs parallel to Wapping High Street. (Google Map with the two proposed sites and the modern day sites of Wapping New Stairs and Gun Wharf, both of which appear on Rocque's map)
  • Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert (1995). The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan. p. 275.
    ISBN 0-333-57688-8
    .

51°30′12″N 0°03′26″W / 51.50333°N 0.05722°W / 51.50333; -0.05722

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