The massive concrete pyramid in Boston harbor looks as if it might have been built by one of the less ambitious pharaohs: this impression is fortified by the two-foot granite steps that form its base. In fact this is a beacon known as Nix’s Mate, and the tiny island on which it stands is the subject of a curious legend. Sometime in the late 1690s a certain Captain Nix was murdered; his first mate was accused of the crime and sentenced to be hanged. He was taken out to the island in Boston Bay which was then 12 acres in extent. On the scaffold the mate repeated his declaration of innocence, and prophesied that, as a proof of his innocence, the island on which he was hanged would be washed away from the sea.<\/p>\n
From that time on, the island began to crumble under the attack of the waves and now it is a mere 20 yards long and 10 yards wide; only a stone wall prevents it from being washed away completely.<\/p>\n
The portion of the island that is now under the waves was once known to all pirates of the Spanish Main, and its name was as terrible as the name of Tyburn to London footpads and burglars. The list of men who have been hanged there is long and no doubt there are many who will feel that the disappearance of this grim relic is no matter for regret. Yet no one who knows anything about the history of piracy and mutiny can entirely agree. There is a brutality and viciousness about many of the pirates that makes our own age of violence and political terrorism almost mild by comparison.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/5168910e-1230-4b15-8edb-12adc260a7ce.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n