The man wearing the T-shirt with a likeness of Captain Kidd is Jeff Ariens, the ninth great-grandson of the famous 17th-century privateer.

I am Noel Young and what I have in common with Captain Ariens is a common desire to see Captain Kidd cleared of the epithet "pirate", which led to his shameful execution in London in 1701. 

As a Scot living in the USA, I have long been supportive of my native country, that is the whole UK! 10+ years ago, after reading a review in the New Yorker of the book The Pirate Hunter - The True Story of Captain Kidd by Richard Zacks, I was struck by the magazine's assertion that William Kidd should be a "National Hero" to Scotland.

Instead, Kidd has been ignored without a flattering mention alongside famous Dundee Marmalade - founded in 1797 - and James Chalmers, inventor of the postage stamp.

Born in Dundee in 1654, Kidd lost his seaman father when he was five. Later - predictably perhaps - he went off to sea. In the late 1600s, he became a respected privateer, hunting pirates for the English Governor of New York and marrying the city's wealthiest widow.

Then others in English-run America persuaded him to buy a ship in London to catch even more pirates. This he set out to do, receiving a formal commission from King William III. But, as his efforts crystallized with the launch of his ship in London, the tide turned. 

Kidd himself unjustly became a target. His backers turned on him and he was arrested for piracy in Boston and sent for trial in London.

The trial was a farce; evidence that proved his two main captures were legitimate under his commission from the King vanished before the trial. They turned up in government files 200 years later. Kidd was executed within weeks. Leading Scots politician William Kidd (no relation) has called the trial "state-inspired murder". Enough said. 

The instruction for this essay you are reading today is simple; "Explain the problem you want to solve."

That's easy. As my business card launching the PardonCaptainKidd.com website says ,"It's never too late to correct an injustice."

And this was arguably the most monstrous injustice of all time!

Let's fix it.