Edward Owens hoax

Edward Owens is a fictional character, part of a historical hoax created by students at George Mason University. The full story of the pirate hoax is at the website for the course listed in the references below. The story of Edward Owens appeared in several online venues, including a popular culture blog at USAToday.

Background

According to the website created by the students, Edward Owens lived from 1852-1938 in Gloucester County, Virginia. He was an oyster fisherman working on the lower reaches of the Chesapeake Bay, who fell on hard times during the Long Depression that began in 1873, and took up pirating largely to survive the economic downturn. Owens' piratical activities took place primarily in the Maryland waters of the bay, where he was said to have robbed smaller commercial vessels and wealthy pleasure boaters from Maryland.

Owens supposedly sailed in a bugeye, rigged with a punt gun -- a sort of super shotgun -- with which he and his small crew threatened their victims. The students' narrative of Owens' life included the fact that there was no evidence that Owens ever committed any serious violence against his victims. Owens and his crew were described as using Watts Island in the Chesapeake as their haven when pirating. John Smith discovered Watts Island in 1607 and for a brief period in the seventeenth century the island served as a lair for more serious pirates. Watts Island washed away during the second half of the 20th century and is now marked on nautical maps as Watts Island Rocks. The Watts Island Light was destroyed in a storm in 1944, making it a convenient location for a fictional character to have used as a lair.

Of course, Owens was never apprehended. According to the story created by the students, this was probably because the Virginia authorities saw no need to chase a pirate robbing Marylanders. According to his last will and testament published in an edited version on the students' website, once the local economy improved in the early 1880s, Owens and his crew went back to oyster fishing and ceased their criminal activities. Unlike many American pirates, in the testament Owens expressed regret for his pirating ways.

The students gave Owens' a reason for ending his piracy, blaming his decision on the Oyster Wars. The Oyster Wars brought about stricter policing of the Chesapeake Bay by Virginia Governor William E. Cameron, which would have made piracy a more difficult occupation. Cameron committed the resources of the Commonwealth to protecting the underwater wealth of Virginia from illegal dredging, which meant that there were regular coastal patrols in the waters Owens and his crew supposedly sailed as pirates.

References Offered to Support the Hoax

• Cronin, William B.,"The Disappearing Islands of the Chesapeake," (JHU Press:2005)
• Defoe, Daniel, A General History of the Pyrates, (New York:Dover Publications 1972).
• Greener, W.W.,"The Gun and its Development" , (New York: Cassell and Company, Limited 1907).
• Wennersten, John R. "The Oyster Wars of Chesapeake Bay" (Tidewater Publishers 1981).
• "The Last American Pirate" http://lastamericanpirate.net