Somers subscribed another thousand.

A ship called the Adventure Galley was equipped in the port of London; and Kidd took the command.

He carried with him, besides the ordinary letters of marque, a commission under the Great Seal empowering him to seize pirates, and to take them to some place where they might be dealt with according to law.

Whatever right the King might have to the goods found in the possession of these malefactors he granted, by letters patent, to the persons who had been at the expense of fitting out the expedition, reserving to himself only one tenth part of the gains of the adventure, which was to be paid into the treasury.
With the claim of merchants to have back the property of which they had been robbed His Majesty of course did not interfere.

He granted away, and could grant away, no rights but his own.
The press for sailors to man the royal navy was at that time so hot that Kidd could not obtain his full complement of hands in the Thames.