The Hanged Pirates of Execution Dock

Execution Dock in Wapping was London’s execution site for pirates, smugglers, and others who committed crimes on the high seas. From approximately 1400 until 1830, hundreds of condemned men met their ends here in a particularly gruesome ritual designed to deter others from piracy. The dock itself is long gone, but the area along the Thames foreshore is considered one of the most haunted stretches of the river.

The execution method was specifically designed for sea criminals. Pirates were hanged on a special gallows erected on the Thames foreshore at low tide, using a shortened rope that ensured strangulation rather than a broken neck—meaning a slow, agonizing death. The bodies were left hanging until three tides had washed over them, then often displayed in cages further downriver as warnings. Famous pirates executed here included Captain William Kidd (1701) and countless others whose names are lost to history. The condemned were marched from Marshalsea Prison, often drunk on rum, while crowds jeered.

The hauntings are extensive and well-documented. Locals and visitors report seeing ghostly figures walking the foreshore at low tide, some appearing to be bound or struggling against ropes around their necks. The sounds of choking and desperate gasping have been heard near the site. Pub landlords in Wapping, particularly at the Prospect of Whitby (which overlooks the old execution site), report regular supernatural activity—glasses flying off shelves, phantom footsteps, and the apparition of men in 18th-century clothing who vanish when approached. River police and people living in converted warehouses along the Thames report seeing lights moving on the water at night, with no source, and hearing shanties sung in archaic accents. The most chilling reports involve the smell of seawater and rotting flesh appearing suddenly near the old dock location. The hanged pirates of Execution Dock, denied proper burial and left to the mercy of the river, seem to still haunt the place of their deaths.