With its many bays and rivers the coastline of Tidewater Virginia was hard to defend. Pirates could swoop down in their fast boats and rob vessels and plunder the plantations along the shore. It was easy to make a landing in the lower counties of the Neck where the land was low and there were wharves at the plantations. In 1699, Captain Kidd, who tradition says wore a gold chain around his neck and picked his teeth with a toothpick of gold, entered the Chesapeake in his vessel _Alexander_. The militia of the maritime counties was called out but Captain Kidd, after plundering several ships, sailed away. Louis Guittar entered the Bay in 1700 and plundered and destroyed five vessels while there. At some time during this period, a ship-load of pirates reached the waters of the upper Chesapeake, where they captured a large sloop. They anchored that evening not far from shore and, tradition says, "the pirates were heard beating their drums all night long." The pirate, George Lowther, entered the Bay in 1722. Roger Makeele was another Bay pirate. He and his gang of thirteen men and four women preyed on small craft in the Bay channels. After a successful venture they celebrated by "drinking and feasting with Rumm or Brandy, mutton, Turkey &C." This gang was captured and brought to trial by the Governor of Virginia. The Virginia government used several methods of defense: look-outs, militia, forts and guard-ships. There was a fort with twenty-four guns and one hundred fifty "available shot" at Corotoman, on the Rappahannock. At Yeocomico, on the Potomac, there was a fort with six guns. Since almost no maintenance was given to the forts in Virginia they were in a dilapidated condition by 1691. The guns were "spoiled in the sand with the water flowing over them at high tide." This form of defense proved to be ineffective. The colony had already turned to guard-ships as a means of protection. These guard-ships were used to convoy merchant vessels to their destination, or to a safe "riding place." The designated "riding place" on the Rappahannock was above the fort at Corotoman. On the Wicomico and on the Potomac the "riding places" were "as high as they can go." One of these guard-ships, _H.M.S. Deptford_, a ketch, under command of Captain Thomas Berry, was upset in a squall in the Potomac. Captain Berry, who was ill at the time, was drowned along with eight members of his crew.