Under the black flag: the romance and the reality of life among the pirates

David Cordingly

Random House Publishing Group, 1996 - Fiction - 296 pages

Pirates have become so much a part of story and legend that is easy to forget they actually existed in the flesh. Their roving lives left behind little in the way of historical record; thus our image of them is derived from a smattering of fact overlaid with three centuries of ballads, plays, epic poems, and films. But how does our conception of pirates compare with the reality, and why has such a romantic aura become associated with murderers and thieves?
Pursuing that question, Dr. David Cordingly, former head of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum, has mined a wealth of original sources - eyewitness accounts, court documents, national archives, and more - to create the most authoritative and definitive account of the great age of piracy since the 1724 bestseller The General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates. Under the Black Flag explodes many closely held myths and replaces them with a truth that is more complex and every bit as fascinating. Here are the real stories of Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and Henry Morgan, along with lesser-known but equally noteworthy pirates such as Henry Avery (who captured an emperor's treasure fleet but died penniless) and the cross-dressing women Anne Bonny and Mary Read. From the havoc of battle to the isolation of life at sea, Under the Black Flag makes tangible the day-to-day existence of pirates. How they attacked, how they governed themselves, what they wore, what ships they used, why they flourished in the years around 1720, and what brought their reign of terror to an end - all is revealed in this rousing and revisionist history.

What people are saying

User Review -

This is not a book I would recommend for a very casual reader of pirate history, but I know quite a bit about pirates so for me it was a great read. It has a lot of information on the everyday pirate life and the reality, something which I was looking for and it was a very refreshing book.
The best thing was the constant references to other books and archives and I am following up on them too. 

Review: Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates

User Review  - Hannah - Goodreads

This book wasn't what I was excepting (and not in a good way,) it turned out to be more facts than stories. But that's how you learn what you're looking for in a book or a certain book genre.

About the author

David Cordingly was for twelve years on the staff of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, where he was curator of paintings and then head of exhibitions. He is a graduate of Oxford. He lives with his wife and family in Sussex, England.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Under the black flag: the romance and the reality of life among the pirates
• Author: David Cordingly
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 1996
• Original from: the University of Virginia
• Digitized: Dec 5, 2007
• ISBN: 0679425608, 9780679425601
• Length: 296 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary; History / General