Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the PiratesPirates have become so much a part of story and legend that is easy to forget they actually existed. Their roving lives left behind little historical record; thus our image of them is 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? Author Cordingly, of 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: 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.--From publisher description. |
Contents
Wooden Legs and Parrots | 3 |
Plundering the Treasure Ports | 26 |
Sir Henry Morgan | 42 |
Copyright | |
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Admiralty Adventure anchor Anne Bonny armed ashore attack Barbadoes Bartholomew Roberts Bay of Honduras Bellomont black flag Blackbeard boat Boston Boston News-Letter brigantine brought buccaneers Calico Jack Cape Capt Captain Kidd captured Caribbean coast colonies commanded commission Company Court crew cruising CSPC death deck England English escaped execution fire fleet forced French Galley gold Governor guns hands hanged harbor Hawkins Hispaniola HMS Swallow Indian Jamaica John Johnson Kidd's London looted Lord Lowther Madagascar man-of-war Marblehead Massachusetts mast master mate merchant ship Morgan ordered pieces of eight piracy pirate captain pirate ship pirate sloop pistols plunder Port Royal prisoners privateer prize Providence Pyrates Quelch Rhode Island Russel sailed schooner seamen sent ship's shore shot slaves soon Spanish Spriggs taken Thomas told took town trade treasure trial vessel voyage warship West Indies William Woodes Rogers York