Investigating the fascination pirates hold over the popular imagination, Peter Earle takes the fable of ocean-going Robin Hoods sailing under the banner of King Death and contrasts it with the murderous reality of robbery, torture and death and the freedom of a short, violent life on the high seas. The book charts 250 years of piracy, from Cornwall to the Caribbean, from the 16th century to the hanging of the last pirate cptain in Boston in 1835. Along the way, we meet characters like Captain Thomas Cocklyn, chosen as commander of his ship on account of his brutality and ignorance, and Edward Teach, the notorious Blackbeard, who felt of his crew that if he did not now and then kill one of them they would forget who he was. Told using material from British Admiralty records, this is an account of the Golden Age of pirates and of the men of the legitimate navies of the world charged with the task of finally bringing these cutthroats to justice.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Methuen Publishing LTD
ISBN-13
9780413758804
eBay Product ID (ePID)
88209165
Product Key Features
Author
Peter Earle
Publication Name
The Pirate Wars: Pirates Vs the Legitimate Navies of the World