From captain to rigger, each crew member played their part in the complex performance of tasks. Introduction...
Piracy
Sail through piracy’s long history, from ancient raiders and medieval corsairs to the privateers and buccaneers of the Atlantic world. These histories reveal how governments alternately condemned and employed maritime violence while popular culture turned pirates into legends.
Perhaps the favorite handheld gunpowder weapon of pirates was the pistol, in use from around 1530. Introduction...
Some pirates, especially the captains, did dress to impress. By Mark CartwrightHistorian Introduction Pirates have gained a...
Pirates both dished out and received a wide range of imaginative punishments. Punishments between Pirates Floggings The...
The ‘Golden Age of Piracy’ is rather an odd name to attach to a period when crime...
Pirates needed safe harbors where they could hide from the authorities and share out their loot. Introduction...
We may think that women at sea were a rare occurrence through history, but this is not...
Finding a locked box spilling over with gold, emeralds, and pearls was something of an uncommon jackpot...
The buccaneers were largely English, Dutch, and French united by a hatred of Spain and a desire...
Some of the more common expressions and slang terms that pirates, and mariners in general, used. Introduction...
Colonial powers at the time constantly fought with pirates and engaged in several notable battles and other...
Scurvy killed more than two million sailors between the time of Columbus’s transatlantic voyage and the rise...
Piracy was engaged in by governments and was often considered a legitimate act of war. Introduction Piracy,...
No one in history has ever, based on their adopting a sea-going profession, talked like Robert Newton’s...
Magellan’s voyage in search of the “Spice Islands” was marked by storms, sharks, and scurvy—plus multiple attempts...
The pirate flag of Captain Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. The flag shows a skeleton spearing a heart...
Albert Eckhout An adventurer who gave us the first account by an Englishman of early colonial Brazil. By Dr. Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá /...