An ancient Hopi proverb states “He who tells stories, rules the world.” Well here is your chance to become a King, or a Queen for a day, or at least, a few hours……

Herein, are 18 true and fictional stories, adventures and accounts of pirates and pirate actions. Stories like The Piccaroon, The Capture of Panama, The Daughter of the Great Mogul, The King of the Pirates, Barbarossa—King of the Corsairs, (Captain) Morgan at Puerto Bello, The Ways of the buccaneers and many, many more.

While the majority of these stories occur in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean, a few stories from the Eastern Indian Ocean are included as well.

At its highest expression, piracy embodies the romance of the high seas, and, in the main, we have Hollywood’s swashbucklers to thank for this. It is also a sad but inevitable commentary on the attitudes of mankind during the middle-to-late middle ages, that, if men were savages on land, they were doubly so at sea. There may be a certain human perversity in this, for the pirate was, at best, unquestionably a bad person.

Piracy was gradually overcome with the settlement and ordering of the far-flung colonies and with the advent of steam power. Even so, romanticised accounts of fictional pirates are included in this volume. Equally so are the true accounts of piratical actions, mainly provided by the Royal Navy.

Ours was a bold hardy world, up to the advent of steam,—every foot of which was won by fierce conquest of one sort or another. Out of this past the pirate emerges as a romantic, even at times heroic, figure. This final niche, despite his crimes, cannot altogether be denied to him. A hero he is and will remain so long as tales of the sea are told. So, have at him, in these pages!
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KEYWORDS/TAGS: folklore, fairy tales, fairytales, legends, myths, children’s stories, fables, bedtime stories, allegories, Piccaroon, Tom Cringle, Log, Capture of Panama, Buccaneers of America, Afloat, Ashore, Wonderful, Fight, Exchange, Bristol, Pirates, Algiers, Purchas, Pilgrims, Daughter, Great Mogul, King of the Pirates, Barbarossa, King of the Corsairs, Sea Wolves, Mediterranean, Captain Morgan, Puerto Bello, Ways of the Buccaneers, Customs, Spanish Main, True, Three Notorious Pirates, Capture, Ship Derby, Francis Lolonois, Slave, Pirate King, Fight. Dorrill, Moca, Indian Antiquary, Jaddi, Malay Pirate, Terrible Ladrones, Passing, Mogul Mackenzie, North Atlantic Pirate, Blackwood's Magazine, Last of the Sea-Rovers, Riff Coast Pirates, Nautical Magazine