"the Sea is wide enough for us all, we need not quarrel for elbow-room; its stores are infinite."

Not by Daniel Defoe. The book on which all pirate books are based.

"Noi spogliamo i ricchi con la sola protezione del nostro coraggio." E di coraggio ne hanno parecchio questi pirati. Non temono nulla. Navigano mari in tempesta, mari infiniti, e non risparmiano nessuno. Chiunque abbia la sfortuna di imbattersi in questi diavoli è spacciato. E tra le gesta del potente Barbanera, gli ideali di libertà del capitano Misson, le vite e gli animi turbolenti delle donne corsaro e le atrocità del capitano Low, veniamo trasportati in un'epoca e in un mondo che, purtroppo, non ci appartiene più. Sì, dico purtroppo perché io personalmente lo trovo affascinante.
Come ci viene detto nell'introduzione, questo non è un romanzo d'avventure alla Salgari, ma è una vera e propria documentazione su alcuni dei pirati più pericolosi e famosi di quegli anni. Sono uomini e donne realmente esistiti e questo lo rende ancora più affascinante, se non addirittura sconvolgente. Perché non si può negare che certe loro azioni siano crudeli e indecenti. Ma i pirati non sono solo questo. Non sono solo esseri spregevoli. Sono anche uomini fedeli ai loro capitani, intrepidi e astuti. Queste pagine ci fanno capire quanto fosse dura e difficoltosa la vita in mare. La manutenzione delle navi, il procurarsi i viveri, le battaglie, le tempeste, i tradimenti, le malattie, la legge che li perseguita. Hanno una vita intensa e incredibile. E il grande Defoe riesce, con grande abilità, a descriverci la vita dei predoni inglesi che per anni hanno infestato mari e oceani.

Although dated, this was an interesting account of some very notorious pirates. Of course it focuses on the golden age of piracy and the scalawags it produced. Replete with battle scenes, a glimpse into the lives of the offenders along with fascinating facts concerning the origin of the phenomena in the Caribbean. Of particular interest are the accounts of captaIn Jack Rackham (Calico Jack) and his two female cohorts Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

this book was published in 1724 making it older than the United States. so it is no surprise that the language is archaic and it is not tailored to modern readers. an interesting reference book and starts out fun as a series of short adventure stories, but Daniel Defoe gets repetitious after 5 or 6 chapters. my biggest struggle was the "They and Them" problem. Example: "they said to them that they looked like them and were they them that they looked like? they said no in reply and asked who they were and assured them that they were not them" this can go on for page after page until I just didn't care who was who.
still it starts out fun, but gets tedious much quicker than any book about pirates has a right to. If you have more focus and determination than I do you might enjoy it more than I did.
Quick word of warning, attitudes about life, liberty and especially about race were very different in 1724.

The pages stated on her is 600+ pages but the ebook I'm reading is over 1000+ pages. Don't know why but don't feel like the content is good enough to keep struggling along so I'll dnf it.

Written in the Age of Piracy this book tells each pirates story, from Captains all the way to captives who became pirates. The stories of women pirates Mary Reed and Anne Bonny are particularly interesting. You have to get past the Eighteenth Century language but it is worth reading if you really want a view of how Pirates worked. Each ship elected their own Captain and a second-in-command called a Quartermaster. How many shares of the loot one got was ver regulated. That even these old international criminals had an agreed on code like any other successful gang or cartel says a lot about human nature.

I got a lot of information about pirates and especially about Libertalia, the Pirate Republic in Madagascar. That again gave me the idea to write my the book "Die Piraten von Libertalia" which was published in Germany in February 2009 by Bloomsbury.

This book, originally published in 1724, recounts the misadventures of several famous pirates including Blackbeard, Ann Bonnet, and Black Bart. Actually, Blackbeard, despite his fearsome reputation, came across as less bloodthirsty than for example Captain Spriggs or Captain Roche.

There is some debate as to who wrote the book. Some cite Daniel Defoe as the possible author. I'll stick the guy named on the title page. :)

Many of the stories are fascinating. The book contains incredible detail, including lists of ships and their captains, and transcripts of trial testimony and judgments. At times the book became so dense with detail, I struggled to follow it in places and had to resort to Wikipedia to fill in the gaps in my understanding. Also, the narrative on occasion pauses to give a local geography lesson for a couple of pages. However, overall, it is well worth the effort to read it and is a must for anyone with even a passing interest in pirate lore.

Read for personal research. I found this work of immense interest.
This work was one of my resource sources while ghost authoring the historical fiction novel "I, Slave: 1746-1963" for E.MH Ratterman.
I found this book's contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Overall, this work is also a good resource for the researcher and enthusiast.

I've always wanted to read this book from 1724 about all the famous pirates of the day but never been able to find a good physical copy. Thankfully the Folio society have produced this abridged version so I can at least read about the main pirates. A wonderfully produced reproduction with a lovely cover and slipcase, this is the main source of Pirate lore used for Film and TV, etc. Blackbeard, Anne Bonnie, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, Captain Kidd, they are all here! I found it interesting how most of the Pirates stories were interconnected in some way. Some wonderful accounts and being that the book is so old it is interesting to see that Captain Johnson doesn't shy away from hinting that Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read seem to have had a bit of a love triangle - and there is a great little reference to an island natives version of Viagra in one of the stories.
It is thought that Captain Charles Johnson was actually Daniel Defoe, and there are some references to the source material of Robinson Crusoe so it is entirely possible.
Overall a fantastic historical account (with some embellishments...) of the crimes of all the Pirates we know and love written during the time when they were still causing a problem. Well worth getting a copy of if you love Pirate lore.