Muito têm -se fantasiado sobre a vida dos piratas. E todo isso deve-se a indústria cinematográfica.
Este livro mostra quem foram os verdadeiros piratas das Craíbas. Não foram criaturas com poderes fora do comum. Nem eram nenhuns cavalheiros. Alguns nem tem vidas tão extraordinárias.

Os que mais se destacam são o Barba Negra pelos seus actos violentos e as sedutoras piratas ( Anne e Bonny) que se destacam pelo atrevimento assim como as diversas traições. É interessante notar que Mary declara ter sido obrigada a entrar no mundo da pirataria. A sua família criou-a como um rapaz, na ausência dos seus protectores utilizou-se das armas que possuia.

Outros episódios interessantes são os ataques as embarcações portuguesas e espanholas. Tenho de destacar a narração detalhada ao Brasil e os seus escravos. A obra possui ainda as correspondências e os processos de tribunal.

Um livro obrigatório para quem pretende aprofundar os seus conhecimentos sobre pirataria e para desmitificar o fascínio exagerado sobre a vida desses criminosos

Actually from the edition contained in the Delphi Classics Complete Works of Daniel Defoe.
Read it in conjunction with Pirate Enlightenment, which references it frequently.

History book about the Golden Age of Piracy compiled out of brief biographies of then contemporary pirates (usually English in origin) operating around the Caribbean. The book also has some parts of it describing the areas on land where the pirates would go to (such as Brazil and Madagascar) as well as transcripts of court documents pertaining to when the pirates who weren’t killed at sea were tried. Authorship of this book is disputed, though the edition I read was attributed to Daniel Defoe.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of pirates, history, naval adventures, etc...

This book gives a rundown of the most famous pirates in the "golden age", Roberts, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, are all given their due.

However, this is not a light read. It is olde English and in naval speak to boot. Sometimes it takes several tries to deduce what the author is saying.

Sit down with a grog of rum and enjoy!

Truly fascinating but bloody hell its hard work - not surprising when you consider when it was written.

I love me some pirate books. This is the most used source for most historical books about pirates. This is a good book worth reading. That said, there are more comprehensive books out there. This book has a more traditional version of pirates with tales of rum and treasure and hoisting the black flag. The tales are more narrative than expository, but it makes for an interesting read.

Interesting to have trial and other details from the period this was actually happening.

Interesting as a historical reference

didn't have the actual book @ the library & had to listen to it.
pretty tedious. probably would've skipped long lists of names, etc if i had the book in front of me.
not a one star b/c some of the stories of the different pirates were interesting.

If you really care about the primary source of almost everything we know of Pirates, this is your book. If you're only vaguely interested in Pirates, you might want to revisit this after another read.

Very detailed adventures of the pirates around the globe at the time writer lived (some of the hisotrical facts are probably made up for the sake of the story) but nonetheless, great insight into the piracy.

Starz tv show "Black Sails" covers some of the pirates in this book.

The book goes into far more detail than I was expecting about nearly every pirate in history, how they were viewed by the countries in that time and how successful they were in their endeavours. It's a tad long in the teeth, but a decent read.