A good place to start

[Gypsy Rose]

Greetings once again. I hope that everyone that had it was able to enjoy the three day weekend. Now I am looking for a good place to start, I am interested in the historical accuracy for the GAOP. I have read "Under the Black Flag" and "Women sailors and Sailors Women". What else would be a good book?

[JoshuaRed]

Your best bet is to go straight to the source - books written during the GAOP by guys like Woodes Rodgers, William Dampier, Silas Told, etc. They are fascinating reads, will teach you far more than the crop of pop-history books of today, and prove that the seemingly less-exciting truth is actually cooler than anything Hollywood could come up with.

[Gypsy Rose]

Ok that will get me started, if I can get on any books by them. Thank-you for the reply.

[Patrick Hand]

You can do a web search for.... "A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE PYRATES" there is an online version available.....

It's just a pain to read online text tho...... so I still have to get a paper copy..... I think Amizon carries it.......

Hey.... I could have just ordered a copy from Amizon or my local bookstore will order a copy for me ..... but it's more fun to kinda find a copy (I like used book stores, estate and yard sales).... more like a treasure hunt that way..... sorry... sometimes I get wierd about this kinda thing....

[Mad Matt]

weirdo

[kass]

Yes, but he's our kind of weirdo.

[Captain Sage]

gutenberg.org has tons of public domain works. You can find some older piratey things if you know how to look.

There is one called The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms, that I like a lot. It was first published in 1837.

Yes I know, it isn't as old as Johnson's or Esquemeling's, but it does seem to have a lot of good details.

Here's the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12216

Happy Reading!

[Rumba Rue]

Here's a list of some of the best books around.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates by Gail Selinger

World History

Pirates-Terror on the High Seas from the Carribbean to the South China Sea-consulting editor- David Cordingly

Piracy- Days of Long Ago by Kenneth W. Mulder

Pirates of the Pacific by Peter Gerhard

The Pirates Own Book-Authentic Narrratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers by the Marine Research Society

Bold in Her Breeches- Women Pirates Across the Ages, edited by Jo Stanley

A History of Pirates- Blood and Thunder on the High Seas by Nigel Cawthorn

Pirates & Outlaws of Canada 1610-1932 by Harold Horwood and Ed Butts

Crossroads of The Buccaneers by H.DeLeeuw

The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonney and Mary Read by Tamara J. Eastman and Constance Bond

(*Special note here: Tamara is a direct descendant of Anne Bonney)

[Captain Every]

There is one called The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms, that I like a lot. It was first published in 1837.

Yes I know, it isn't as old as Johnson's or Esquemeling's, but it does seem to have a lot of good details.

First of all thanks a lot for the link, I haven't read this book before and was pleased a lot to found the origin of some illustrations which I've met in the Internet withought any word about their origin. But looking through the chapter about Every/Avery, rather briefly of course, I've came to the conclusion that Ellms repeated the most of "General History" chapter "On Captain Avery and his Crew". Isn't it the same with the other stories which have corresponding ones in "General History"? Besides, I must admit that my English is rather bad (I'm from Russia), so I could miss something important Certainly I'll read it much more attentively, especially Every's story, for I'm trying now to construct a site devoted to him, which I think will be the first one in Russian.

[Capn_Enigma]

There is one called The Pirates Own Book, by Charles Ellms, that I like a lot. It was first published in 1837.

Yes I know, it isn't as old as Johnson's or Esquemeling's, but it does seem to have a lot of good details.!

Sorry, but I beg to differ.

"The Pirates Own Book" does make for interesting fiction, but certainly not for a reliable scientific source. Half of the book is copied from the "General History", and souped up by fictional details lacking any historic base.

As an accurate historic source, utterly worthless.

Stick with Exquemelin's "Buccaneers" and the "General History" for starters.

[Capt. Sterling]

Yes, but he's our kind of weirdo.

Which is the very best kind! :)

[Captain Every]

And what do you think about Lucy Lethbridge's "True Stories of Pirates"? It seems to be a popular one, but I was a kind of surprised (and enjoyed it of course) to find some documents quotations in the chapter about Every. Or maybe it's because of the sad fact that pirates' books are rare in Russia?

[sirhenrymorgan]

Stick with Exquemelin's "Buccaneers" and the "General History" for starters.

Keep in mind that Exquemelin's book was a bit of fiction as well. Sir Henry Morgan successfully sued the author for libel and won one of the first cases of such. Several scenes, including the one that depicted Sir Henry using monks and nuns to hoist ladders to storm the fort are largely works of Exquemelin's beef with Morgan at the time.

The current version of the book has a disclaimer to the effect as it was required as a result of the court's decision:

"There have been lately printed and published two works, one by Wil. Crook, the other by Tho. Malthus, both initialed The History of the Bucaniers: both which books contained many false, scandalous and malitious reflection on the life and actions of Sir Henry Morgan, of Jamaica, Kt. The said Sir Henry Morgan hath by judgment had in the Kingsbench-Court, recovered against the said libel 200£ damages. And on the humble solicitation and request of William Crook, hath been pleased to withdraw his action against Crook, and accept of his submission and acknowledgment in print."

Otherwise, good stuff, except for much of the Morgan passages...

-- Sir Henry

[Capn_Enigma]

Here are a few facts:

Exquemelin's "De Americaensche Zee- Rovers" was first published in Dutch in 1678 by Jan ten Hoorn, Amsterdam.

After being a huge success, various translations appeared in different languages, among them German ("Americanische Seeräuber") in 1679, Spanish ("Piratas De La America") in 1681, English (1684) and French (1686). Due to the book's controversial nature, depending on the reader's standpoint, the respective translators added or omitted passages with chauvinistic content.

The Spanish version in particular omitted entire paragraphs, wherein Exquemelin's original text poked fun at indecisive or otherwise incompetent Spanish officers or actions taken by them. The translator did add, however, fictional dastardly behavior alledgedly perpetrated by Morgan against Spaniards. After all, the Spaniards had a good many bones to pick with Morgan.

It was this version that Morgan sued for libel, as the first English editions were a translation of the Spanish translation, and not of the Dutch original.

As an aside, it is a well established fact that Morgan used priests, monks and nuns as human shield when he scaled the fortress of Santiago at Porto Bello. Pray thee, tell us your sources to back up your disputing this.

Please bear also in mind that the outcome of the libel case was a political decision rather than a judicial one.

Morgan had just "redeemed" himself from the (entirely justified) charges of piracy in peacetime by buying patrons in very high places who held a protective hand over him. Those people could certainly not afford a piratical Morgan becoming the centerpiece of a political scandal, dragging them eventually into it as well.

All these incidents, however, do not reduce the historical value of Exquemelin's first hand eyewitness account.

[Fox]

Here's a list of some of the best books around.

...A History of Pirates- Blood and Thunder on the High Seas by Nigel Cawthorn

I humbly beg to differ. Cawthorne's book is one of the biggest piles of crap I've read for a long time. He perpetuates unfounded myths, gets his information wrong, and doesn't quote his sources (possibly because he's embarrassed about the fact that at least one of his "facts" is lifted straight from a Disney film! - I wouldn't quote my sources in those circumstances either...).

I wouldn't have brought this up except for the fact that Gypsy Rose specifically requested "Historical Accuracy". Cawthorne is easy to read, but it ain't historical accuracy.

Also, I was rather under the impression that Anne Bonny's fate had not been proven (despite several theories). Given that, how can Tamara be directly descended from her? Or am I wrong?

Regarding the reliability of Esquemeling, my own two penn'orth: Almost all published accounts (and indeed many unpublished documents) on most things will contain a certain amount of bias, favouring the author (or editor) and his friends and degrading his opponents. You just have to do a little research into the author (usually to be found in the introduction to most modern editions of old books) and make your own mind up (possibly by comparison to other sources - with the same caveat) what is the truth and how far it has been bent.

[Brit.Privateer]

If you want some online stuff, here you go:

A General History of the Pyrates:

http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/...tem.aspx?id=joh

A History of the Pyrates (sequal to General History):

http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/...tem.aspx?id=joi

and my favorite, The 1720 Cyclopaedia:

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/H...CITECH.CYCLOSUB

Also, I would suggest in books two of my favorite books on period weapons at sea, "Boarders Away" and "Boarders Away II" both by William Gilkerson. Excellent resource.