Golden Age of Piracy
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The Whydah Gally: The Pirate Treasure Legend That Turned Out to Be True
Most pirate treasure stories end with an empty hole in the ground. The Whydah Gally is the one wreck where the gold was actually there.
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Sir William Phips and the Treasure of the Concepción
A shepherd’s son with no schooling salvaged a fortune in Spanish silver from a 46-year-old wreck in 1687 — and was knighted for it within months.
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Piracy on Trial: How the Vice-Admiralty Courts Judged Pirates
Pirates who were caught rarely walked a plank. They faced a specific legal process built around a 1698 law, tried by seven commissioners instead of a jury.
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Blackbeard’s Buried Treasure: The Legend With No Treasure
No treasure chest was ever found aboard Blackbeard’s sloop. Here is where the legend of his buried gold actually came from.
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Black Pirates and the Limits of the Pirate Code
Black and African sailors were a substantial part of Golden Age pirate crews, until capture exposed how differently the law treated them.
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Pirate Flags: What the Jolly Roger’s Skulls and Colors Actually Meant
Black meant surrender and live; red meant no quarter. Here is what the Jolly Roger and its many captain-specific variations actually signaled to merchant crews, and where the uncertain name came from.
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How Pirate Crews Enforced Discipline: Punishment Under the Articles
Pirate ships ran on written contracts, not just fear. Here’s what the surviving articles actually specified for theft, injury, and mutiny — and what the popular record gets wrong.
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Port Royal: The Pirate Haven That Sank in Minutes
On June 7, 1692, an earthquake liquefied the ground beneath Port Royal, Jamaica — the Caribbean’s pirate capital — and sent two-thirds of the town into the sea within minutes.
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How Blackbeard’s Legend Grew Bigger Than the Man
Blackbeard’s piracy lasted barely two years and left no confirmed killings or buried treasure behind. Here’s how a two-year career became history’s defining pirate legend.
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Pirate Weapons: What Pirates Actually Carried Into Battle
Cutlasses, flintlock pistols, blunderbusses and boarding axes: the real arsenal of a Golden Age pirate crew, and why cannon fire was usually a last resort.