Golden Age of Piracy
-
Libertalia: The Pirate Utopia That Almost Certainly Never Existed
A supposed democratic pirate colony on Madagascar has been retold as history for three centuries, but the entire account traces back to a single, disputed 1728 book.
-
Pirate Superstitions and Rituals at Sea
From the taboo on whistling to the thirteen stitches of a sea burial, pirate crews inherited a thick layer of maritime superstition — including the real albatross incident that inspired Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.
-
Literacy, Music, and Boredom Aboard a Pirate Ship
A scrap of a 1712 book found on Blackbeard’s flagship, a fiddler’s Sabbath-only right to rest, and a ban on gambling reveal how pirate crews actually filled the long hours at sea.
-
How Pirates Actually Dressed: What the Shipwrecks Show
Forget the eye patches and tricorne hats. Shipwrecks like the Whydah Gally show that most pirates dressed like the working sailors they were — until they captured something worth showing off.
-
The Pirate Round and Indian Ocean Riches
For a few decades, English and American pirates sailed past the Caribbean entirely, chasing Mughal treasure ships on a route historians call the Pirate Round.
-
Pirate Crew Roles and How Shares Worked
Bartholomew Roberts’ crew wrote plunder shares and injury payouts into a legal contract. Here’s how a pirate ship’s roles, votes, and pay actually worked.
-
What Pirates Actually Ate and Drank
Salt beef, weevil-ridden ship’s biscuit, and rum favored over water because it kept longer — the real diet behind the golden age of piracy.
-
Marooning: The Real Punishment Behind the Legend
Marooning was not pirate folklore — it was written directly into pirate ships’ articles as a specific punishment. Here is how it actually worked, from Blackbeard’s own crew to Alexander Selkirk.
-
Captain Kidd’s Buried Treasure: The One Legend That Was Real
Pirates almost never buried treasure, but William Kidd genuinely did, on Gardiners Island in 1699. Here is the documented record of what happened next.
-
Pirate Ship Surgeons: Medicine in the Golden Age
Pirate surgeons were trained professionals, usually taken by force, and paid far more than ordinary crew. Here is what shipboard medicine actually involved.