David Cordingly

A revisionist history of the golden age of piracy draws on original archive records to provide a realistic study of pirates and their lives that refutes many of the myths about the era.

The Romance And the Reality of Life Among the Pirates

Under the Black Flag

The author takes readers on a wild ride through three hundred years of maritime history in search of women pirates, captains, seafarers, and explorers who broke new ground in the male-dominated maritime world. Originally published as Women Sailors and Sailor's Women. Reissue. 30,000 first printing.

Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives

Seafaring Women

Charles Johnson

Originally published in 1724, this famous account chronicles the lives and exploits of the most notorious pirates from Anne Bonny to Blackbeard.

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates

Storia della pirateria

Profiles the life and adventures of the governor of the Bahamas who hunted down some of the best known pirates of his day, including Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Anne Bonny.

The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers

Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean

A global overview of pirates documents the real world of these seafaring terrors, their violent lives of robbery and murder, and the exploits of famous pirates

Terror on the High Seas, from the Caribbean to the South China Sea

Pirates

What were pirates really like? How much, if any, of the piratical stereotype - of a dashingly handsome man with an eye-patch, peg-leg and a parrot on his shoulder - is based on the documented fact. In this revealing and highly original study David Cordingly sets out to discover the truth behind the piracy myth, exploring its enduring and extraordinary appeal, and answering such questions as: why did men become pirates? Were there any women pirates? How much money did they make from plundering and looting? And were pirates really dashing highwaymen of the Seven Seas or just vicious cut-throats and robbers? From Long John Silver to Henry Morgan, Robert Louis Stevenson to J.M. Barrie, LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES examines all the heavyweights of history and literature and presents the essential survey of this fascinating phenomenon.

The Romance and the Reality

Life Among the Pirates

An Illustrated History of Privateers, Buccaneers, and Pirates from the Sixteenth Century to the Present

John Falconer

Fact & Fiction : in which the Authors Relate the History of Piracy from the Spanish Main to the China Seas

Storiesof individual pirates in the Caribbean, from Blackbeard to Calico Jack, havebeen the stuff of legend since the eighteenth century, but in Spanish Goldpirate expert David Cordingly at last gives us the big picture in all its boldand ruthless truth. Cordingly shows how the attacks of the buccaneers on the treasure ports of theSpanish Main, and the sacking of Panama by Sir Henry Morgan in 1671, were theprologue to an explosion of piracy which led to the establishment of a piratecolony at Nassau in the Bahamas. By 1717, so many ships had been raided andtrade so badly disrupted that the merchants of London had to act. The man they selected 'to drive the pirates from their lodgement' was CaptainWoodes Rogers, himself a former privateer who had sailed round the world withWilliam Dampier the buccaneer explorer as his pilot. Woodes Rogers had capturedthe fabled Manila treasure galleon, and rescued Alexander Selkirk from a remotePacific island - indeed, it was his account of Selkirk's ordeal that inspiredDaniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Woodes Rogers' resolute actions as Governor of the Bahamas restored order tothe colony and proved a defining step in the campaign against the pirates,inspiring the fight-back against men like Blackbeard, Calico Jack andBartholomew Roberts, all of whom died in dramatic circumstances. Played out against the background of fierce colonial rivalry between Britain,France and Spain, linked with the slave trade, the sugar plantations of theWest Indies, and the fabulously rich trade in gold and silver from the NewWorld, the true story of the rise and fall of the pirates of the Caribbeanmakes for a tale even more interesting and surprising than the legendsthemselves.

Captain Woodes Rogers and the Pirates of the Caribbean

Spanish Gold

The real Master and Commander . 'There is no man I envy so much as Lord Cochrane.' - Lord Byron.

The Life and Adventures of Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 1775-1860

Cochrane the Dauntless

For centuries, the sea has been regarded as a male domain, but in this illuminating historical narrative, maritime scholar David Cordingly shows that an astonishing number of women went to sea in the great age of sail. Some traveled as the wives or mistresses of captains; others were smuggled aboard by officers or seamen. And Cordingly has unearthed stories of a number of young women who dressed in men’s clothes and worked alongside sailors for months, sometimes years, without ever revealing their gender. His tremendous research shows that there was indeed a thriving female population—from pirates to the sirens of myth and legend—on and around the high seas. A landmark work of women’s history disguised as a spectacularly entertaining yarn, Women Sailors and Sailor’s Women will surprise and delight.

Covers three hundred years of maritime history in search of women pirates, captains, seafarers, and explorers who broke new ground in the male-dominated maritime world.

An Untold Maritime History

Women Sailors and Sailors' Women

The amazing true story of Blackbeard, Calico Jack and all the other pirates of the Caribbean and Captain Woodes Rogers, the privateer turned governor of the Bahamas, who brought them to book.

Captain Woodes Rogers and the True Story of the Pirates of the Caribbean

This is the story of the Bellerophon, a ship of the line known to her crew as the Billy Ruffian. Under fourteen captains, she played a conspicuous part in three of the most famous of all sea battles: the battle of the Glorious First of June (1794), the opening action against Revolutionary France; the battle of the Nile (1798), which halted Napoleon's eastern expansion from Cairo; and the battle of Trafalgar (1805), which established British naval supremacy for 100 years and during which her captain was shot dead with a musket ball an hour before Nelson was mortally wounded. But her crowning glory came six weeks after the Battle of Waterloo, when the Napoleon, trapped in La Rochelle, surrendered to the captain of the ship that had dogged his steps for more than twenty years.

Billy Ruffian

Captain Charles Johnson's General History of Pirates was one of the best-selling books of 1724, when it was first published. It provides a sweeping account of what has come to be called the Golden Age of Piracy. It went through four editions in two years, and without doubt owed a substantial part of its success to a dramatic writing style that vividly captures the realities of pirates' savage existence. The book contains documentary evidence of events during the lives of its subjects. In the 270 years since its original publication, Johnson's work has come to be regarded as the classic study of one of the most popular subjects in maritime history.

Traces the rise and fall of modern piracy, describes the pirate way of life, and discusses pirates in literature and art

Fact & Fiction

I pirati dei Caraibi. Ascesa e caduta dei signori del mare

From renowned pirate historian David Cordingly, author of Under the Black Flag and film consultant for the original Pirates of the Caribbean, comes the thrilling story of Captain Woodes Rogers, the avenging nemesis of the worst cutthroats ever to terrorize the high seas. Once a marauding privateer himself, Woodes Rogers went from laying siege to laying down the law. During Britain’s war with Spain, Rogers sailed for the crown in sorties against Spanish targets in the Pacific; battled scurvy, hurricanes, and mutinies; captured a treasure galleon; and even rescued the castaway who inspired Robinson Crusoe. Appointed governor of the Bahamas in 1717, the fearless Rogers defended the island colony of King George I against plundering pirates and an attempted Spanish invasion. His resolute example led to the downfall of such notorious pirates as Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and the female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. A vividly detailed and action-packed portrait of one of the early eighteenth century’s most colorful characters, Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean serves up history that’s as fascinating and gripping as any seafaring legend.

David Cordingly

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