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9th out of 252 books
—
297 voters
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
For this rousing, revisionist history, the former head of exhibitions at England's National Maritime Museum has combed original documents and records to produce a most authoritative and definitive account of piracy's "Golden Age." As he explodes many accepted myths (i.e. "walking the plank" is pure fiction), Cordingly replaces them with a truth that is more complex and oft...more
Paperback, 296 pages
Published
May 9th 2006
by Random House (NY)
(first published 1995)
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For centuries, people have been drawn to stories of adventure on the high seas and peg-legged pirates in search of buried treasure. In his comprehensive pirate book (focused mainly on 18th century piracy in the Americas and the Caribbean), Cordingly covers everything from women pirates to pirate ships and weapons. Not for the faint of heart, this text exposes some of the hard truths behind piracy: consequences for captives, punishmens for arrested pirates, the hardships of life at sea.
This book'...more
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If you're interested in the difference between corsairs (Mediterranean pirates) and buccaneers (Caribbean pirates), or stealth gaming 17th century style, then this is definitely the book for you.
It's a dry read, but filled with valuable, concisely written information that disproves most of the beliefs one might have regarding a swashbuckling, romantic life on the seas.
"Pirates of the Caribbean" only existed in the movies :)
It's a dry read, but filled with valuable, concisely written information that disproves most of the beliefs one might have regarding a swashbuckling, romantic life on the seas.
"Pirates of the Caribbean" only existed in the movies :)
3 likes · like · see review
nothing but nonsense and mundane trivia here: the thesis of this book seems to be that, get this, pirates were not the cool characters they have been portrayed as by literature, art, and media. No shit! Not discussed is much of anything of actual interest about the pirates lifestyles, motives, social organization, etc., which, when contextualized by the parallel institutions in society at large, is nothing short of fascinating. Perhaps try the new book about how pirates were both mere merchants,...more
I am a Pirates of the Caribbean fan. An obsessive fan, even. And so, because every obsession of mine eventually reaches a point where I feel compelled to do research, my Pirates fascination led me to this book.
This is a fine resource for anyone interested in the history of piracy. I enjoyed the book immensely. It has information on the Golden Age of piracy, famous pirates, and a comparison of fictional pirates with real ones. The author also explores the origins of various pirate movie standbys...more
This is a fine resource for anyone interested in the history of piracy. I enjoyed the book immensely. It has information on the Golden Age of piracy, famous pirates, and a comparison of fictional pirates with real ones. The author also explores the origins of various pirate movie standbys...more
4 likes · like · see review
Pirates have fascinated us for centuries, but the popular depiction usually is far from the true history of these scourges of the sea. In Under the Black Flag (1996), David Cordingly looks at the reality of the golden age of piracy.
Cordingly covers most everything there is to know about pirates. Famous pirate captains, life among the pirates, tactics, treasure, ships, trials and executions, and the reasons for the end of the golden age of Caribbean piracy are all included. The focus is undeniabl...more
Cordingly covers most everything there is to know about pirates. Famous pirate captains, life among the pirates, tactics, treasure, ships, trials and executions, and the reasons for the end of the golden age of Caribbean piracy are all included. The focus is undeniabl...more
I picked up this book since it was recommended in Mike Leach's book as one the best books on pirates he read. It is a well-researched, comprehensive look of the fiction v. reality of pirates in the western world, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries. For example, making victims walk the plank and burying treasure were rare occurrences, but dressing with colorful waistcoats, velvet shirts and silk scarves was not (I guess Hollywood wasn't too far off the mark with Jack Sparrow's manner of...more
We all have images of pirates that we can trace to media depictions presented to us by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Walt Disney. But what was the reality of pirating, of living as a pirate or being alive in a time and place where pirates were the true terrorists? Cordingly sorts through the myths and the lies and presents a true picture based on extensive research from journals and official records of the time. The picture he presents is not pretty. The classic age of pirating was the...more
I'm going to do my best not to talk like a pirate during this. David Cordingly's book is an excellent resource on privateers, pirates, corsairs and other ne'er-do-wells on the high seas. He has facts, figures, logs, details, records of trials, ship stats and other details from the era. I'm a sucker for the romance of the pirate. I know, the reality was one of hard men, hard drinkers, casual violence and brutality, foul robbers of the sea. But still, Pirates!
Cordingly digs up the reality, drags i...more
Cordingly digs up the reality, drags i...more
Old review from 2006
Long have I sought a work wherein the word "piratical" appears as a descriptive necessity, and not humorous affectation. That, actually, is a lie. A very helpful bookseller at Diesel recommended this to me when I inquired after books cataloguing different types of ships, sails, and riggings one might encounter in a Patrick O'Brian novel. The book has nothing to do with such concerns, of course, but it does do the job of feeding my budding nautical history obsession. So far so...more
Long have I sought a work wherein the word "piratical" appears as a descriptive necessity, and not humorous affectation. That, actually, is a lie. A very helpful bookseller at Diesel recommended this to me when I inquired after books cataloguing different types of ships, sails, and riggings one might encounter in a Patrick O'Brian novel. The book has nothing to do with such concerns, of course, but it does do the job of feeding my budding nautical history obsession. So far so...more
David Cordingly helped run a maritime museum in England, and his special exhibition on pirates was so popular that a publisher approached him about writing a book on the subject—one that separates fact from fiction. Under the Black Flag is that book. The major “fact” is that pirates were for the most part not romantic rebels with hearts of gold—they were robbers of the sea, an uneducated, uncouth, boozy and often vicious brotherhood. There are also some interesting minor facts—for example, Cord...more
This book makes an effective contrast between the pirates of stage and screen and the real life pirates during the "golden age of piracy" Over the course of the book the author tells of the real lives and deaths of infamous pirates of the day and compares them to the works of prominent writers of pirate stories and plays and even early movies (this was before the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean movies) Always hammering home the point that these were not men to be romanticized as they have been....more
Jan 04, 2008
Jeff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Jeff by:
Joe Scapalato, Joe Hennessey
I'm reading alot of reviews that claim this is more scholarly than entertaining. Rubbish. Only if you have the attention span of a goldfish will you not enjoy this captivating account of the golden age of piracy. Not only does the author stay true to history, but he covers the origins of romanticized pirate life and how much of it is actually reflected by reality. This is a most amazing work by a most amazing expert on pirates.
3 likes · like · see review
I really enjoyed this book. I have read many book about the history of piracy and have to admit that after a while they get very repetitive but Under the Black Flag took a different approach to it. There are many references to literary and hollywood created pirates, the stories behind the stories and comparisons to the reality of piracy. I also thoroughly enjoyed the layout of the book, although I'll admit some of the chapters mixed unexpected topics (i.e. Sloops, Schooners, and Pirate Films). F...more
I feel slightly bad about giving it only two stars, I liked it fine, it had some good stuff in it, but it's soemthing irritating about a book that is fluffed up to be a book when it just should have been a good long article. There are repetitions, stretchings and digressions...I guess the author was under editorial pressure to fill pages. Kindof a shame. Totally decent writing,intereseting subject, just too fluffed up.
This book has been well- and frequently-reviewed by others on this website, so I'll simply mention that I quite enjoyed this book's engagement with some of the socio-political aspects of piracy. Namely, that many pirates turned to this line of work because of poverty and unemployment (such as when the navies down-sized between wars); or because they were seeking an escape from the authoritarian and often abusive nature of naval vessels. Pirate ships were apparently inchoate, violent experiments...more
This was an absolutely captivating book. Cordingly is a leading historian on the pirate phenomenon and in this book he examines both the myth and the facts concerning pirates. He is happy to puncture some legends - pirates rarely if ever made people walk the plank, for instance - and confirms popular conceptions on the other (the familiar picture of the pirate with a bandanna, pistols on his belt, and a parrot on his shoulder is common enough to be based in reality). He looks at everything from...more
I made it to chapter 10 out of 12 on this one. This book started out interesting but that changed as I read on. Cordingly makes some good points about piracy in general and there are some other interesting things I learned, but in general there was a lot of info I didn't care about much. I liked what he said about how much we've romanticized piracy based off "Peter Pan", "Treasure Island", and the musical "Pirates of Penzance" when in reality the life of a pirate was not that great. I love learn...more
Interesting look at what real pirates were like, reminding us that the most successful ones operated under the sponsorship of foreign governments, such as Henry Morgan and Francis Drake, and the distinctions between corsairs, buccaneers, and privateers. I would have liked to hear more about modern pirates, such as those of Somalia and Thailand, and the incredibly powerful Chinese pirates of the nineteenth century. But our image of pirates stems largely from 18th Century accounts of a particularl...more
I really enjoyed this book. It give a very good insight into the lives of pirates, highlights the stories of a number of them, and covers a lot of aspects of piracy. It makes clear that piracy was NOT a romantic life by any stretch of the imagination (except Hollywood's).
It does have some weaknesses, which are mostly overlookable. There is some bit of repetition by necessity since the book deals with aspects of piracy chapter-by-chapter, and thus repeats some elements from stories a few times....more
It does have some weaknesses, which are mostly overlookable. There is some bit of repetition by necessity since the book deals with aspects of piracy chapter-by-chapter, and thus repeats some elements from stories a few times....more
This book was an ok read on the life of the pirate. It went into detail of what a pirate wore and the weapons they used. It also went into great detail about the ships they sail and destroyed. It also told about several famous pirates male and females. It also told the difference between the real pirates and pirates you see on the movie screens. The book went into telling you about what happened to the pirates when they were captures and sentenced. Most of them were hung until dead. There was tw...more
An easy read that includes some good stories, but it's really badly organized. The closer you get to the end of the book, the more the chapters turn into dry recitations of facts and events. The way things skipped around was also frustrating, because there was little in the way of coherent narrative.
I liked the idea of comparing fictional pirates with their real-life counterparts, but these two subjects weren't woven together well. The sections about pirate books and movies didn't go very deep (...more
I liked the idea of comparing fictional pirates with their real-life counterparts, but these two subjects weren't woven together well. The sections about pirate books and movies didn't go very deep (...more
Cordingly is certainly knowledgeable about pirates, and Under the Black is flag is excellently sourced. Unfortunately, he's not very good at communicating his knowledge to the rest of us. Honestly, his writing style drove me up a wall. While fiction writers may intentionally choose stream of consciousness as a writing style, it's not very effective for non-fiction. I have never read an author who so clearly had ADD. He begins telling us about one subject, so how the ship Wydah was shipwrecked, g...more
Mar 23, 2012
Erik Graff
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
pirate fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
history
Although piracy as a worldwide phenomenon occurring even today is considered in this book, the text is mostly concerned with European pirates from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, focusing on their peak--according to British Admiralty records at least--in the early eighteen century. A survey, many themes are brought up, none thoroughly, but Cordingly has also authored more specialized works. The topic is often engaging, the prose isn't. Cordingly's style is rather dry, though his treat...more
I recently saw one of those Major Museum Exhibits about pirates. It was fun and interesting because it debunked many of the myths about pirates. Hint: The Disney folks got the clothes right...and the parrot, but that's about it. David Cordingly's book came out in the 1990s, so we don't get his specific take on Captain Jack Sparrow and his lot, but we do learn a great deal about pirates and, as usual, the truth is quite a big uglier than the movies. And there's no buried treasure. But it is a fun...more
Under the Black Flag never really seems to come together as a complete book, to my dissatisfaction, yet it is nevertheless packed with fascinating tales of piracy. It seems much more to be a collection of essays than a cohesive work. That having been said, parts of this book are very enjoyable and enlightening, but if you aren't interested in the subject matter before reading it, it is unlikely to change your mind. I give it 2 stars, my parrot gives it 4, so we'll split the difference and give i...more
It's not often that I choose to read history books, biographies, or any other nonfictional endeavors, but every once in awhile my curiosity gets the better of me, and I interrupt my usual regimen of novels to satisfy the occasional craving.
David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates is a well-written, comprehensive introduction to the history of piracy. Cordingly begins by addressing the popular images of pirates that authors and filmmakers have...more
David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates is a well-written, comprehensive introduction to the history of piracy. Cordingly begins by addressing the popular images of pirates that authors and filmmakers have...more
Feb 10, 2011
Illise Montoya
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in the realities of pirate life during the 18th century.
I'm very glad this was the first historical book on pirates I chose to read, as it covers a broad range of topics in great detail with plenty of insight, and all without making wild assumptions or biased theories. My interest in pirates was not dissuaded by the realities they faced, but instead, intensified. While I'll never trade in my swashbuckling anti-heroes (Jack Sparrow, oh yes!) it's fascinating learning about where the myths began.
Discussed in this book are: various myths such as walking...more
Discussed in this book are: various myths such as walking...more
I first came across this book when I was researching pirates and life on the high seas for a story I'm writing. I have always been fascinated by the legend of pirates, and this book provided me with the truth behind the myths. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates covers everything from the terminology (e.g., the difference between a buccaneer and a corsair) to the types of ships pirates used, their favorite haunts, and even the most famous pirates--both men...more
Thanks to Treasure Island and Peter Pan when someone mentions "pirate" a certain swashbuckling image is conjured up, perhaps Errol Flynn rescuing some handsome maiden. Unfortunately most of that mythology has little basis in fact. Walking the plank, for example has no historical basis according to David Cordingly in Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Pirates rarely had the time; anyone who resisted was hacked to pieces and thrown overboard. Extreme violence...more
Wow, this was interesting. Cordingly looks both at pop-culture images of pirates, and then at the historical record to see what they were really like. You get all kinds of "how people used to live" details, which I always enjoy, plus a lot of very exciting history about Spanish treasure galleons, mutinies, the capture and dreadful end of famous pirates, and much more. Now I understand why pirates were in the Caribbean in the first place, and what "buccaneer" and "corsair" mean.
I do with the book...more
I do with the book...more
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David Cordingly is an English naval historian who is considered one of the leading authorities on pirates. He held the position of Keeper of Pictures and Head of Exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England for twelve years.
David Cordingly organised several exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum, including Captain James Cook, Navigator and The Mutiny on the Bounty. Perhap...more
More about David Cordingly...
David Cordingly organised several exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum, including Captain James Cook, Navigator and The Mutiny on the Bounty. Perhap...more
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As always your reviews are wonderfully thoughtful and helpful. Your description really helps me know if I want to pick up a particular book. K...more
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