How do We Know Pirates Were Real?
This is a question that I get asked from time to time. When I first encountered it, I was brought up short. After all, on the surface, the whole pirate concept seems bizarre. Strange men, yelling “Arr!” dressed like someone out of a cartoon or a fantasy movie, sail up to a ship, steal gold, and then… Well, what do they do? Leave no survivors, like the Dread Pirate Roberts? Descend into the maw of the Kraken like Johnny Depp? Get eaten by a crocodile? How could these people possibly be real?
Some of these oddities are due to the fact that the Golden Age or Piracy was 300 years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then. Others are caused by the inventions of film makers, writers and actors. But facts have always been the driving force behind our interest in pirates. Facts really are stranger, and stronger, than fiction.
The original source for pirate lore was A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates. This book, published in 1724, gave us our most enduring images of what pirates were. But it left many questions unanswered.Read more »
Some of these oddities are due to the fact that the Golden Age or Piracy was 300 years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then. Others are caused by the inventions of film makers, writers and actors. But facts have always been the driving force behind our interest in pirates. Facts really are stranger, and stronger, than fiction.
The original source for pirate lore was A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates. This book, published in 1724, gave us our most enduring images of what pirates were. But it left many questions unanswered.Read more »
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