I started reading this book two or three days ago; I think I originally got it from Bookmooch.com but I'm not sure because it's been at least six months, maybe more, since I got it.

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Amazon.com
Though literature, films, and folklore have romanticized pirates as gallant seaman who hunted for treasure in exotic locales, David Cordingly, a former curator at the National Maritime Museum in England, reveals the facts behind the legends of such outlaws as Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Calico Jack. Even stories about buried treasure are fictitious, he says, yet still the myth remains. Though pirate captains were often sadistic villains and crews endured barbarous tortures, were constantly threatened with the possibility of death by hanging, drowning in a storm, or surviving a shipwreck on a hostile coast, pirates are still idealized. Cordingly examines why the myth of the romance of piratehood endures and why so few lived out their days in luxury on the riches they had plundered.

I finished this book today and man, it was fun. I love pirates (I know, they were horrible people, and yet they are FASCINATING - all Hollywood's fault, I am SURE!) and David Cordingly's book is stuffed to the brim with fascinating tidbits and details on a life aboard a pirate's (or really, any sailor of that era) ship. He could be a bit textbook in his descriptions and discussions, and the many details about boats and rigging could be dull at times, but overall I came out knowing far more about pirates, even though I thought myself well-informed enough before I started.

RELEASE NOTES:

sent to Susan Walsh of APO AE 09468 to fulfill a request on Bookmooch.com.