The author sees Captain Kidd as a tragic figure who was not a pirate but a privateer who hired ex-pirates as part of his crew to hunt down pirates (or, wink-wink-nod-nod, any ship belonging to a government not friendly to Great Britain). The consortium of wealthy backers disavowed all knowledge of him to save their own hides, and a series of people who could have defended Kidd were bribed or threatened to lie about him. Some recently-found documentation exists to support the author's claim. The story is fascinating not just for this idea that Kidd was not a pirate, but for the descriptions of what life aboard a seagoing ship, pirate or otherwise, was like.