Heave to, Shipmate!
Here’s a book,--a book about pirates, the grim old fellows of the
eighteenth century, who used to surge over the bulwarks of honest
merchantmen in a wave of cutlasses, pistols and general deviltry.
Not all of them, Shipmate. Not Lewis, Rackham, Davis, Low and others,
but of those who were caught, or some of whose subordinate rascals were
caught, by the fierce messengers of His Most Gracious Majesty the King,
or taken in combat--dreadful combat--by the oaken-hearted stalwarts of
Authority, and brought to Justice and hanged up at old Execution Dock,
hard by Thames River, as it swirls muddily from London Bridge.
That’s the point about this book, Shipmate. It’s the story of the
Old Game, the Grand Account, as those ruffians termed their wicked
trade, stripped of legend, excised of exaggeration and presented to
you as it was adduced in the courts of law by the sworn witnesses, the
probing counsel, the directing judges and the juries who cast their
capital verdicts. History, in other words; veritable history, but
recounted--well, as you shall see for yourself.
Good luck, Shipmate!