Book Under the Black Flag

The following review was taken from a user on Good Reads, but is a far more accurate description of the book than the default copy on Amazon: 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, ppunishments for arrested pirates, the hardships of life at sea. This book's revelations may surprise you; Cordingly frequently analyzes the books, movies, and plays that helped shape our romantic ideas of piracy. These portions are probably the most interesting sections of the book because at some point in every chapter the reader is nearly drown in a tsunami of facts and dates, making it periodically read more like a text book. While some may be riveted by endless discussion of ship types and repetitive trial transcripts, I appreciated the research, but found it to become rather repetitive. Still, I learned a lot while reading this book and would recommend it to the avid pirate fan. However, if you are looking for an exciting tale of piracy and are not overly hung up on getting every detail historically accurate, you may be better off picking up a copy of "Treasure Island" or "Robinson Crusoe" instead - you will find that sometimes the romance is even more entertaining than the reality.