Richard Williams, III Essays (1459 words) - Crime, American Folklore

Richard Williams, III History 1301 Fitz-Gerald November 16, 2016 Book Review David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag , 2006, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 336, nonfiction/ history society Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly is a written time capsule that allows the reader to look back on the culture and behavior of the Pirates. It also provides you with little known fact and common misconceptions about the big bad Buccaneers of the oceans. This book contains 12 chapters with each of them covering different important features of piracy and buccaneer culture. Chapter one established the window of history this takes place, which is the 1700's to the 1800's initially encouraging a light-hearted view of pirates especially in the 1880s. Also it talked about the well-known companion of the pirate, the parrot; stating that parrots and other birds were sold by "seamen" at the ports and markets of popular coastal cities. Pirates also used slaves as displayed in many modern movies, however, the real slaves had even less rights and humanity than the animals or even the weapons on the ship. One of the most notorious pirates was Edward Teach also referred to as Edward Thatch or Blackbeard, even though one of the more "to standard" pirates were people like Henry Avery, who seized HMS Charles while at port and renamed it "Fancy". Also in 1695 he captured the Gunsway, a ship owned by the Great Mogul. Even with all this success and pirate wealth it is suspected that after retirement he later died in poverty after wasting all his earnings at bars and on wenches. In chapter two, Plundering the Treasure Ports , the topic of pirate treasury and loot. It was found that in the late 1700's a Brit named Francis drake raided a Central American train taking much silver and gold, while sailing in a manner called circumnavigation, he captured the Spanish ship Cacafuego carrying an estimated equivalent of 12,000,000 pounds of treasure and it was calculated that he ported with a modern equivalent of roughly 68,000,000 pounds in treasure. It was also translated that "Pieces of Eight" were actually silver currency and "Dabloons" were gold coins or other forms of gold currency. Around the early 1500's a Frenchman named Jean Fleury was sailing off the shore of Portugal when he captured multiple Spanish treasure ships filled with the glorious findings of the Aztec civilizations, which intern led to the mass flood of Cent ral American in search of riches. Around the 1550's older cousin of Francis Drake, John Hankins entered himself, briefly into the slave trade by gathering slaves and trading them to the Americas until the King of Spain put an embargo on his trading. Finally around the 1630s the pirates or buccaneers relocated themselves to a central stronghold on the Island of Tortuga (meaning turtle), and established a fort-style civilization to protect themselves from the conflicting nations. Chapter 3, Sir Henry Morgan , provided a detailed history on Sir Morgan. Morgan died in 1688 with wealth and nobility as a knight, after being made Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. His life wasn't always pretty. Henry was arrested after the sacking of Panam. Morgan also joined the army before graduating high school to become the Admiral of the Brethren of the Coast at the age of 32. In his position he led the capture of Portobello, ransomed the city the Panamanian President for roughly 250,000 pesos and al so assembled ships to take the city of Cartagena, however, this plan was cancelled. In chapter four, Women Pirates and Pirates' Women , briefly discusses some of the women pirates such as Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who sailed dress as men with John Rackam, also known as Calico Jack. Later on Rackam, his crew, and the two women were captured and tried with piracy. All were hung except the two women due to their pregnancies at the time even though Mary Read later died in her prison cell of illness. Other famous female's pirates include Grace O'Malley and Mrs. Chang who successfully disguised themselves as men to maintain their reputations as fierce pirates. Chapter 5, Storms, Shipwrecks, and Life at Sea , reviews the misconception that shipwrecks were common and