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Arrh Matey! A Prelude to Pirates of the Caribbean!
Pirates of the Caribbean: in Fact and Fiction was used exclusively for the written information used on the accompanying web site to "True Caribbean Pirates" a program which first aired on The History Channel on July 9, 2006. For more information on True Caribbean Pirates see: tcp.html. This page is not sponsored by Disney, and thankfully the good folks at Disney have never asked me to change the name. For that I thank them. The Disney ride came first back in the mid 1960s. Then in 1994 I decided to make a web page devoted to Piracy in the Caribbean. Right after I launched the page, a friend commented, you do know Disney has a ride called "Pirates of the Caribbean?" I said "Oh and added the subtitle, "in fact and fiction. Disney, has never approached me and told me to change the name. For that I'm thankful. Later the POTC movies came around and thanks to Johnny Depp, Jack Sparrow, probably became the best known fictional pirate known today. The movie frnachise has doen more to spur interest in piracy than anything I can imagine. After the first movie was a big hit, people from the Disney franchise did contact me. However they didn't contact me to tell me to change the name or be sued. They called me and asked for information on very aspects of piracy, nuatical myths, and the like. I was honored to share what information I could. The information was used manily for some of their online games and for background information for the movies. This page is dedicated to the Golden Age of Piracy, particularly in the Caribbean. Its main reason for existence is personal in nature. Believe it or not, this page was probably the first page on piracy to exist on the WWW. From the beginning, this page was never intended to be "fancy". I have left the dancing pirates and other fluff to page developers more interested in presentation than content. I have tried to make the site aesthetically pleasing with original artwork as well as public domain images but the central focus is and will remain written information on piracy drawn from a variety of sources. I have listed the sources used to create this site at (A Bibliography of Piracy ) but I have decided not to go through the site and foot note where each tidbit of information comes from. This is not a term paper and therefore I didn't have to. Furthermore, much of the information is found in dozens of sources. And finally if I foot noted the whole site, the page would become unsightly and even more difficult to keep up. Most web sites do not even include a bibliography but I have done so for three reason. First, so you can know where I got my information and second, so you can go to those same sources and find out even more about piracy. My final reason for the bibliography is to encourage people to read the books! This is where you will find the most information. Despite all the information you will find here and other online sights, the true treasure trove of information is found in the printed books. The intent of the page is to educate and to give the emerging scholars of piracy a place to start (and perhaps finish) their research on a most fascinating and colorful subject. When I started out on this project there were no other pages on piracy. Today you'll find hundreds, if not thousands of them. Many of them are flashier than this one and some actually have information you won't find here. Surprisingly, though, a number of them have pirated biographies and other information straight from this page. I take this as high praise. My goal now is to provide you with even more information that will eventually show up on other pages. The Pirates of the Caribbean pages will never be the glitziest site, but I hope to make it the most informative. I dedicated this site to my family and friends who have encouraged me to keep this page going over the many years of its existence. (and for all you English majors out there. Yes I know this technically should be a preface, not a prelude but prelude just sounded better!) From the Oxford English Dictionary (OED):
*The quote: "The Great Mischief and Danger Which Threatens Kingdoms and Commonwealths"
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