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Famous pirates

Stirring tales of adventure, romance, and danger seem to surround the the facts as well as the legends of the most famous, or rather infamous pirates from the Golden Era of Piracy. The image we have of these brave lads, in recent years is probably more the celluloid myth that was presented in such movies as Captain Blood or The Black Swan. We know that these modern day treatments are historical fiction at best. The movies were made to romanticize these cutthroats as a form of escapism for the viewing audience.

Most famous pirates

Of course the "Real Story" of Piracy is much different! Or is it? Most of the historical accounts on piracy can be traced back to one or two sources, Primarily Defoe's work titled A General History of Piracy. Defoe is probably more famous for his book Robinson Crusoe.

Defoe treatise on piracy is suspect at best. His General History was written for consumption in the daily news papers of London. It was not a scholarly work by any stretch. Most of his sources were never verified and it is quite possible that some of his stories are embellished to say the least. For instance, Bartholomew Roberts is often credited with plundering over 400 ships, yet he was pirate for a mere four years. If you do the math, it means he was plundering a ship every 3 or 4 days. This is not a remarkable feat, its an impossible feat.

The same can be said of the two famous female pirates: their names are Mary Read and Anne Bonny. For the most part they are minor players in the world of piracy, yet somehow over two hundred years later we have histories of their early childhood. In many ways we know more about these two women than we do Sir Henry Morgan (no, they weren't lesbians, so stop asking).

The problem is it is hard to separate the myth from fact and perhaps it is best if we don't try too hard and let these legends live on with as much color and dash that they can possess.

With this in mind, let's take a look at some of the wondrous tales of these most famous and dangerous Pirates of the Caribbean.

List the of Most Famous Pirates

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The only author and editor of all pages on the site. Most of what I write about is based on years of book reading on the topic. My first web page was published back in 1994.

Updated: 04 September 2022