Yo Ho Ho! Under The Black Flag

Avast there ye Internet-lubbers! Pay attention or face the plank!

I've had a thoroughly enjoyable time reading a book called 'Under The Black Flag' by David Cordingly. The book is subtitled, 'The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates' and that tells you all you need to know. Mr Cordingly is a maritime historian and he jolly well knows his stuff since the book is bursting with end-notes, appendices and a bibliography, but the important thing is that it's written in very plain English that is remarkably easy to read so it's a cross between a history book and a ripping yarn.

The genesis of the book was an exhibition he co-curated in the National Maritime Museum in 1992, considering the fact and fiction of pirates. The book considers where our romantic view of pirates comes from - from Robert Louis Stevenson, JM Barrie and Errol Flynn - and compares it with the reality of the short and brutal lives of the real pirates, all told by reference to log-books, trial records and accounts of raids and hangings by those who were present at the time. And, take my word for it, you'd rather have the black flag than the red flag.

We learn about Grace O'Malley from County Mayo who visited Queen Elizabeth I at Greenwich, of Mrs Cheng whose fleet ruled the South China Seas in the early 19th Century and, of course, of Calico Jack and Mary Read and Anne Bonny. But most of the book focuses on the pirates that ravaged the coast of north America from Boston to Charleston, who plundered the Caribbean islands and those who sailed around the West African coast and into the Indian Ocean to raid the Mughal wealth from India.

Mr Cordingly explains the difference between buccaneers and corsairs, between pirates and privateers and, while noting that piracy still exists, takes us on a journey from the early days of modern piracy in the 16th Century through to the 'golden age' in the 18th Century. So we learn about the privateering of Sir Francis Drake raiding Spanish treasure ships in the New World and making his fortune, of the almost accidental piracy of Captain Kidd, and of Captain Teach better known as Blackbeard.

I've found it a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read. As a commentary on the times as well as a book about pyrates, it's an easy and learned read at the same time. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about those characters from yesteryear that still fascinate and tantalise us in the 21st Century. Well done Mr Cordingly!