The Atrocities of the Pirates: A Faithful Narrative of the Unparalleled Suffering of the Author During His Captivity Among the Pirates

There is much to be said for this account of Aaron Smith's harrowing experience among pirates who terrorized the seas during the early nineteenth century. Captured and forced to work as their navigator, Aaron walks the reader through his daily activities and the many thoughts and feelings that he experienced during his ordeal. His observations, internal and external, are keen. His descriptions seem winningly quaint, the way only true historical writing can. He also provokes the willing reader to examine a very uncomfortable and 'timeless' truth: if a captive does not placate his criminal tormentors, he will be killed; if he placates them too much, he may be identified with them and tried as an accomplice when rescued (apprehended?) Mr Smith takes us to scary places in both his world and ours.

The life of the young English sailor Aaron Smith changed dramatically during a Summer night in the Caribbean, while he was sailing back to England to see his familiy and girlfriend. It was the seventh day of July 1822, when Smith's ship, the Zephyr, was captured by brutish Cuban pirates off the Cuban Coast. After being boarded and sacked, both the ship and its crew were released, but the unfortunate Smith was obliged to remain in the pirate schooner for the next ten months. Unfortunately for him, his knowledge and skill as a pilot were much appreciated by the pirate chief, and he had no option but to obey, if he pretended to survive. "The Atrocities of the Pirates" is the true account of the terrifying ten months that Aaron Smith remained on board the pirate ship. Smith's story constitutes a fascinating adventure, where courage and bravery appear as the main qualities that kept this young man from perishing in the hands of brutish and unscrupulous criminals. Smith describes in detail his tremendous experience and shares his fear and anguish with the reader, for he shows that any moment during his captivity could have been the last. He always kept his dreams alive, and the sole idea of returning to his girlfriend gave him the strength to survive. He wrote the account in 1824 to clean his name, for as soon as he escaped from the pirates in Havana, he was taken prisioner to England and faced a trial on the accusation of piracy. He narrowly escaped an infamous death by hanging but, anyway, his reputation was never quite clean after the trial, so he decided to share his story in order to defend his honor. Moreover, in 1829, when he thought that his sufferings were over, he was tried again accused of piracy for having been on board the pirate while a Dutch ship was taken. More than one century and a half later, Robert Redmond, his great great grandson offers in this edition an interesting introduction based on careful research, the whole account written by Aaron Smith, plus his subsecuent fate: how he won the trial and escaped death by hanging, his marriage, and the end of the infamous pirate schooner where he was kept in captivity. This interesting book must be read by any person interested in pirate history. It is the most authentic, detailed and vivid account of a pirate captive that has survived the perils of time.