Under the Black Flag: Exploits of the Most Notorious Pirates

An older text on pirates unabridged or altered from the original published in 1925. Seitz provides a large number of biographies of various pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as well as a number from the early 19th century. This is not a rehash of Captain Charles Johnson's book on pirates as are so many other compilations of pirate biographies. Seitz seems to have drawn much of his detail from government records including many of the crewman names recorded in the trials. The writing style is circa 1920s but still very readable. The only picture is the front-plate of Edward Teach. The names covered include all of the favorites: Teach, Kidd, Roberts, Every, Bonnet, Bellamy, England and Davis. He also includes a number of lesser known pirates: North, Bradish, Howard, White and Evens (to name a few). Ultimately, this is a very nice read and reference, although, like so many older books on piracy it lacks an index to really shine as a reference. P-)