Customer Reviews

Pirates (Collins Gem)

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This tiny volume has a surprising amount of information packed into its 3.25x4.625 inch pages. It starts with a chronology covering the various periods of pirates over the years, starting with The Sea Peoples of c. 1200 b.c. and ends with pirates from the Indonesian area. Between those you'll find Medieval pirates, Caribbean pirates, French corsairs and many, many more.

Moving on to part two we have little snippets of infamous pirates like Mary Read and the Barbarossa Brothers.

Part Three involves ships: types, flags, equipment, maps, weapons and more.

Part Four describes the pirate life: a dose of reality (what life was really like for them, not what the movies potray) the code, dress, treasure, the reasons behind the term "scurvey knave" and much more.

Part Five tells of the era of pirate hunters and the end of the vast pirate pillaging section of history, including trials and executions.

Part Six is an overview of pirates in literature and film and even a little on modern day piracy and wrecked pirate ships found over the years.

The information is presented in a very factual textbook-like way and could potentially be a great little starting resource for those looking for information on piracy. There's even a glossary of nautical terms in the back. Beware of the size I mentioned above. This be it's only drawback, gaarrr...Other than that, I felt the price was a little steep for something so small, but when you crack open its minute pages, you too will probably be surprised at much info there is to be had here. It does make for an easily transportable book. Being so small too, there is not much room for pictures, so don't expect every detail to have an image to go along with it. Now, just don't lose it on the shelf with all your giant books and you have an easy, quick guide on hand.