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Captured by Pirates: 22 Firsthand Accounts of Murder & Mayhem on the High Seas
Captured by Pirates 22 Firsthand Accounts of Murder Mayhem on the High Seas Author:John R. Stephens The centuries-long legacy of pirates is not just about stolen treasure and high-seas adventure. Very often when pirates captured a ship, they also took prisoners, many of whom came to unfortunate ends. In Captured by Pirates, John Richard Stephens has collected twenty-two astounding firsthand accounts from people who found themselves th... more »e helpless prisoners on the open sea and somehow lived to tell the tale.
These true tales of terror were collected from personal accounts, letters, official reports, ships' logs and the transcripts of pirate trials. The long-forgotten narratives in Captured by Pirates are among the rarest of buried treasures, with some not having been in print for almost two centuries.
From their unique perspectives, the desperate captives offer insights into the everyday lives of pirate captains Henry Morgan, Howell Davis, Edward Low, John Phillips, and their bloodthirsty crews. Some of the captives were even forced to become pirates themselves in order to live. In one account, a pirate vividly describes his capture by other pirates and how he exacted his revenge. These very personal eyewitness descriptions provide an intimacy and intensity that simply cannot be obtained from a book about pirates.« less