At the lookout's scream, the captain came running. A strange ship approached over the horizon with a black flag flapping from its mast. Pirates!

Two hundred years ago, when piracy was at its height, this one word was enough to send shivers down a brave man's spine. For then there was no navy strong enough to quell the unscrupulous seagoing gangsters who tortured sailors, stole their cargo and burned their ships at will. No waters were safe from the bloodthirsty leaders and their greedy crews, and world trade was in danger of extinction.

In Famous Pirates of the New World, you will meet the dreaded Blackbeard, cunning Captain Flood, lawless men like Pierre le Grand and Dixey Bull, and even women pirates who wore men's clothes and fought with knives and guns. You will see what it is was like when the only law was pirate law.

Of course, not all of the pirates were successful; not all of them were cruel. But they were all thieves and for a long time they struck terror in the hearts of seafaring men.

Cal Whipple's Famous Pirates of the New World is a thrilling report of the spine-tingling events in the days when pirates ruled the sea.

From the dust jacket