Pirates! by Celia Rees
When two young women meet under extraordinary circumstances in the eighteenth-century West Indies, they are unified in their desire to escape their oppressive lives. The first is a slave, forced to work in a plantation mansion and subjected to terrible cruelty at the hands of the plantation manager. The second is a spirited and rebellious English girl, sent to the West Indies to marry well. But fate ensures that one night the two young women have to save each other and run away to a life no less dangerous but certainly a lot more free. As pirates, they roam the seas, fight pitched battles against their foes and become embroiled in many a heart-quickening adventure.
Pages: 448
Published: First appeared 2003
ISBN : 978-1526632302
Robert Culliford was born in about 1666 in East Looe, Cornwall. He was sometimes referred to as Collover. In his early career he was an associate of the later infamous 
De Graaf’s full name was Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf. He was known as ‘El Griffe’ by the Spanish, Laurent de Graff by the French, and Gesel van de West by the Dutch, the latter meaning “Scourge of the West”. He was born in about 1653 and is described as being dashing in appearance; a tall, handsome fellow with blond hair and a moustache. He apparently deplored unnecessary violence and was known to reward loyalty generously, but also to enforce discipline ruthlessly at times. He probably grew up in Rotterdam, where he acquired the necessary nautical skills for his future career. It is thought he was captured by the Spanish, possibly after involvement in a raid on Campeche in 1672, and sent to work on a plantation as a slave to the Canary Islands. He either escaped or was freed sometime around 1675. He married Petronilla de Guzmán some time before 1674 before leaving the Canary Islands for the Caribbean.…
Bartholomew Sharp took on the role of buccaneer, privateer, and pirate at different times in his sea-faring career. Little is known about his early life, except that he was born in 1650 in the parish of Stepney in London. He first went to sea at a young age serving as a privateer during the second Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-67. He is thought to have served under Henry Morgan in the Caribbean, possibly during the infamous Panama raid in 1671. When peace was signed between England and Spain in the Treaty of Madrid in 1670, he became a privateer against the Dutch during the Third Anglo-Dutch war of 1672-74, obtaining the command of his own vessel in the Caribbean while fighting against the Dutch in the Leeward Islands. Once peace had been signed with the Dutch he and his men illegally turned their attention to the Spanish colonies, attacking Segovia in 1675 and capturing of Santa Marta in 1677, as well as later seizing a Spanish merchant ship in the Bay of Honduras.…