Although not strictly speaking a pirate, Cassandra is an important character in the books. A passenger on Dream Chaser, the twenty-eight year old woman from St. Georges Town in Bermuda met Captain Björn Gunnarsson, while she was living and working as a seamstress in Nassau. They took to each other instantly and were soon married. At the beginning of the first book she is hoping to be transported back to her home in Bermuda after the news had arrived that Woodes Rogers was on his way there to reclaim it on behalf of the Crown. Before the vessel could take her to her destination it encountered a lone Spanish treasure galleon and was enveloped by the mysterious fog during the chase. Cassandra detests the pirate way of life, only tolerating it for the sake of her husband, but she has done her best to integrate herself into the crew since the ship strayed from its path.…
The Pyrate Chronicles
The Pyrate Chronicles website serves two purposes. Firstly, it presents the historical background to the books series. Secondly, it provides detailed information on the Golden Age of Piracy in general. The Pyrate Chronicles book series tells the story of a group of pirates who find themselves on a desperate journey to return to familiar lands after inadvertently sailing into a mysterious mist. It is pirate fanstasy set to a historical background. This website is a work in progress, constantly being added to.
The pirate captain
Pirate captains were unlike captains on merchant and naval ships and even on some privateer vessels, who, usually coming from the privileged class, had absolute authority on their ships and could act like tyrants without repercussion. The amount of authority a pirate captain had could vary from vessel to vessel. Pirates weren’t generally willing to accept too much authority and it would have been difficult to lead a group of individuals who valued their liberty above all else through coercion, although the crew generally accepted they needed a some sort of representative or figurehead. Many mariners had turned to piracy precisely because of the strict discipline and harsh punishments of life on merchant and naval ships.
The Ballad of Captain Kidd
“After checking his two pistols and tucking them in his belt, the defiant boatswain sneaked off towards the town gate, and, ignoring the cacophony of drums and bugles, merrily sang a rendition of the popular song Captain Kidd with slightly modified lyrics to himself.”
The Ballad of Captain Kidd also known more simply as Captain Kidd is an old English folk song about the infamous privateer turned pirate Captain William Kidd, who was hanged at Execution Dock in London for piracy on May 23, 1701. The song is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index (index number 1900), which is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world, compiled by Steve Roud, who is an expert on folklore and superstition.
The song was printed in Britain in 1701 within a month of Kidd’s death, finding its way to the colonies almost immediately, and narrates the rise and fall of the legendary pirate.…
Blackbeard
Most of the information we have available to us about the infamous and mysterious pirate known as Blackbeard is somewhat unreliable. Due to his estimated age when he met his death of between 35 and 40 years old, it is believed he was born circa 1680. What is certain is the date died – 22 November 1718. He was commonly known as Edward Teach or Thatch, but other spellings of his name include Thach, Thack, Tack, and Theach, but all these names might have been pseudonyms he used in order to protect the family name. The name Teach was mentioned in the Boston News-Letter of the time, but it may have been a spelling error. Other sources use the name Thatch, especially those who knew him personally. He was described by Henry Bostock, captain of the merchant sloop Margaret, which was taken off Crab Island near Anguilla, as being tall and thin and possessed of an immense black beard.…
Pirate ships
Pirates made use of many types of ships, in particular smaller versatile vessels which could navigate the shallow waters and shoals characteristic of the Caribbean. Bigger was not necessarily better as larger ships with their complex rigging and large area of canvas were more difficult to sail. Although the term ‘ship’ strictly applied to three-masted, fully rigged vessels, the word was often applied to sloops and brigantines at the time. The names applied to seafaring vessels have changed over time, but here the terms here are those used during the Golden Age of Piracy. During this period, ships were often defined by their type of rigging rather than the shape of their hull or number of masts. A lot of ships possessed at least some oars in the early 18th century, whether brigantines, sloops, or frigate-built ships, allowing for more versatility, especially when there was no wind. At the time, the term man-o’-war could be applied to any vessel of any size fitted for war.