There are many that would say a pirate was naught but a cut throat vagabond on the high seas. I’d not argue much with that, but as the dread pirate Bartholomew Roberts once said:
“In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst is only a sour look or two at choking. No, a merry life and a short one shall be my motto.”
The years between 1680 and 1730 have often been called “The golden age of piracy” and to be sure there was booty to be had and great prizes to be taken.
These were the times of the great pirate captains like Blackbeard, Kidd and Roberts, but why did men like these turn to piracy in the first place?
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