The modern image of the pirate is derived from Captain Charles Johnson's accounts of the cut-throats who sailed under the Jolly Roger. It was he who gave mythical status to the likes of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. Using contemporary sources, Nigel Cawthorne now turns the spotlight on the reality of pirate life, revealing the truth behind the legends. It gives us an insight into the men - and women - their weapons, their ships, their unhappy victims and their hide-outs, including the capital city of the pirate 'empire', Port Royal in Jamaica - known as the 'wickedest city in the world'.

A mothballed space fleet, the great ships were silent and shut down. Each up to fourteen kilometres long, they had been circling Jupiter in their hundreds for nearly a millennium. To the little band of fugitives, they were both their hope for the future and a terrible reminder of the past. Once they had been the slave ships of their time, transporting whole populations of unwilling humans to the star colonies at the behest of the Master System. Now, reactivated, one might not only help them escape the Master System but take them in search of the five gold rings that were the key to its control and their freedom. Cautiously, nervously, their craft edged towards the huge empty hull that loomed in the sky before them...

A relentless thief. An impossible heist.Meet Kef Cutmark. Pirate, monster-slayer, scourge of the Twisted Seas.After a lifetime of running from her past, she's returned to Zorith - a tangled jungle of a thousand boats, all lashed together to make a floating city-ship. Zorith is powered by a device that draws energy from lightning. Mysterious, unique, and locked in an unbreachable tower, it's the envy of Zorith's rivals.And Kef? She's here to steal it.If she can take the device and cripple Zorith, maybe she'll find justice for all the hurt the city has caused her. But with an unreliable thieving crew, hunters closing in, and her past bearing down upon her, failure looks more likely. And if she fails, she'll never find peace again.

Fifteen-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

This is the second book in the Thunder Mountain Gang saga. The first book was The Mysterious Red Fog on Thunder Mountain. Like the first book, the blistering action, cliff-hanging suspense, ghost stories, humor and unexplained mysteries continue. This story begins with the Thunder Mountain Gang’s third summer visit to their grandparents secluded, sometimes mysterious mountain top farm in West Virginia. Will the gang be able to avoid the mishaps of their first and second adventures that led them to extremely perilous situations? You’ll experience bravery, humor, history, survival tactics and the importance of drawing on individual strengths – for survival. The focus is on appreciation for home, family and the needs of others.

The ship sails avast! I have lost the map, mateys! No shaking booty! Come sail the seven seas aboard the notorious Black Thunder! Landlubbers have a first-mate seat to the grizzly life of eighteenth-century pirates--as told by the surprisingly poetic if salty One One-Leg Sterling. Shiver me timbers, never before have we poppets been privy to the gritty goings-on of the rum-running, treasure-thieving, marauding masters of the open sea from the inside out. . . until now! From trading rum for buxom beauties to fighting those limey British bastards, this book reveals the swaggering derring-do of these plundering and treacherous buccaneers--17 syllables at a time!

Shiver me timbers and avast ye hearties! We think we know pirates, from Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow to Errol Flynn as Captain Blood, or literature's Long John Silver and Captain Hook. But what do we really know? The true Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Sir Henry Morgan, and lots more, from ancient keelhauling to twenty-first-century buccaneering, are all here in Q & A commodore Doug Lennox's Now You Know Pirates. Arrrr! What is the origin of the word pirate? Who were the Barbary Corsairs? What did pirates do to St. Patrick? What is the difference between a pirate and a privateer? What is the Oak Island Treasure? How many female pirates have there been? What are "pieces of eight" and "doubloons"? Who were the buccaneers? How old is piracy?

In this lively book, Alan L. Karras traces the history of smuggling around the world and explores all aspects of this pervasive and enduring crime. Through a compelling set of cases drawn from a rich array of historical and contemporary sources, Karras shows how smuggling of every conceivable good has flourished in every place, at every time. Significantly, Karras draws a clear distinction between smugglers and their more popular criminal cousins, pirates, who operated in the open with a type of violence that was nearly always shunned by smugglers. Explaining the divergence between the two groups, the book illustrates both crossovers and differences. At the same time, states and empires tolerated smuggling since eliminating smuggling was a sure route to a disgruntled and disorderly citizenry, and governments required order to remain in power. As a result, smuggling allowed individuals to negotiate an unstated social contract that minimized the role of government in their lives. Thus, Karras provocatively argues that smuggling was, and is, tightly woven into an uneasy relationship among governments, taxation, citizenship, and corruption. Bringing smugglers and smuggling to life, this book provides a fascinating exploration for all readers interested in crime and corruption throughout modern history.