Despite the antics of Disney’s Captain Jack Sparrow, whose swashbuckling contains more swash than buckle, piracy in the Caribbean was no laughing matter. The Brotherhood of the Coast may have whooped it up on occasion but theirs was a grim and often deadly business.

     There was nothing new about piracy in the 17th century. It was hardly a novelty in 1400 BC when King Minos of Crete was struggling to keep his sea lanes free of predators. Pirates have been around as long as the oceans have been trade routes. The very name is derived from the Latin term pirata from Greek peirates “brigand”, ultimately from ancient Greek peira “attempt, experience,” implicitly “to find luck on the sea”.