#david cordingly

[hamletofficial]

“One of the most surprising aspects of the great age of piracy is how suddenly the pirate threat collapsed. From the peak of two thousand pirates in 1720, the numbers dropped to around one thousand in 1723, and by 1726 there were no more than two hundred.”

- David Cordingly, Under the black flag: The romance and the reality of life among the pirates.

[regicidal-defenestration]

If I had a penny for every fictionalised Zheng Yi Sao character who got kinda sidelined in favour of male characters I'd have two pennies which is not a lot but by god if you are going to put the most successful pirate in history* in your show you could at least give her some decent plot

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Pirate History Reading List!

I'm teaching a class on the golden age of piracy at my university this upcoming semester and I wanted to post the reading list, just in case anyone's interested in some good pirate history books!

I require three books, which I think are excellent if you're interested in pirate history at all:

Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly is THE pirate history book, I do not think any pirate history library is complete without it! This book covers all your major players and does an excellent job at arguing what the reality of pirate life was like. This is the definitive text on pirate history and if you can only get one book, I recommend this one.

Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson is about the global hunt for pirate Henry Every. It's fantastic and a very entertaining account; Johnson has a gift for casual, enthralling history writing.

A General History of the Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson is a primary text, written in 1724 by a contemporary of many of the pirates who were alive during the golden age. This account is biased and over-dramatic and absolutely fascinating. It's the most complete and detailed primary account of piracy you will ever find. You'll notice that some quotations from OFMD were lifted directly from this text, including Stede Bonnet being "uncomfortable in a married state" and Blackbeard "desiring [Bonnet's] company." However, because this book is so overblown and dramatic, I strongly recommend reading it alongside a history text, such as Under the Black Flag, to contextualize it.

I also included these as supplemental reading; I think they're all very solid texts and if you're interested in pirate history you will enjoy them.

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard is another classic and has biographical information on many famous pirates. Woodard makes a compelling argument that pirate society was shockingly meritocratic and allowed opportunities for people of color not found anywhere else in the world. It's a great text.

Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Dolin is a great history of piracy in US waters. I love this one for its detail on Edward Low - OFMD got inspiration for his sadistic streak from real history!

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B. R. Burg is an older one so do not expect modern terminology, but it's a classic; its argument that queerness was common and at least somewhat accepted among pirates holds up well. If you're interested in how pirates understood homosexuality then this is the text for you!

Blackbeard: A Reappraisal of his Life and Times by Robert Lee is the text for you if you're interested in the historical Blackbeard. It synthesizes pretty much all of the primary information out there and makes a strong case that the real Blackbeard intentionally cultivated a fearsome reputation that helped him become so successful. This one is an oldie but a goodie, I'm yet to find a better and more comprehensive text about Blackbeard than this one.

[tedwardremus]

Can I know when you enjoyed lighthouses for the first time?

— Not Nena…it’s um…someone who wants to know about your cars extended warranty 🚗

Good question!

My car is worthless piece of shit and continues cause me trouble and I am actually thinking about getting a new one, but car buying stresses me out so I continue to suffer.

Anyway, about lighthouses.

My mom grew up in New England, with a deep love for the ocean, lighthouses, and sailing—something I’ve definitely inherited from her. Her number one goal in life is to live in a lighthouse. Having spent my childhood by the ocean and every summer in New England, I've always been connected to the sea and lighthouses. I get claustrophobic if I’m away from the ocean for too long. I need to be able to look out at the vast horizon to feel like I can breathe.

My interest in maritime history started when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, and that same year my family took a cruise around the Caribbean. I read David Cordingly's Under The Black Flag, which was probably a weird book for a 13 or 14-year-old girl to read, but I was strange kid I guess. I ended up writing about women pirates and sailors in the 18th century for my undergrad thesis.

[cuddlytogas]

Fyre sent me an article that made me Lose My Mind, so instead of sending 800 tweets about it, I decided to just write up my thoughts here

so, in re: ET Fox, 'Jacobitism and the Golden Age of Piracy' --

Fox is definitely exaggerating. His logic jumps from 'ship names and alleged toasts', to 'every pirate was one contact away from a confirmed Jacobite', to "a Jacobite maritime community" (296), with little evidence beyond each previous assumption. He does demonstrate a link with popular Jacobitism, but overstates pirates' political commitment by far.

There's one letter to George Camocke, a Jacobite naval officer, suggesting that the pirate fleet should unite under his command and take Bermuda as a Jacobite base, but the source is shaky, and it went nowhere once Woodes Rogers ousted the pirates. (It's I think from 1718 and unsigned? Possibly from Charles Vane and his crew? Fox only says that, "Through these contacts [unspecified, between Vane and English Jacobites] a letter reached George Camocke" (286), which is suspiciously vague, and I can't access the original to check. Either way, it would still only prove the committed politics of one crew.)

Fox also makes a lot of Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica from 1710-16, who commissioned and profited from the anti-Spanish privateers who turned pirate and made up some of the original Bahamas pirates c. 1715. Since "it has been suggested that [Hamilton] was a Jacobite supporter" (283), Fox claims that these establishing pirates were also committed Jacobites, and therefore the whole pirate community that grew around them must have been. (Which leads to Fox then being baffled when there's no direct evidence of Jacobitism among some of them, such as the crews of Anstis, Fenn, or Rackham.) He relies on these assumptions, and then claims that every connection between pirates proves their mutual Jacobite sympathies.

It's much more likely (and in line with the historians I've read so far) that the Jacobite toasts and ship names speak to a broader anti-authoritarianism among pirates, with no evidence of committed Jacobite actions by them, eg, specifically targeting Hanoverian ships, or materially supporting or trying to support Jacobite rebels beyond that one letter. Indeed, the 1710s/20s pirates are generally agreed to be distinct for not adhering to religious/national loyalties like the C17th pirates usually did. (I'm so sorry, I haven't consolidated my notes yet, but I know Marcus Rediker goes through this, as does Kris E Lane, and I think Tim Travers and David Cordingly.)

Fox does identify a correlation between the rise and fall of Jacobitism and piracy over the mid/late 1710s, but attributes a pretty shaky causation: pirates ceased their Jacobite loyalties due to the suppression of Jacobitism in Britain and Europe. A much more obvious explanation is that both anti-authoritarian movements simultaneously flourished in the post-war, post-succession instability, then were both quashed as the new regime established itself and cracked down on rebels.

So, did many pirates espouse Jacobite sympathies? Yes! They named their ships in favour of Jacobite causes and rulers, and there are plenty of reports of them toasting to King James / the Pretender. (Which it must be said, although the sheer volume lends a ring of truth to the trend, individual claims should be taken with a grain of salt, as Jacobitism was a common accusation against criminals at the time, with or without a basis.)

Does that mean that the 1710s Caribbean pirate community was centred around a heart of politically committed Jacobites, as Fox argues, or largely motivated by Jacobite sentiments? Yeah, probably not.

Anyway, I am SO sorry that this article got me riled up XD the whole point of this is to say, I've never read anywhere that "many pirates were Jacobites driven out of Britain", which I KNOW wasn't even your main point, but I am unfortunately Insane. We can and should talk about expressions of pro-Jacobitism and actual political engagement among 'Golden Age' pirates, but what we know of their actual actions and espoused ideals doesn't speak to a trend of committed Jacobite politics beyond a general loyalty to rebellious causes.

[alwaysonthemend]

thank you for the tag @jakesguitarsolo @mysticalstarcatcher @jmkho @literal-dead-leaf @wildbluesorbit @joopsworld @watchingovergvff @ageofhearingloss 💞💞 i love ya'll so much! this was so much fun :)

----

tag 9 people you want to catch up with/get to know better 💗

last song:

we fell in love in october by girl in red

last movie:

me before you (my all time fav!)

currently reading:

under the black flag by david cordingly (listen... if jake likes it i like it okay??)

currently watching:

re watching M*A*S*H (its my comfort show and hawkeye has my whole heart)

current obsession:

jacob thomas kiszka sir, FALL, HALLOWEEN

tagging: (no pressure)

@jakeyt @joshym @ignitemyfire @writingcold @joshsindigostreak @brujamagick @mackalah @bajabule-gvf @losfacedevil @takenbythemadness @puzzle-gvf

sorry if you've already been tagged!!

[sacredjake]

thank you @wildbluesorbit for the tag hehe :)

tag 9 people you want to catch up with and/or get to know better !!

last song:

Broken Bells by Greta Van Fleet

last movie:

10 Things I Hate About You

currently reading/last read:

The Sea Wolf by Jack London & Under The Black Flag by David Cordingly (currently reading both)

currently watching:

(rewatching) Grey’s Anatomy

current obsession:

umm… idk maybe these açai bowls from this place by my work. they’re so good 

no pressure tag: @joopsworld @ageofhearingloss @gold-mines-melting @dannyandthekiszkas @gretasmokerising @joshsindigostreak @safety-sam @obetrolncocktails

[kyoko-minion]

1. City of Fortune : How Venice Ruled the Seas - Roger Crowley

2. Empires of the Sea : The Siege of Malta , the Battle of Lepanto , & the Contest for the Center of the World - Roger Crowley

3. Empires of the Sea : The Final Battle for the Mediterranean , 1521 - 1580 - Roger Crowley

4. Empires of the Sea : Maritime Power Networks in World History - Rolf Strootman / Roy van Wijk / Floris van den Eijnde

5. The Sea in History : The Modern World - Christian Buchet

6. The Great Sea : A Human History of the Mediterranean - David Abulafia

7. The Boundless Sea : A Human History of the Oceans - David Abulafia

8. A World History of the Seas : From Harbour to Horizon - Michael North

9. The Sea & Civilization : A Maritime History of the World - Lincoln Paine

10. The Sea in World History : Exploration , Travel , & Trade - Stephen K. Stein

11. Pirate Queens - Leigh Lewis

12. Pirate Women - Laura Sook Duncombe

13. Daring Pirate Women - Anne Wallace Sharp

14. Seafaring Women :  Adventures of Pirate Queens , Female Stowaways , & Sailors’ Wives    - David Cordingly

15. She Captains : Heroines & Hellions of the Sea - Joan Druett

A Clipper at Sunset, 1877 by Edward Moran

[movienized-com]

The Burning Girls

The Burning Girls (Serie 2023) #SamanthaMorton #RubyStokes #ConradKhan #RupertGraves #ElodieGraceOrkin #JanieDee Mehr auf:

Serie Jahr: 2023- (Oktober) Genre: Drama / Horror / Thriller Hauptrollen: Samantha Morton, Ruby Stokes, Conrad Khan, Rupert Graves, Elodie Grace Orkin, Janie Dee, David Dawson, Paul Bradley, Jane Lapotaire, Jack Roth, Mollie Holder, Safia Oakley-Green, Beth Cordingly, John Macmillan … Serienbeschreibung: Was, wenn sich hinter der harmlos wirkenden Fassade eines Dorfs eine blutige Geschichte…

[hamletofficial]

“The reason why pirates on both sides of the Atlantic were hanged “within the flood marks” was to stress the point that their crimes had been committed within the jurisdiction of the Lord High Admiral. He was responsible for the punishment of all felonies committed on the high seas and waterways up to the low-tide mark. Above the tide line, the civil courts took over.”

- David Cordingly, Under the black flag: The romance and the reality of life among the pirates.

[sameteeth]

i LOVE how in historical accounts (specifically of pirates, im reading under the black flag by david cordingly) have so many variations on names/name spellings

[ltwilliammowett]

New reading material my dears

Women at Sea in the Age of Sail, by Donal Biard, 2001

Women at Sea, by Edward Rowe Snow, 2008

Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, by David Cordingly, 2001

Seafaring Women, by Linda Grant De Pauw, 1998

Women at Sea

Women at sea or women in general in connection with the navy are unfortunately still a rather neglected topic, and so Margarette Lincoln, herself an author on this topic, once looked at the literature on this subject.  Here is the list she compiled and which I would like to pass on to you, as there are a few that deal with this topic.

- Bold in her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages by Jo Stanley (1995) - The basic work that covers all women pirates through the centuries and geographically from Ireland to China.

- Female Tars: Women aboard Ship in the Age of Sail by Suzanne J. Stark ( 1996) - She deals in her book with three types of women on board, the whores, the officers’ wives and women in male disguise.

- Heroines and Harlots: Women at sea in the great age of sail, by David Cordingly (2001) - he looked at the archive material and was able to confirm that there were a very large number of women in England and America who went to sea. He also tries to include the role of men.

-British Sea Power: Representing the Navy, 1750-1815 by Margarette Lincoln (2002) - here she included a whole chapter devoted to how women saw the Navy. She continued this with her next book - Naval Wives and Mistresses (2007) and now tried to include letters and the social role.

- Naval Families : War and Duty in Britain. 1740- 1820 by Ellen Gills (2016) - Here individual families and their fates are highlighted.

- Enterprising Women and Shipping in the 19th century, by Helen Doe (2009) - She stays ashore in her book and highlights the maritime business in women’s hands.

- Sailors and Traders: a Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples, by Alastair Couper ( 2009) - Explores the sexual relationships of European sailors and indigenous South Sea island women in the 18th and 19th centuries. It also makes a connection to the whalers and the recruitment of almost exclusively female crews in the 20th century.

- From Cabin Boys to Captains- 250 years of women at sea, by Jo Stanley (2016) - Here she now reports on the life and work of female sailors.

- Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes and Privateers who ruled the seven seas, by Laura Sook Duncombe (2017) attempts to shed light on the lives of female pirates.

- Women and english piracy, 1540- 1720 : Partners and Victims of Crime, by John Appleby (2013) - moves away from the romanticised lives of female pirates and shows how women supported pirates and even started their own businesses. He also tried to dispel some of the myths.

This small list shows how little work has been done on this topic, although there are some small articles on individuals that have gradually appeared in naval history magazines. There is still a lot to be done in this area and more research is needed.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

arrrgggh the pirate history reading list you posted got lost somewhere in my blog because tumblr’s search feature is shit, can you link me to it again please? thank youuuu

ACK I can't manage to find it either! Tumblr's awful search function istg. In the meantime though I literally have my syllabus for that class sitting right next to me so here are those books again! I'd recommend these for anyone interested in pirate history!

A General History of Pirates by Charles Johnson - this one is a primary source written in 1724 and it's fascinating but I do recommend reading it alongside a secondary text for context because Johnson was so full of shit

Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly - THE text on pirates, if you can only get one book, get this one

Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson - about Henry Every. I use this one mostly to show students how engaging and fun history texts can be, it's a great read

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard - good all-around text, you won't go wrong here

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B. R. Burg - a little outdated in terminology because it was written in 1995, still a solid intro to pirate understandings of queerness

Blackbeard: A Reappraisal of his Life and Times by Robert Lee - if you want a book on the historical Blackbeard, this is the one for you!

Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Dolin - this one's especially great if you're interested in public and political attitudes towards piracy in the Americas

(Also this one wasn't on my og list but Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean by Edward Kritzler is another winner)

[florasearle]

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates By David Cordingly, 1995

Could not access book but saw in the review of it, illustrations of Blackbeard that appear in The General History.

[esta-elavaris]

1, 13, 18 for the book ask!

book you’ve reread the most times?

Probably the Saga of Darren Shan - I went through a phase in middle school where I'd finish the final book, then go straight back to the first one, over and over for an entire school year.

In adulthood, probably The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx, or the War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins is also a go-to, because it always helps me get my life together when I'm in a rut. The Winternight Trilogy has also become a winter staple since I first discovered it in 2021.

13. do you have a goodreads?

I do!

18. do you like historical books? which time period?

I love them! Fiction and non-fiction. Any time period, honestly. I think the Tudor period was the first one I got properly obsessed with - visiting Hampton Court Palace as a student was an absolute joy - but I'll read about any historical period at all, I just love it. Although the more recent-ish stuff (WW2 onwards) isn't something I tend to gravitate towards that much. I think because that's what my history A-level was all about, so I associate it with school, but what I have read I've still enjoyed, it's just not something I go out of my way to seek out.

The non-fiction historical books I've read recently-ish that I enjoyed were:

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride - Daniel James Brown

Jane Austen at Home - Lucy Worsley (I'm around 1/4 of the way through this one right now and it's phenomenal, definitely buying more of her books in the future)

Under the Black Flag - David Cordingly

Thank you 💜💜💜

[the-golden-vanity]

@jesslovesboats aaaaa thank you so much! This is a great honor coming from the creator of "Sad Boat Books for Sad Boat People".

@hervey-gervey-chip oooh, the engineer of the Sloop Providence (which was also heavily damaged in Hurricane Sandy, though she sails again!) was telling me about this one! So many of the books on this shelf I have yet to read, but once I have, this sounds like a great addition!

@captain-dad yay, Clothbound Classics editions! I read 20,000 Leagues as a young teenager and don't remember any of it, so I bought this edition to do a reread. I haven't started yet, but I'm excited to!

I just looked up Heroines and Harlots, and it looks amazing! David Cordingly's chapter on women pirates in Under the Black Flag was great, and I imagine this will be just as good. I've recently bought a little book you can see on the shelf called The Pirate Next Door that's about 18th century pirates' wives and families, and if it's good, I'm sure you'll be hearing about that as well.

Thanks, everyone! Please feel free to talk to me about any Age of Sail/maritime related books; even if I haven't read them myself I'll be happy to hear your thoughts.

You're gonna need a bigger boat bookshelf.