Pirates capture our imaginations and our hearts. Everyone loves these bad boys of the Caribbean, but do you know the real story behind these renegade mariners?

Here's the naked truth!

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They weren’t all in the Caribbean. Piracy was common to every sea on earth, from the Barbary corsairs along the coast of Africa, to the Malaccan pirates who preyed on pilgrims bound for Mecca and the Chinese junks who join together to form massive pirate navies. Where ever you sailed, there were those with a cavalier attitude toward property ownership.

They weren’t all boys. While it was generally considered bad luck to bring a woman on board (and the penalty for sneaking one on could be death or marooning!), there were a few notable female pirates. Both Anne Bonney and Mary Read sailed with Calico Jack and were reputedly fierce fighters. When his ship was finally taken by the British navy, the two women were the only ones who put up any resistance. The rest of the crew was too drunk to fight. But even though Anne and Mary were convicted of piracy, they didn’t hang. They “pleaded their bellies.” They were both pregnant and escaped the noose. Calico Jack wasn’t so lucky. When Anne Bonney visited him in his cell while he was waiting for the hangman, she comforted him with, “if you’d fought like a man, you needn’t be hanged like a dog.” Talk about being an “I told you so!”

They weren’t all bad. Or at least, they didn’t start out that way. Like my hero in PLEASURING THE PIRATE, some honest seamen turned to piracy because they had no other choice. Black Bart Roberts began his career as a naval navigator, but was pressed into piracy when his ship was taken. He went on to become one of the most successful pirate captains in history.

They weren’t all naked. Though they went barefoot at sea, they wore baggy trousers and long-sleeved shirts while sailing. Since they often took prizes consisting of bales of silk or brocade, pirates delighted in devising flamboyant costumes to wear once they hit port. Pirates had plenty of free time during long days at sea to sew, since women were not welcome aboard ships. What else did they have to do?  

They held to their own code of conduct. Pirate crews practiced a rough form of democracy, electing their captains and signing articles defining their goals and expected behavior. Unlike on naval vessels, where able seamen might expect a ‘taste o’ the cat’ as punishment for misdeeds, pirates were forbidden to strike each other while on ship. Disagreements were settled on land with pistol or cutlass.

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Pirate Booty!

This fine looking young man is Ryan Gardner~the 2008 Mr. Romance Contestant who portrayed Gabriel Drake, my pirate hero, at the Romantic Times Convention.

The crowd in Pittsburgh went wild when he strutted his stuff down the runway in his pirate regalia. His re-inactment of Gabriel and Jacquelyn's first meeting was totally hot and as an added bonus, when he's off stage, Ryan is a true gentleman, devoted to his girlfriend and was a delight to work with. If you'd like to learn more about Ryan, please visit his MySpace at www.myspace.com/ryanchristophergardner

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Watch for VEXING THE VISCOUNT~Coming March 2009!

They took care of their own. Pirates were often maimed in the course of their endeavors. As part of the articles they all signed, payment for loss of an eye or a limb was agreed upon ahead of time. What a way to fund your retirement!

They were only deemed a pirate if they stole from the wrong people. A privateer-one bearing a Letter of Marque—might commit the very same acts as a pirate, seizing goods and ships, with the blessing of his Sovereign so long as he shared the booty with the Crown. However, if he made the mistake of attacking the wrong ship, even the Letter of Marque couldn’t save him. Captain Kidd mistakenly attacked a British vessel and though he possessed a Letter, it wasn’t enough to save him from the noose and the gibbet.

They didn’t just hang a convicted pirate. They made an example of him. First, he was hung with a short rope, so his neck wouldn’t break. A pirate hanging was a long, protracted public strangulation. Then his body was left to be covered by three tides, then tarred and put on display in a gibbet as a warning to other seafaring men who might be tempted to piracy. Such hangings were treated as holidays by the public and there was much jostling to secure the best place from which to view the spectacle. These people seriously needed cable TV.

They didn’t all fly the Jolly-Roger. Each pirate captain devised his own version of the skull and cross-bones in an effort to appear as fearsome as possible. But if he really wanted to scare the living lights out of his prey, he’d run up a solid red flag. It was a signal that he’d neither give nor accept quarter. He intended to kill every soul on board.

 They didn’t bury their treasure. A few pirates might cache their goods from time to time, but they’d never leave a map to indicate where, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Besides, pirates were more likely to spend their ill-gotten gains in riotous living than to salt it away for their unlikely retirement. There were very few old pirates. “A merry life and a short one” was their motto.

Which just goes to prove what I suspected all along. Pirates just wanna have fun!

If you wanna have some fun, pick up a copy of PLEASURING THE PIRATE. It’ll have you saying “Shiver me timbers!” in no time!