Thieves and scoundrels sailed the seas before the time of Columbus, but the buccaneer was an American kind of pirate.  By the time the English colonies in America were sending goods from their harbor cities, the terror of every sea captain was the buccaneer. 

Peter Francis was one of these.  Here is the story of his capture and his loss of a shipload of Spanish pearls.

Henry King, mate of an English merchant ship, outwits a privateer.

Captain Kidd is persuaded to leave retirement and become a privateer to clear the seas of pirates.  Circumstances and crew give him a reputation of piracy and lead him to the gallows.

Blackbeard, scourge of the Carolinas, is captured by a landlubber lieutenant.

Colonel William Rhett brings in the bloodthirsty Stede Bonnet.

Silas Talbot, a Massachusetts boy, turns privateer in the War for Independence.  With no American navy, these privateers harry the British ships.

From the dust jacket