{"product_id":"2940016096575","title":"The Pirates' Who's Who","description":"PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet it be made clear at the very outset of this Preface that the pages\u003cbr\u003ewhich follow do not pretend to be a history of piracy, but are simply an\u003cbr\u003eattempt to gather together, from various sources, particulars of those\u003cbr\u003eredoubtable pirates and buccaneers whose names have been handed down to us\u003cbr\u003ein a desultory way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do not deal here with the children of fancy; I believe that every man,\u003cbr\u003eor woman too--since certain of the gentler sex cut no small figure at the\u003cbr\u003egame--mentioned in this volume actually existed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA time has come when every form of learning, however preposterous it may\u003cbr\u003eseem, is made as unlaborious as possible for the would-be student.\u003cbr\u003eKnowledge, which is after all but a string of facts, is being arranged,\u003cbr\u003esorted, distilled, and set down in compact form, ready for rapid\u003cbr\u003eassimilation. There is little fear that the student who may wish in the\u003cbr\u003efuture to become master of any subject will have to delve into the\u003cbr\u003eoriginal sources in his search after facts and dates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSurely pirates, taking them in their broadest sense, are as much entitled\u003cbr\u003eto a biographical dictionary of their own as are clergymen, race-horses,\u003cbr\u003eor artists in ferro-concrete, who all, I am assured, have their own \"Who's\u003cbr\u003eWho\"? Have not the medical men their Directory, the lawyers their List,\u003cbr\u003ethe peers their Peerage? There are books which record the names and the\u003cbr\u003eparticulars of musicians, schoolmasters, stockbrokers, saints and\u003cbr\u003ebookmakers, and I dare say there is an average adjuster's almanac. A peer,\u003cbr\u003ea horse, dog, cat, and even a white mouse, if of blood sufficiently blue,\u003cbr\u003ehas his pedigree recorded somewhere. Above all, there is that astounding\u003cbr\u003eand entertaining volume, \"Who's Who,\" found in every club smoking-room,\u003cbr\u003eand which grows more bulky year by year, stuffed with information about\u003cbr\u003ethe careers, the hobbies, and the marriages of all the most distinguished\u003cbr\u003epersons in every profession, including very full details about the lives\u003cbr\u003eand doings of all our journalists. But on the club table where these books\u003cbr\u003eof ready reference stand with \"Whitaker,\" \"ABC,\" and \"Ruff's Guide to the\u003cbr\u003eTurf,\" there is just one gap that the compiler of this work has for a long\u003cbr\u003ewhile felt sorely needed filling. There has been until now no work that\u003cbr\u003egives immediate and trustworthy information about the lives, and--so sadly\u003cbr\u003eimportant in their cases--the deaths of our pirates and buccaneers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn delving in the volumes of the \"Dictionary of National Biography,\" it\u003cbr\u003ehas been a sad disappointment to the writer to find so little space\u003cbr\u003edevoted to the careers of these picturesque if, I must admit, often\u003cbr\u003eunseemly persons. There are, of course, to be found a few pirates with\u003cbr\u003ehousehold names such as Kidd, Teach, and Avery. A few, too, of the\u003cbr\u003ebuccaneers, headed by the great Sir Henry Morgan, come in for their share.\u003cbr\u003eBut I compare with indignation the meagre show of pirates in that\u003cbr\u003emonumental work with the rich profusion of divines! Even during the years\u003cbr\u003ewhen piracy was at its height--say from 1680 until 1730--the pirates are\u003cbr\u003eutterly swamped by the theologians. Can it be that these two professions\u003cbr\u003eflourished most vigorously side by side, and that when one began to\u003cbr\u003elanguish, the other also began to fade?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven so there can be no excuse for the past and present neglect of these\u003cbr\u003esea-adventurers. But a change is beginning to show itself. Increasing\u003cbr\u003eevidence is to be found that the more intelligent portions of the\u003cbr\u003epopulation of this country, and even more so the enlightened of the great\u003cbr\u003eUnited States of America, are beginning to show a proper interest in the\u003cbr\u003elives of the pirates and buccaneers. That this should be so amongst the\u003cbr\u003eAmericans is quite natural, when it is remembered what a close intimacy\u003cbr\u003eexisted between their Puritan forefathers of New England and the pirates,\u003cbr\u003eboth by blood relation and by trade, since the pirates had no more\u003cbr\u003eobliging and ready customers for their spoils of gold dust, stolen slaves,\u003cbr\u003eor church ornaments, than the early settlers of New York, Massachusetts,\u003cbr\u003eand Carolina.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn beginning to compile such a list as is to be found in this volume, a\u003cbr\u003edifficulty is met at once. My original intention was that only pirates and\u003cbr\u003ebuccaneers should be included. To admit privateers, corsairs, and other\u003cbr\u003esea-rovers would have meant the addition of a vast number of names, and\u003cbr\u003ewould have made the work unwieldy, and the very object of this volume as a\u003cbr\u003ebook of ready reference would not have been achieved.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146519494896,"sku":"2940016096575","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016096575","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}