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Drawing on new research, this fascinating volume looks behind the myths to offer detailed insights into the real lives and activities of pirates—for better or worse—during the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean, from the mid-17th century to 1720.

Table of Contents

Throughout this book, all dates are given in the modern Gregorian style, unless specifically marked as O.S. to designate the old-style English dates that were still in use in Britain and its overseas colonies during the great age of piracy, from 1650 to 1720. This older version of dating was also known as the Julian calendar, in honor of its ancient Roman reviser, Julius Caesar, and lagged 10 days behind those of other European nations. This divergence had emerged from the political antagonisms and prejudices prevailing at the time of this changeover, during the late 16th century. Because the Julian calendar had become so outdated as to no longer coincide with the seasons or new moons, the Catholic Church spearheaded a drive to revise and universally apply a corrected alternative. After lengthy studies by the Neapolitan astronomer Aloysius Lilius and debates among many other leading scholars, Pope Gregory XIII issued a bull in March 1582 that declared that a new calendar was to be introduced: in practical terms, the day following the feast of Saint Francis in church rituals—which fell on October 4, 1582. But rather than being reckoned as October 5, the feast day was instead designated as October 15 to restore all subsequent equinoxes to their proper cycle. This shift was accepted and implemented in most of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and their overseas empires. France adopted it two months afterward, and the French dates passed from December 9 to 20, 1582. Most of the provinces of The Netherlands and Germany introduced this new Gregorian calendar as of 1583, and in fact it remains the version that we still recognize and use throughout the modern world today. Protestant England, however—being at that time deeply opposed to any hint of Catholic suzerainty—refused to comply, so that, as of 1582, its old-style Julian calendar would continue to lag behind and remain out of sync with the new-style Gregorian calendars coming into common usage among the Spanish, French, Dutch, and Portuguese. And as a further complication, English calendars would moreover retain their ancient observance—especially in legal or financial documentation—of the new year as falling on March 24–25, necessitating a double indication in ordinary correspondence for any date that happened to fall between January 1 and March 24. For example, in a dispatch sent by King Charles II in August 1669 to Sir Thomas Temple, his governor for Nova Scotia, it was mentioned that "His Majesty did by his letters of 8th March 1668/9 signify his final pleasure"—alluding to a previous communiqué dated only a few months previously in that very same year, on March 8, 1669 (O.S.). Such discrepancies became even more convoluted whenever corresponding from abroad, as when the English ambassador William Lockhart wrote a report from the French court to Secretary of State John Thurloe in London, dated "Paris, January 27/17, 1656/57"—having to combine the correct new-style date of January 27, 1657, used in France, with the old-style date of January 17, 1656, still recognized in England. Foreign treaties or arrangements involving English interests would routinely feature double dates as well. For instance, the Dutch government at The Hague, in the immediate aftermath of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, issued a passport dated January 8/18, 1675 "for the Hunter man-of-war, Captain Richard Dickenson, which His Majesty of Great Britain is sending to convoy the ships America and Hercules to Surinam in pursuance of the 5th Article of the Treaty of 9/19 February 1674," to withdraw its English occupying forces.

About the Author

David F. Marley is an award-winning naval historian who has lived most of his life in Latin America. His published works include ABC-CLIO's Pirates of the Americas and Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present.