Pirates - Terror on the High Seas From The Caribbean to the South China Sea by Cordingly, David - 1996

Turner Publishing, 1996. Hardcover book is in very good condition, pages crisp and clean, no stains. Ex-Library Book with Library marks and card holder in back. Dust jacket is good. Dust jacket shows signs of wear, a few rips which have been repaired. Black and white and color pictures throughout the book. 1st edition. ISBN 1570362858. 256 pages long. 1996 edition. Size - 11 x 9.5 x 1 inches. Publisher: Turner Publishing. Additional pictures of condition are available. BOOK DESCRIPTION: A comprehensive study of piracy from the 1600s to the 1900s. Each chapter is written by a different expert and covers one aspect of the topic, including piracy in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and, unlike most books on the subject, the pirates of the Far East. A chapter also is devoted to modern pirates and the steps the international community is taking to eliminate them. The book contains many pictures of artifacts, 16th- and 17th-century illustrations, color paintings by noted artists Howard Pyle and Frank Schoonover, and period photographs of pirates and anti-piracy operations from the past 140 years. The text is well written and easy to follow. An ideal companion to Cordingly's Under the Black Flag Piracy has always provided a good opportunity for ruthless men to seek their fortunes. For the young man - very few older men went "on the account" - piracy offered a means of escape from the monotony of shore-based jobs and brought with it the added spice of treasure, definite danger and excitement, wine and women, and a chance to see the world. But it was a dangerous calling, and few took up active piracy for more than a decade: the careers of some famous pirates like Blackbeard, Kidd, and Avery lasted no more than two or three years, and few, like Morgan or Drake, lived long enough to enjoy their plundered wealth. From time immemorial there have been pirates: In the second millennium B.C., Phoenician merchant ships were preyed upon in the Mediterranean, and in the classical age of Greece, the islands of the Aegean were home to generations of pirates. In 78 B.C., young Julius Caesar was held for ransom by pirates. Much later, when Spanish conquistadores discovered astonishing quantities of gold treasure in the New World, this provoked two centuries of buccaneering on the Spanish Main - the Golden Age of Piracy. And on the other side of the world, the fabled riches of the East brought forth in the South China Sea the most formidable of all the world's pirates in both numbers and in cruelty. Nor has piracy ever died out; along the coast of Brazil, the west coast of Africa, and above all in the Malacca Strait - the greatest concentration of merchant shipping in the world - pirates still practice their ancient trade.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Ex-Library.