Enemies of All: The Rise and Fall of the Golden Age of Piracy

Since the beginning of maritime trade, bands of pirates, privateers, or brigands have plundered ships. Although they have been popularized in books, movies, and television series, the real history of these scourges of the high seas is more complicated than generally understood.

In this very comprehensive look at both the history and mythology of pirates in a loosely termed “golden age” from the 1660s to the 1730s, Blakemore dives into the real motivations of the most famous pirates, presenting the unknown side of these maritime raiders and their way of life.

Of course, the book discusses the most famous pirates in history—Henry Morgan, Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard and probably the most famous pirate in history and myth, as well as other captains like William Kidd, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read, showing piracy was not an exclusive male activity.

Some fascinating facts emerge through the narrative. First, while the popular image of pirates, privateers, buccaneers or whatever name they went by is that of a stateless robber attacking random merchant ships, in fact many of these “pirates” were either state sponsored or at the least tacitly supported by some monarchy against a rival. As the author notes, many of the great waves of pirate activity during this time correspond to dynastic wars occurring in Europe as England, Holland, and France all sent ships to plunder Spanish treasure ships and occasionally each other’s merchant fleets during the extended conflicts of this period. 

The notion of attacking an enemy country’s maritime trade during war was not a new concept and in fact, Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal,” which were essentially a license to pirate in time of war.

The vast wealth being shipped from Spain’s colonies, often with minimal escorts, presented a significant opportunity for a well-organized squadron of pirates to both enrich themselves, gain both great glory and infamy as well as fill the coffers of their sponsor.

This is the second point to emerge from the narrative. The popular image of a lone swashbuckler attacking helpless merchant ships is also not how many buccaneers worked. Many expeditions, particularly those led by one of the most famous yet misunderstood characters in our story, Henry Morgan, we substantial fleets numbering nearly a dozen ships with several thousand men that formed an actual landing force that would travel overland to reach a particularly desirable target, leaving a wake of destruction before capturing and plundering the town, then returning to their fleet for the voyage home with their loot

Finally, Blakemore dives into the way of life for those sailors who chose to sign aboard a privateer or pirate ship. Like many sailors, there was the routine of the day, often tedious and sometimes dangerous, the monotony of bad food, and the ever-present danger when the time came for death or dismemberment.

He dives into the myths of a “pirate code” and the many misconceptions about how the great pirate captains conducted themselves. In addition, while the so-called Pirates of the Caribbean is what comes to mind when most people think about the topic, privateers operated all over the Atlantic region, from Africa to the Caribbean and along the cost of the English colonies. They also ranged into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, demonstrating that piracy was not merely a European activity but a world-wide occurrence during this period.

The general success of these maritime raiders finally led the growing field of maritime law to decide that attacking a nation’s maritime trade for profit was outside the boundaries of acceptable international behavior, although this wasn’t formalized until the mid-19th century.

Although the days of pirates capturing ships or sacking coastal towns may have disappeared, the attacking of commercial shipping is still seen today in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, although these assaults are more political statements than money-making efforts. Blakemore’s book provides both a depth of research and a comprehensive narrative to dispel the misconceptions of this so-called “golden age” of pirates while showing how popular culture and mythology can distort history to make something more romantic than it really was.