Images

A typical sentence for the most notorious pirate captains during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730) was to be hanged and then have the corpse hung in a cage to rot. The idea was that mariners passing the shore would see this punishment...

A map illustrating the four voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas between 1492 and 1504 superimposed on a scheme of the predominant ocean currents and winds of the North Atlantic.

The pirate Mary Read (d. 1721), illustration by Alexandre Debelle from Histoire des pirates et corsaires de l'Océan et de la Méditerranée depuis leur origine jusqu'à nos jours, P. Christian, Paris, Cavaillès, 1846.

Ruth and Naomi, oil on canvas painting by Philip Hermogenes Calderon, 1886. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

An artist's impression of how the pirate Mary Read (d. 1721) may have looked. Image from the computer game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag by Ubisoft. © 2013 Ubisoft

Ruth swearing her allegiance to Naomi, oil on canvas painting by Jan Victors, 1653. Private collection.

A Google Earth image of the Scythian territorial expanse. Google Earth (Data: SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Image: Landsat / Copernicus)

A late-19th century cigarette card showing the buccaneer turned lieutenant-governor Sir Henry Morgan (c. 1635-1688). Produced by Allen & Ginter. Lithographer: George S. Harris & Sons. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

An 18th-century illustration showing the idyllic life of a pirate on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Despite tales of pirate kings living a life of ease on the island, the reality was rather less idyllic with in-fighting between...

A 17th-century illustration of the buccaneer and pirate base of Tortuga, located on the northwest coast of Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic).