Thank you very much for this article and the nice angle you take. I could not agree more that many pirates lead short and dirty lives. However they were often fleeing a hard life, punishment and meagre pay of merchant or navy vessels for a world of solidarity and brotherhood where the risks and rewards of life at sea were shared and where decisions were made in a collective fashion without toiling to make some rich merchant even richer. Yes, most died wretched, but they had a swell of a time and the wild parties after a good booty made it all worthwile. If you want to have a fuller description of pirate life at the time, including the stories of some of the pirates you mention, I suggest you read a recently published book I wrote called Shipwrecks of Madgascar. Here is the link http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/Shipwrecks...