OT: The Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson

From The Conversation | UK Edition | 30 May 2024

A short article on

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson

found here:

https://theconversation.com/pirates-and-politicians-what-a-300-year-old-book-abo...

Intro:

"In 1724, Englishman Captain Charles Johnson published an instant classic. A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates was a primer of life on the high seas and it set in stone what anyone who claimed to live it should look like. You know the type. Black flag, big hat, even bigger beard, eyes and voice of thunder. Much of it, of course, was made up. And yet, it’s still in print. Right now, you can buy a luxe copy for £44.95, a cheap one for under a fiver – or a first edition for £15,000.

The staying power of this book might be affirmed by how often 21st-century pop culture (Black Sails on Netflix; the fourth Assassin’s Creed game, the band Black Flag) continues to reference it. But, as maritime historian Richard Blakemore buoyantly notes, this enduring obsession with nautical treachery somewhat obscures what Captain Johnson really set out to do: skewer the British body politic with an indelible satire."

I had to look it up to remind myself: RL Stevenson's Treasure Island was first published in 1883, over 150 years later. As much as that work established a great many tropes of piracy and pirates in English commonplace knowledge, it sounds like much may have been inspired by Johnson's efforts before him.