Pirate Tales

In these rollicking, madcap, often bloodthirsty pirate stories, Abe, the First Mate serving under Captain Morgan on the pirate ship Sweet Cutlass, tells his story of piracy on the high seas while sailing around the world in the waning years of the great age of sail. After Abe earns his own command of the pirate ship Night Lightning, he works in tandem with his mentor and former captain as they successfully board, loot and scuttle merchantmen of all flags. The pirates maraud and pillage at will on a route that takes in San Juan, Hatteras, the Bermudas, Madagascar, Zanzibar, the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf, the Andaman Islands and Tierra del Fuego. They ruthlessly amass and bury a fortune in treasure, fight with other pirates, mutiny among themselves, carouse among landlubbers, deal with a treacherous sheik, free many slaves, make men walk the plank, and ship aboard beautiful, lively wenches. Between these covers are tales of singing pirates, lots of rum, a sea hag, an Amazonian pirate crew, gold and slave trafficking ships, a talking parrot, sea monsters and violent storms that open the gates to Davy Jones’s Locker. E. W. Farnsworth rewrites legacy pirate lore by assuming pirates are cunning, often worldly wise and cultured in their own piratical ways. They are as brilliant and daring in battle as today’s US Navy SEALs are—and as invincible.