Pirates; romanticized or despised, they are a cultural icon scattered through history and a probability wherever there is merchant shipping. Let’s grab a pitcher of grog and set sail through a rogue’s gallery of swashbucklers, political opportunists, and entrepreneurs, and dig into the reality of the world’s third-oldest profession.

For supplemental info and photos, be sure to visit Gordon’s blog.

Show notes and links:

* Mutiny on the Bounty (1789)

* Louisiana Purchase (1803)

* Spanish–American War (1898)

* Landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli (1915)

* Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) (imdb.com)

* On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers (amazon.com)

* The Pyrates: A Swashbuckling Comic Novel, George MacDonald Fraser (amazon.com)

* Old Ironsides (1926) DVD Movie (mthexpress.com)

* Old Ironsides (film) (wikipedia.org)

* Alfred the Great

* Ching Shih

* Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (Another one of Gordon’s historical doppelgangers.)

* Sea Dogs

* Privateers

* Henry Morgan

* Buccaneers

* Golden Age of Piracy

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