If you thought Jack Sparrow was the most fearsome pirate of all, think again. His antics look tame compared to what some other buccaneers have done, and we’re talking about people who actually existed! These swashbuckling figures rose to popularity during the Golden Age of Piracy, around 1650 to 1720. During those years, privateering became a legitimate and lucrative business, so many took it up. We collected facts about some of the epoch’s most notorious rogue sailors, and some are pretty juicy. Interested in learning about these famous criminals of the sea? Keep reading!
Blackbeard
Who’s the pirate that everybody feared? The one name almost every person in the world knew about? Our vote is for Blackbeard, a man so fearsome that he became the stuff of legends. However, we’re here to tell you what’s fact and what’s fiction.
One book from 1724 claimed he was Edward Thatch from Bristol. He had been a privateer during the War of the Spanish Succession and began pirating the coasts of the Caribbean Sea, Virginia, and South Carolina. However, experts have attributed the book to novelist Daniel Defoe.
