Welcome to My Shelves Are Full for a special guest post from Flyntlock Bones author Derek Keilty! Read on for fascinating information about history’s best known pirates and for a special reading of Chapter 1 by Derek himself.
In my new book, pirates rule the seven seas and there is an amazing map near the front, drawn by ship’s illustrator Mr Mark Elvins. There are towns like Baskervile and Bellgravya and islands like the Boglands and the Isle of Tut where a museum was broken into and an ancient magical sceptre stolen.
Pirates have been around for hundreds of years and of course there are modern day pirates still operating in some parts of the world. I’ve enjoyed researching about pirates and pirate ships for Flyntlock Bones, trawling through books and the web and over the course of the last year I have come up with my top most ‘scurviest’ historical pirates you could ever meet (or hopefully NOT meet).
Edward Teach (aka “Blackbeard”), 1680-1718
This one really was a rascal and is probably in the running for the most famous pirate of all time, Blackbeard definitely lived up to his fearsome reputation. It’s believed he sailed into every battle with a whole armoury of weapons including knives, pistols and cutlasses. At his most powerful, he had four ships in his fleet and 300 loyal pirates to crew them. He seized more than forty merchant ships in the Caribbean until one day his luck finally ran out and he was captured by the Royal Navy.
Anne Bonny, 1700-unknown
All seemed to be going well for Anne Bonny. She moved from Ireland to the sunny Bahamas with her family and got married. But things quickly went down hill. She ended up in an unhappy marriage that led Bonny to look for excitement in other places. She found it when she met “Calico Jack” Rackham, who just so happened to be the captain of a pirate ship. Because women were generally unwelcome as part of the crew, she dressed and behaved like a man to fit in and kept up by fighting and drinking with the boys and had a reputation for being quite a tough character.
Sir Henry Morgan, 1635-1688
Captain Morgan made a name for himself by successfully leading a Jamaican fleet that disrupted Spain’s power in the Caribbean. He is probably most well-known for raiding affluent Panama City with thirty ships and 1,200 men, where he reeled in a vast amount of booty. Although he was arrested and taken to England after his great plunder, he was knighted by the king and released to hold the title of deputy governor in Jamaica, where he lived out the rest of his life as a plantation owner.
Happy World Oceans Day everyone! Arrrr!
To watch me read chapter one of Flyntlock Bones on YouTube click the link below
FLYNTLOCK BONES: The Sceptre of the Pharaohs by Derek Keilty, illustrated by Mark Elvins out now in paperback (£6.99, Scallywag Press)
Please find the link to my full review below!
My Shelves Are Full 