Lore

From the Logbook

Stories, myths, and the real history behind the flag. Three hundred years of empires, outlaws, and the slow blurring of which was which.

Five Myths About Pirates →

What the movies got wrong, and what they got right by accident.

What Pirates Teach Us About Democracy →

Elected captains, written constitutions, and workers' comp before workers had a word for it.

What Pirates Teach Us →

On freedom, loyalty, and the cost of refusing to be ordinary.

Pirate Flags →

What the flags meant, who actually flew them, and which famous designs were invented in the twentieth century.

Rules from an Actual Pirate Code →

From Bartholomew Roberts' articles, c. 1720. The first line: every man shall have a vote in affairs of moment.

A General History of the Pyrates →

The 1724 book by Captain Charles Johnson that gave us most of what we think we know — and a lot of what isn't true.