81. If A Pirate I Must Be, by Richard Sanders
Owned?: Yes
Page count: 249
My summary: An account of the pirate Bartholomew Roberts, from his origins as a sailor on slaving voyages through his time as a pirate, chronicling his taking of prizes, his surprising successes, and the final stand where he met his fate.
My rating: 4/5
My commentary:
Ah, this one was a breath of fresh air after my last research book. In part, because the subject matter was on slightly more familiar ground for me, but also because it was just more engagingly written than many non-fiction books. This is the story of Bartholomew Roberts, one of the more successful of the Golden Age pirates, who started his career as an (allegedly) forced man on the ship of the pirate Howell Davis, who then went on to take hundreds of prizes over a two year career before being killed in battle. Roberts rose to captaincy fast, within six weeks of becoming a pirate at all, and managed to run a successful ship for an impressive amount of time, as far as pirates went. He's credited with the famous saying that he would prefer a 'merry life and a short one' over going legit, has one of the few pirate codes that survive to this day, and possibly inspired characters like the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride. He's an interesting character to read about, and I got a fair amount from this narrative of his life.
And this was, in part, due to the fact that the account was very readable. It was presented in something of an informal style, meaning that it was a lot easier to get through than some of the denser books I've read in this endeavour, and sought to give a lot of context around Roberts' life - detailing things like the conditions enslaved people were subject to in this era, comparisons with other pirates, and other details about what the world was like in the late 1710s. It was really interesting reading, and gave a bit more nuance to the pirates' life than some of the other books I've read. For example, it took pains to point out that about a third of Roberts' crew was Black, and though we can't know how they specifically were treated, there's evidence that some Black men on pirate ships were just members of the crew, while some were basically enslaved by the white pirates. It acknowledges the possibility of gay men among the pirates, though never strays too far into baseless speculation. It struck a balance really well between what we know and what we can guess, and it was a fun read besides. I'd recommend it!
Next, a Junji Ito collection which I, apparently, haven't read yet!
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