Born to Be Hanged
The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune
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4.1 • 28 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Discover the “fascinating and outrageously readable” account of the roguish acts of the first pirates to raid the Pacific in a crusade that ended in a sensational trial back in England—perfect for readers of Nathaniel Philbrick and David McCullough (Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God)
The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than three hundred daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags and a rare breed of gentlemen buccaneers—gather on a remote Caribbean island. The plan: to wreak havoc on the Pacific coastline, raiding cities, mines, and merchant ships. The booty: the bright gleam of Spanish gold and the chance to become legends. So begins one of the greatest piratical adventures of the era—a story not given its full due until now.
Inspired by the intrepid forays of pirate turned Jamaican governor Captain Henry Morgan—yes, that Captain Morgan—the company crosses Panama on foot, slashing its way through the Darien Isthmus, one of the thickest jungles on the planet, and liberating a native princess along the way. After reaching the South Sea, the buccaneers, primarily Englishmen, plunder the Spanish Main in a series of historic assaults, often prevailing against staggering odds and superior firepower. A collective shudder racks the western coastline of South America as the English pirates, waging a kind of proxy war against the Spaniards, gleefully undertake a brief reign over Pacific waters, marauding up and down the continent.
With novelistic prose and a rip-roaring sense of adventure, Keith Thomson guides us through the pirates’ legendary two-year odyssey. We witness the buccaneers evading Indigenous tribes, Spanish conquistadors, and sometimes even their own English countrymen, all with the ever-present threat of the gallows for anyone captured. By fusing contemporaneous accounts with intensive research and previously unknown primary sources, Born to Be Hanged offers a rollicking account of one of the most astonishing pirate expeditions of all time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist Thompson (7 Grams of Lead) makes his nonfiction debut with this swashbuckling account of a 17th-century pirate raid on the Pacific coastline of Spanish South America. Drawing on contemporaneous diaries kept by several of the privateers, Thomson recounts how a group of 366 "Caribbean-based pirates" helped an Indigenous tribe rescue a chief's daughter who was being held captive by the Spanish on the Isthmus of Panama. After completing the mission, the group made a daring attack on Spanish ships guarding Panama City and raided settlements along the western coast of South America on their way to the Chilean town of Arica, where they hoped to find fabulous wealth. Though the fleet captured several galleons and enough plunder to make them rich, they were repelled at Arica and, after rounding Cape Horn and returning to the Caribbean, three of the pirates, including Capt. Bartholomew Sharp, were captured, brought to trial in England, and acquitted. Thomson unravels the complex relationship between piracy and colonial governments in the Americas, where England and Spain struggled for primacy, and describes local tribes and flora and fauna in meticulous detail. Readers will be swept along by this brisk and entertaining adventure story.
