These pirates built a fearsome reputation on the high seas and made a fortune plundering ships before they were captured or killed — or disappeared without a trace.

From roughly the 1650s to the 1730s, the world was in the throes of the Golden Age of Piracy. Although it’s often romanticized in recent years, it was a brutal and tumultuous time period, with thousands of pirates terrorizing the world’s oceans, disrupting global trade routes, and challenging the naval supremacy of Europe’s greatest empires.

While popular culture has sometimes portrayed pirates as swashbuckling adventurers who were simply seeking treasure and freedom, the reality was often a far more complex story of desperation, violence, and rebellion against the rigid social hierarchies of the early modern world.

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