Pirate Dictionary

by Rafael Estrada

Compilation of famous pirates and nautical terms. Did you know that Bartolomew Roberts was a distinguished, elegant and courteous pirate, music lover, teetotaler and that he did not allow gambling with money or duels on board...? That when Blackbeard went to combat, he placed hemp wicks soaked in saltpeter, lit under his fur hat, in order to appear surrounded by black smoke and cause terror...? Do you know the difference between a pirate, a buccaneer, a privateer and a filibuster...? Would you distinguish a cutlass from a saber...? This book contains all the documentation that I used to write the novel THE CIRCULAR PIRATES. Sorted in dictionary format for easy searching, it is an excellent source for authors who wish to embark on the wonderful adventure of writing a pirate story.

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I'm sure this book might have some uses, it was certainly not what I was looking for. It didn't really help me find piratey ways of saying things I wanted to say. Many of the words defined in the book seem like perfectly ordinary words with ordinary definitions, for example, "INDIGENOUS - originally from the country in question." Nothing very pirate-like about that. Others just don't seem to make much sense. In some cases, this may be a result of poor translation from Spanish, or perhaps an errant cut and paste, as in this example: "INN - Speaking of the sea, rivers, ponds, wells, etc., a solid surface on which the water is." In other cases the definition just seems wrong, such as this one: "MONADNOCK - low hummock that is in the middle of the sea. Some offer shelter or anchorage." I haven't found any other sources that talk about monadnocks in the middle of the ocean. Some definitions are just odd "MODERATE - It is said of the gentle and gentle wind."
So, not a particularly helpful book to me. I suppose if I wanted to learn the names of sails it might be helpful, but there are many other places to learn this, and I would not particularly trust this source.