This exciting nonfiction book contains twenty-two dramatic, real-life adventures written between 1500 and 1850 by pirate captives. These are true tales of terror as told by men and women who unexpectedly found themselves helpless victims on the open seas with death suddenly staring them straight in the face. Definitely fascinating reading.

"Our decks were instantly crowded with the motley crew of desperadoes,...[who] commenced their barbarous work by unmercifully beating and maiming all on board....Finding myself surrounded by wretches whose yells, oaths and imprecations made them more resemble demons than human beings, I fell on my knees and...begged...for permission to retire to the cabin that I might not be...a witness of the murderous scene that...was about to ensue!"

—Lucretia Parker in a letter to her brother.

These dramatic, real-life adventures were collected from personal accounts, letters, official reports, ships' logs and the transcripts of pirate trials. These long-forgotten narratives are among the rarest of buried treasures. Some have not been in print for almost two centuries.

From a unique perspective, the desperate captives offer insights into the everyday lives of pirate captains Henry Morgan, Howell Davis, Edward Low, John Phillips and their bloodthirsty crews. Some of the captive were forced to become pirates themselves. There's even one pirate who vividly describes his capture by other pirates and how he exacted his revenge. These very personal eyewitness descriptions provide an intimacy and intensity that just cannot be obtained from a book about pirates.

Here are the accounts that are included:

After being stalked all night off Florida by a mysterious ship, they were attacked at dawn. The writer tried to shoot one of the pirates in the face, but his musket misfired. Things rapidly went downhill from there.

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Capt. Sabins describes how his ship was captured twice on the same day by different pirate ships.

Smith was forced to join a group of Spanish pirates as their navigator and surgeon. After witnessing a bloody knife fight, he became embroiled in a brutal war between two pirate factions, while doing his best to save his own skin. There is a testimony from one of his three trials for piracy.

After being taken by pirates and his ship ransacked, Capt. Dunham and his crew were forced into the forecastle and called up one at a time to be interrogated about hidden valuables. Each time Dunham could hear a gunshot followed by the order to heave the body overboard. Then it was his turn.

A crewman on the Mexican describes how, after they were taken and abused by pirates, they were locked below deck and their ship set on fire.

The captain of the ship featured in the previous account, tells what happened from his point-of-view. Some of the pirates were later caught and put on trial.

In 1671, buccaneer Captain Henry Morgan led a daring nine day march through the jungle to attack Panama—the depot for what at that time was the greatest gold producing area in the world. In his report to Spain, Panama's president describes his failed efforts to save his city from the depredations of these pirates, including the battle in front of the city and the fire that burned the city to the ground. Morgan was later knighted for this and made Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. Then in a 1686 letter, another president of Panama describes negotiations with French pirates for the release of 330 hostages.

Following their capture, Capt. Lincoln and his men were left on a desolate island from which they watched the pirates come and go, plundering and destroying their ship. They were then marooned on another island with little hope of survival.

On the coast of Africa, Snelgrave's slave ship was attacked at night by a group of several pirate bands which included the well-known Capt. Howell Davis. His efforts to fight off the pirates were sabotaged by one of his own crew and he barely escaped being murdered on several occasions. At one point, he barely managed to keep the pirate ship he was on from exploding. He goes on to discuss the demise of Capt. Davis and the rise of Capt. Bartholomew Roberts (a.k.a. Black Bart).

In 1822, a pirate schooner and three launches swooped alongside Lamson's ship, demanding he send his boat to them or they'd murder everyone on board. Lamson answered them with a broadside and a desperate battle ensued.

Pirates captured Capt. Evans and his slave ship off Puerto Rico and forced him into revealing where he had hidden his gold. When some of the pirates continued to abuse him, the pirate captain climbed into a small boat and set off "swearing he would not sail with men who so barbarously abused their prisoners."

Being the only female on board, Lucretia Parker was given a reprieve from death, though she was forced to witness the bloody murders of everyone else on her ship. Luck intervened on her behalf just as the pirate captain was about to have his way with her.

Captured off the coast of Canada by Capt. Low, Ashton was forced to join the pirates. Barely escaping execution for planning to mutiny, he was with them for nine months as they sailed to Africa and on to the Caribbean before he finally marooned himself on a deserted tropical island. But he still wasn't free of them.

It was Chinese pirates who took Richard Glasspoole and held him for almost three months. This pirate gang, headed by a woman, numbered about 70,000 men and women, with 800 large ships and about 1,000 smaller boats. While Glasspoole was waiting for his ransom to be paid, he was carried off on a pillaging expedition where the pirates began sacking towns and villages, sometimes forcing him to fight with them. They were then attacked by the Imperial fleet who used ships filled with explosives as floating bombs.

This account by Portuguese explorer Mendez Pinto is particularly interesting because he was himself a pirate. At age 13, he was captured by French pirates and years later, after becoming a pirate, his ship was attacked by another group of pirates and sunk. Swearing vengeance, the four survivors assembled a new group of pirates and set out searching for the ones who stole their loot. They once again find themselves under attack and are able to exact their revenge before he goes on to raid the tombs of the Chinese emperors.

Before Vincent de Paul was declared a saint, he was captured by corsairs and taken to the Barbary Coast where he was sold into slavery.

From the transcripts of piracy and murder trial of Edward Jordan and his wife in Canada, Capt. Stairs testifies how the Jordans and John Kelly mutinied and murdered the rest of the crew. Stairs barely escaped by leaping overboard.

While being chased by pirates, Capt. Frink signaled to a passing steamboat for help, but was ignored and abandoned to his fate. The pirates were about to hang him when they discovered the ship was on fire. They threw him overboard, but he climbed back onto his ship to face them again. This account has a rather ironic ending.

A graphic account of a survivor's escape from a band of pirates as the rest of his crew were being butchered.

John Fillmore was the great-grandfather of President Millard Fillmore. When he was captured by Capt. Phillips, he discovered one of the pirates was a friend of his. This friend talked Phillips into keeping him. Fillmore refused to become a pirate and was forced to serve them. Seven months later—after many ships were taken, after some of the pirates staged a rebellion against Phillips's cruelties, and after another friend of his was murdered—Fillmore and several other forced men rose up against the pirates in a bid to gain their freedom.

At the age of 14, Samuels was serving on a ship and became friends with Peter, who turned out to be a former pirate. One evening they found they were being followed by a pirate ship that was waiting for dawn to attack. Peter told Samuels the only way they could save their lives was if they murdered their captain and first mate before the pirates boarded and then joined the pirates. Though the idea made him sick, the boy prepared to carry out this plan. Samuels writes:

"The knife he gave me was his favorite one. It had a very long blade encased in a wooden sheath....I agreed to do as he bade me and took my place behind the mate. Peter took his place near the captain. It had just struck seven bells. There had been scarcely a word spoken forward during the night. The sound of the bells fell upon me like a funeral knell. Tears began to run down my cheeks. Mr. Crawford had always been good to me, why should I kill him? Everybody had treated me well on board. I thought of home and the plans I had laid for the future. Now my aspirations and hopes would all be ruined in the next half hour. A horror of the situation seized me."