WEBVTT - Pirates 13: Dead Men’s Tales 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:10.160 Hollywood adores a lovable rogue. Pirates are often depicted as wise, cracking, 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.280 kind hearted individuals who set out for treasure but end 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:15.960 up writing or wrong. In the end, they usually get 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:20.000 the girl and the treasure. In six moviegoers enjoyed The 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.320 Black Pirates with Douglas Fairbank Senior as a young man 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.120 who joins a pirate crew to exact revenge for killing 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.120 his father, and yes, the script follows the age old 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.960 formula well. In ninety five, Pirates returned to the silver 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.200 screen with Errol Flynn as Captain Blood, and of course, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.360 in two thousand three came the tremendously popular Pirates of 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.760 the Caribbean franchise. Storytelling has no shortage of beloved characters, 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.080 from Captain Jack Sparrow to Captain Hook and Long John 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.160 Silver and many in between. Pirates are profitable for publishers 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.280 and Hollywood alike, along with books and film. A new 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.080 pirate emerged in the nineteen seventies. While they didn't hijack boats, 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.360 they did seek a way to make money off the 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.200 work of others. Woody Wise picked up his kids from 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.560 school on a Friday afternoon and never returned home. Instead, 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:08.959 they went on the run from the FBI. As it 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.120 turns out, Wise had been pirating films. When the FBI 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.520 agents arrived at his house, they carted away dozens of movies. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.480 He had once owned and operated his own theater, but 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.040 television had cut into his profits. Movies were what he knew, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:23.880 and so he looked for a way to make more 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.199 money with them. Wise befriended people working in a movie 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.640 studio shipping department responsible for getting films into theaters. Yes, 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.639 back then, movie theaters still used reels of film. Then 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.520 he waited. When a new film came out it opened 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.160 in theaters nationwide. After a few weeks, theaters needed fewer 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.319 reels and NAT's when Wise saw a site hustle. He 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.720 sold the extras, making about five hundred and seventy five 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.760 dollars for each copy. The FBI, though caught Wise, Lucky 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.120 for him, he received only a hefty fine. Today, books, movies, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.840 TV and streaming shows are frequently pira did and either 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.840 sold or given away for all to see. It's estimated 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.040 that pirated videos alone are viewed two hundred and thirty 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.119 billion times a year, and just like it had during 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.040 the age of piracy, that theft comes at a cost. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.160 It's estimated that U S companies lose seventy one billion 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.760 dollars each year to piracy worldwide. Those numbers are even 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.000 higher over nineties seven billion, and that's just in the 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.080 movie industry alone. It isn't a Victimus crime either. Over 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.400 seventy thousand people in the music industry have lost their jobs, 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.160 publishers have lost over three hundred million dollars, authors have 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.760 lost significant portions of their income, and bookstores have suffered 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.920 as well. Digital piracy might get its name from the 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.840 people who once hijacked ships at sea, but it's hardly 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:48.360 romantic pirates. The word itself hints at a story and 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.600 captures our attention. It doesn't matter if that story comes 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:57.040 from some self justification for digital piracy, a swashbuckling fictional character, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.280 or the real life men and women who sailed the 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.480 seas during the golden age of piracy, because if the 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:07.760 story stars a pirate, folks have always been intrigued. I'm 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:18.440 Aaron Manky and welcome two pirates. Alexander was born in 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.079 sixteen seventy six in a small Scottish town where everyone 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.320 knew everyone. He had six brothers and his father, John Selcraig, 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.320 worked as a shoemaker and a tanner in Lower Largo. 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.760 By all accounts, Alexander was a wild child, constantly causing 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.400 trouble in town and at home, and though he was 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.840 the youngest, he repeatedly beat up his siblings. His mother 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.480 sent him away, claiming that she wanted more for her 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.080 youngest child and hoped that he would find his fortune 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.840 at sea. Other sources say that she may have just 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.360 wanted her young troublemaker out of the house. Six years later, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.400 he returned home and went right back to his mischievous 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.240 and law breaking ways. He had gotten away with most 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.680 of his behavior in his youth, but this time he 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.520 would go too far. While the records don't clarify what 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.920 exactly he did, authorities charged him with indecent behavior inside 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.680 a church. To avoid the consequences, he skipped down and 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.720 changed his last name to Selkirk. Of course, the court 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.719 simply deferred the charges. Alexander found work at sea, and 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.400 with his talent for navigation and mathematics, he quickly became 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.200 an officer. His return to See proved timely to the 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.920 War of Spanish Secession, gave Alexander options. He no longer 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.000 had to choose between merchant and navy vessels. Privateering offered 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.960 better pay. He joined the expedition captain by a man 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.760 named William Dampier in seventeen oh three. The Lord Admiral 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.159 had given them letters of mark, granting the crew the 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.200 right to attack enemy vessels. Dampier commanded the St. George 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.400 and gave Captain Charles Pickering the command of his second ship, 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:54.120 the sink Points. Alexander served as Pickering's sailing master. The 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.560 job required someone with a formal education, as reading and 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.360 piloting were considered a senior officer. His role aside from 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.719 reading maps, if they even had one, the sailing master 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.520 also had to consider storms and the currents. While Alexander 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.360 enjoyed the respect that came with his title, he didn't 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.280 reciprocate it. He didn't think much of damp Here. The 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.240 captain's previous work as a buccaneer put him at odds 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.400 with captaining a navy ship. In fact, a previous ship 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.280 that he had commanded sank, and although Dampier had been 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.840 cleared of any charges surrounding the incident, that moment followed 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.440 him wherever he went. Morale was not existent, and the 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.080 crew suffered from a lack of provisions. Diseases like dysentery 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.039 and scurvy were prevalent, and rats had invested the ship. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.880 An outbreak of scurvy plagued the crew while they sailed 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.200 just off the coast of Brazil, killing Pickering and several 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.560 other men. Thomas Straddling, Pickering's lieutenant, became the sink points 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:52.000 new captain. In Alexander's opinion, Straddling was egotistical and lack 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.720 the necessary experience. Most of the crew shared this assessment 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.960 of the new captain, causing discord and talk of mutiny. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.000 A combination of events fueled Alexander's bad temper. He not 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.200 only argued with Dampier, but he was also butting heads 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.320 with Straddling. The crew thought their sailing master and their 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.120 new captain were both equally arrogant. Disagreements between the two 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.400 usually became a battle of wills. The crew sailed to 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.000 the uninhabited island called Juan Fernandez for a few days 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.720 rest and hopefully to find some supplies. When Strandling ordered 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.919 the men to load the ship, Alexander refused. Instead of 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.440 asking his fellow sailors to overtake the captain, he suggested 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.240 they refused to sail and remain on the island. Instead, 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.919 he reminded them of the poor conditions, their terrible treatment, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.960 and missed opportunities to raid ships straddling. Gave him an ultimatum, though, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.800 either the sailing master got on the ship or he 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.760 stayed behind alone. Alexander refused to give in, and so 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.680 he watched as his fellow crew members made several trips 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.520 to transfer supplies to the sink point. He stood on 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.719 the shoreline defiantly as the men loaded the last of 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.919 the small boats. Marooning someone is one of the harshest 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.680 punishments ever handed down. Still, he must have felt he 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.679 had nothing to fear. He hadn't committed a crime typically 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.120 punishable by marooning. Surely they would come back to get him. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.400 But with the last load, the men got into the 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.160 skiffs one final time. Still he refused to join them, 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.840 so they waved him off and pushed away from shore. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.880 And that's when Alexander realized the gravity of his decision. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:36.920 He had just marooned himself. San Fernandez Island was remote, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.480 just over four hundred and eighteen miles west of Valparaiso, Chile. 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.320 Few ever passed much less stopped. He'd been convinced that 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.400 his shipmates would have chosen him over straddling, He had 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.680 called their bluff and lost. A few people survived the marooning, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.200 although Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts had both been fortunate 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.920 to do so, and history would eventually tell us that 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.880 in Captain Arnabus Lincoln and a small crew survived as well. 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.520 Pirates had captured their ship and left them on a 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.600 small island barely three feet above sea level. They had 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.720 been left a blanket, a pot, and a few provisions. 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.360 Of the twelve men, all but one lived to tell 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.440 the tale, but for twenty days the men were on 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.480 their own. In seventeen eighteen, part of Captain William Greenway's 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.960 crew mutinied for refusing to turn pirate. They left him 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.760 and a handful of others marooned on an anchored sloop 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.440 incapable of sailing. Being the only one who could swim, 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.960 Williams went to shore and returned with food. The pirates 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:39.040 came back and forced him into piracy, but left the others. Eventually, 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.040 the pirates were captured and a Spanish sloop returned to 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:47.280 rescue the surviving men. For many sailors if exposure, storms, starvation, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.400 or dehydration didn't kill them, a bullet, did you see. 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.040 Crews often left the maroon sailor with a pistol and 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.599 a single bullet, giving them a choice to die a 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.320 slow death or end their life by their own hand. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.760 But even that posed a dilemma. They had been damned 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.680 to die on an island, but death by suicide, in 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.760 their eyes at least, meant damning their souls to hell. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.880 And Alexander was well aware of the survival rates of 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.880 maroon sailors, but he was also aware that he hadn't 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.760 been left a pistol. He had no extra clothes, or 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.040 a blanket or a single provision, And yet there he stood, 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.880 with his feet in the sand, watching his fellow crewmen 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.200 make their way back to the sink point. When he 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.240 realized they meant to take him up on his threat, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.400 he ran into the water, shouting and waving at them 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.320 to come back. At first they ignored his cries, and 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.920 then they called back, reminding him that he had made 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.880 his choice. His attitude and attempt to cause a mutiny 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.040 had been his undoing, they reminded him, and his general 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.200 disposition would no longer be their problem. He watched and 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.560 called until all were boarded and the ship sailed from sight. 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.480 He fared better than most, though the island had a 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.720 good supply of fresh water. Spaniards who had once used 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.959 the island had also left behind a small population of goats. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.560 He found edible herbs, wild plums, cabbages, and other vegetation. 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.120 Alexander learned to overcome the lack of knives and pots 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.880 to eat and cook with. Over time, he managed to 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.440 domesticate the goats too. He refused to fish, hating the 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.640 taste without salt, and the goats became more useful than 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.360 just food too. When his pants and shirt wore thin, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.320 he used goat skin for clothing and even for the 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.360 walls of his hut. He even domesticated a few feral cats, 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.920 which helped with the other animal that the Spanish had 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.800 left behind, rats. Regardless of the species, the animals kept 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.680 him company, and Alexander often danced in his tent to 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.960 pass the time, and even sang to the animals. Instead 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.960 of wasting away, he thrived on the diet, which was 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.000 much better than what some sailors and peasants ate. With 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.000 apple food and water, he could only wait and hope 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.560 that a passing ship would find him, and one day 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.600 that's what he saw off the coast. Alexander might not 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.839 have known what day it was or how many months 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.720 had passed since he'd seen another human being, but he 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.720 cheered and breathed, I have relief. His ordeal was finally over. 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.000 And then he caught sight of the flag, and fear 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.600 replaced joy. The flag was Spanish, and that meant the 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.640 men on board were more likely to kill him that 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.480 rescue him. He hastily disguised his camp and then shimmied 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.480 up a tree. The men arrived and walked around for 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.199 a while and even used the tree to relieve themselves, 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.200 and then they left. Alexander was alone with the animals 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.880 once more, and it would be a very long time 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:38.000 before he ever saw another ship. In sev oh eight, 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.000 privateer Woods Rogers set out on an expedition. The British 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.720 governments and merchants sponsored his voyage, and both wanted the 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:50.000 same outcome to impede the Spanish financially and hinder their 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.240 military might, and the crew looked forward to a profitable 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.200 voyage since the British government had waived their usual cut 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.240 from any raids, and that allowed Rogers to negotiate with 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.720 Bristol merchants to supply capital for two ships and their crews. 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.640 Investors would receive a share of the plunder. Upon the 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:11.160 cruise return, Rogers captain a ton frigate named the Duke, 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.920 and gave command of the Duchess the smaller ship, to 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.520 Stephen Courtney. The ships and crew set sail from Ireland 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.079 in September of seventeen oh wait. Rogers developed a reputation 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.920 of a tough but fair captain. When some of the 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.319 men had gambled away everything they had, including their clothing, 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.360 he banned gambling. The men worked hard, too, and Rogers 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.040 rewarded them well. He made sure his men had good 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.280 food and decent medical care, and of course, he supplied 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.120 them with plenty of alcohol. At times, disagreements would crop 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:44.480 up between captain and crew. Once the crew even mutinied 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.240 when Rogers refused to attack ships from neutral governments. That 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.440 same fate had befallen Captain Kidd a few years before, 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.840 but Rogers managed to regain control quickly and continued his expedition. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.200 They raided several French vessels in seventeen o eight and 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.480 seventeen o line, bringing in substantial profits, but later in 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.840 seventeen o nine, lack of fruit caused a scurvy outbreak, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.120 and to prevent another mutiny, Rogers set course for a 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.680 nearby island, hoping to restock. He hadn't expected to find 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:17.080 anyone living there yet. As the landing party approached, a 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.960 man with long hair and a beard wearing fur clothing 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.200 anxiously hopped from one bare foot to the other and 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.040 waved at them frantically. When the men met, Alexander Selkirk 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.240 told Rogers everything, how he'd come to be marooned and 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.079 how he managed to stay alive. The two compared dates, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.040 determining that Alexander had been on the tiny island for 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.920 roughly four years. The next boat arrived, and Alexander couldn't 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.120 believe who stepped on to shore. There before him stood 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.720 William Dampier. It turns out Rogers hadn't known about the 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.800 former captain's court martial or his previous command of the St. George. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.160 The truth about that came out after a lot of 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.240 questions and talk after Alexander had been marooned. Disaster had 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.480 struck the crew aboard the sink, point their ship had sank, 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.800 leaving Straddling and the others stranded. After that, the Spanish 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.079 had captured them, imprisoning them for piracy, and in the end, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.959 Alexander had survived, while his fellow crewmen had not. With 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.560 this sort of blemished work record, Dampier had honestly been 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.400 lucky to find a job at all, let alone as 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.800 a pilot. Rodgers was so impressed with Alexander that he 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.239 invited him to join the crew on the expedition. Surprisingly, 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.360 though he refused. He told Rogers that he would rather 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.160 remain on the island and die there than serve on 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.520 a ship with Dampier. So Rogers solved the matter by 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.840 taking him aboard the Duke and keeping Dampier on the Duchess, 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.240 and Alexander agreed. The arrangement delighted woods Rogers, but not 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.440 nearly as much as listening in great detail about his 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.680 newfound friends story of survival. To his credit, Alexander returned 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.680 to life at sea as though he had never left, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.320 and Rogers soon promoted him to second mate. They continued 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.720 their journey, bringing in substantial amounts of treasure along the way, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.080 and when they returned to England, to a hero's glory. 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.680 Alexander sailed with them as part of the crew, but 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.800 life was never the same for him. Although the privateering 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.520 had made him wealthy, Alexander said that he had never 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.960 been so happy as those years on the island. Eventually, 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.560 he took to the seas again and died of yellow 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.600 fever in seventy one. Woods Rodgers began to think of 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.760 publishing an account of their journey, but crew member Edward 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.560 cook beat him to it. Rogers wrote a more detailed 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:33.480 version months later, and while both books mentioned Alexander, rogers 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:37.120 retelling fascinated readers the most. He had spent the most 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.400 time in Alexander's company, after all, and he spent all 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.240 of those evenings journaling what he had learned during their conversations. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.040 The War of Spanish Secession ended, leaving readers wanting more 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.600 tales of the High Seas, so Rogers penned a cruising 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.920 voyage around the world detailing their successful plunders and journey, 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:00.600 along with detailed material of Alexander's marooning. Roger Is telling 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.840 easily outsold Edward Cooks. The story captivated readers around the 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.320 globe and inspired a whole new genre of seafaring tales. 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.760 Woods Rogers, the man who brought the Golden Age of 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.040 piracy to heal, could never have foreseen that his book 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.000 would inspire authors to write about pirates fact or fiction. 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.520 People couldn't get enough of them. This season, we've visited 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.840 many of those stories here. We're fascinated with women like 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:35.720 Granne O'Malley and Bonnie and Ching Shi, who all proved 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.560 as fierce as their male counterparts, and legends like Blackbeard, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.320 William Kidd and Benjamin Hornegal never get old. There's Sam Bellamy, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.680 the Romantic Pirates, and of course the amusing Steed Bonnet. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.680 While Edward Lowe and Charles Vane will firmly remain the 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:55.200 villains of the bunch, the Woods Rogers inspired one author 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.760 to write about these real life pirates too. In seventy four, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:03.320 Charles Rivington hawked books near St. Paul's Cathedral. We've mentioned 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.479 the book, A General History of Pirates, written by Captain 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.000 Charles Johnson. The book detailed events surrounding the most infamous 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.200 and notorious pirates to sail the Caribbean. The first three 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.000 editions of the book sold out. The two volumes set 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.280 sold in seventeen twenty six included additional pirates too. No 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.040 one knew who Captain Johnson was, though while the author 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.159 seemingly had a great deal of nautical knowledge, it became 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.439 clear no such captain ever existed, and the author had 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.520 used a pen name. Many people suspect he was actually 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.560 Daniel Dafoe, who had written the widely popular Robinson Caruso 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.320 in seventeen nineteen. That story, if you remember, follows the 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:43.560 adventures of a man shipwrecked on an island. It's assumed 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.360 that Defoe took inspiration from Wood's Rogers telling of Alexander 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.480 Selkirk's marooning, but defoex wasn't the only one smitten with 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.760 pirates and woods Rogers book. A young Scottish author spent 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.040 a rainy afternoon with his young son on one particularly 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.720 dreary day, he created a treasure hunt to pass the time. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:04.840 By the end of the day, though the author had 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:06.840 such a great time that he began to work on 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.600 a story. Ideas swirled in his head. Along with Woods 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:15.320 Roger's story about fellow scott Alexander Selkirk. The author wanted 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.480 a story full of adventure, gold, pirates and buried treasure. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.119 He created vivid characters, including a one legged man with 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.040 a parrot on his shoulder. It was a magazine called 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.600 Young Folks that published the first installment of The Sea 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.960 Cook in eighteen eighty one. Although the author suffered a 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.080 few health setbacks, he kept writing, and by eighteen eighty 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.240 two he had added an additional seventeen chapters to the 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.240 first and it's a story that's still adapted and read today, 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.560 with characters like Captain Flint Long John Silver Billy Bones, 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:53.240 and Jim Hawkins, and the author Robert Lewis Stevenson. And 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.480 the final title of that book, Oh, you already know 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.919 the answer by now, I'm sure the classic adventure now 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:08.920 Treasure Island pirates have captivated us from the time they 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.320 first sailed the seas, and although Blackbeard and Bellamy no 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.199 longer hoist their flags, their spirits live on in the 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:17.919 stories we tell, much like the Tale of the Pirate 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.080 Princess from this season's very first episode. We love them 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.119 so much that we honestly don't care if they're true 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.680 or not. And with that in mind, we've got one 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.240 final story in the cargo Hold for you to enjoy. 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.520 Stick around after this brief sponsor break and my crewmates, 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:42.600 Alie Steed will tell you all about it. Most ships 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.720 avoided the area Lucy how to dubious reputation as the 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:50.280 most pirate infested waters on Earth. Authorities repeatedly warned ships 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.400 to steer clear. Sailing into those waters was like swimming 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.160 with sharks. Yet one captain chose to ignore the warnings. 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.920 His Groove twenty had been well versed in pirate attacks 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.760 and he had cargo deliver. Though the crew disagreed with 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.480 the decision to stay on course, the captain had final 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.680 say and overrode them. They pushed onward, making good time 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.199 towards their destination, and kept a watchful eye on the 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.440 horizon for other ships. In the early dawn hours that April, 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.719 four armed pirates aboard a small skiff approached the cargo 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.200 ship and alert was sounded, sending men scrambling from their beds. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.560 As it stood, the ship was too big to outrun 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.680 the pirates. All they could do was try to stop 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.240 them from boarding. Training taught them that pirates would likely 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.520 shoot at the bridge. First crewmember Mike Perry ushered the 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.200 others on board to a safer location. Then he used 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.240 the ship's rudder to swamp the pirates skiff. Still, the 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.240 pirates closed in. Perry removed part of the ship's control 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.600 from the bridge, and crewmember Matt Fisher controlled the steering gear. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.600 After sending off a few flares to signal distress, the 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.199 ship went black, meaning that when the pirates boarded they 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:51.119 wouldn't be able to control it. Perry, Fisher, and some 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.880 of the other crew remained hidden and barricaded in a room. 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.560 They listened for the sound of the inevitable That came 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.400 at daybreak when the pirates tossed a grappling hook aboard 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.080 and they heard to catch. Not long after came the 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:06.240 captain's chilling words, the bridge has been compromised. Then the 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:09.320 captain fell silent. Perry and Fisher didn't have to see 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.439 the pirates to know the captain and those with him 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.240 had already been taken hostage. If they were still alive, 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.480 the pirates would probably come for them next. Perry waited 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.440 outside the secured room, armed with only a knife. The 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.000 dark compartment served as his only advantage. The pirates leader 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.280 entered brandishing a gun. For a while, pirate and sailor 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.160 engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse. After 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.919 a few tense moments, Perry stabbed the pirate and managed 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.040 to take him hostage. The room where the rest of 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.639 the crew was hiding had grown stiflingly hot, and they 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.119 couldn't stay inside much longer. But now they had a 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.280 hostage of their own, and negotiations began. For a while, 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.280 it looked like the pirates were willing to exchange their 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.680 leader for the captain, but at the last minute, the 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.680 pirates forced the captain into one of the lifeboats and fled. 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.280 In response to the hijacking, the U. S. Navy sent 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.320 a destroyer and a frigate to the area while the 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.439 pirates awaited their own backup. Once naval ships arrived, the 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.920 situation became a standoff. With each advancing hour, the predicament 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.120 became dire. Another band of pirates had recently captured four 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.119 other vessels not far away. They were on route with 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.080 fifty four hostages they planned to use as human shields. 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.440 Three days into the standoff, a frustrated pirate fired on 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:18.000 a frigate, striking no one. Luckily, four days into the situation, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.640 snipers killed three pirates on the lifeboat and rescued the captain. 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.320 Authorities took the surviving pirate to the U S and 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.000 charged him with conspiracy to seize a ship by force, 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.760 conspiracy to commit hostage taking, and piracy. In the Golden Age, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.800 he would have been hanged. Instead, the court sentence stobbed 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.399 dually mused to thirty three years in prison. If this 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.240 story sounds familiar, it's because it happened recently. In two 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.320 thousand nine off the coast of Somalia. Captain Phillips returned 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:45.240 home safely, as did the rest of the crew aboard 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:47.840 the m V Marris Alabama. There's no question that pirates 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:50.600 still exist. In twenty ten, they attacked four hundred forty 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:53.879 five ships, taking one thousand, one hundred eighty one people hostage. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.440 From January to March of twenty eleventh, there were a 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.440 hundred and nineteen pirate attacks. Eighty three off the coast 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:03.040