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Born to be hanged : the epic story of the gentlemen pirates who raided the South seas, rescued a princess, and stole a fortune / Keith Thomson.

by Thomson, Keith, 1965-

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Little, Brown and Company, c2022.

Morgan, Henry, 1635?-1688.

Piracy -- Panama -- History -- 17th century.

Pirates -- Panama -- History -- 17th century.

Panama -- History -- 17th century.

9780316703611 (hc.)

ix, 371 p. : ill. ; maps; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"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."--Goodreads.

Creative nonfiction.

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