Published to coincide with a major new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Buried Treasure lifts the lid or ‘blows the gaff’ on pirate lore and sayings, setting the record straight on the lives and ways of pirates, and revealing the meanings behind, and uses of, common maritime sayings. This book is a light-hearted and informative look at some of the most feared men and women who sailed the seas, and the popular cultural representations that sprang up around them in literature and in film.

Sections include:

• Talk like a pirate: From scuttlebutt to cackle fruit and saw bones to old salt, the language of piracy is explored and explained.
• Myth-busting pirate facts: Did you know that pirates shared any treasure captured fairly among the crew, or that Bartholomew Roberts often celebrated captures with a cup of tea? What happened to pirates when they were caught? And did their victims really ‘walk the plank’?
• Pirate profiles: meet some of the most fearsome and feared pirate figures, from Black Bart to Blackbeard, Anne Bonny to Mary Read.
• Global piracy: pirate activity was not confined to any specific region – pirates operated in many different regions of the world. Find out about the pirate culture of North Africa, South and South-east Asia and China.