Nautilus is a different kind of science magazine. We deliver big-picture science by reporting on a single monthly topic from multiple perspectives. Read a new chapter in the story every Thursday.
As world trade burgeoned in the age of colonial expansion, valuable cargoes were transported across the world s oceans, providing vast opportunity for piracy on the seas. Who were the most famous pirates, and who were the worst? And were there any female pirates? Here are 14 of history s most despicable pirates, who plundered the seas from the ports of the American colonies to the Indian Ocean…