Going On The Account: On Even Stranger Tides

So, among the news feed items regarding pirates, such as the release of the crew of the MV Albedo nearly two years after their capture off Somalia and how piracy is hobbling Android apps, was this piece from NorthJersey.com about how there was action during the Golden Age of Piracy on the Hackensack River.

 

Which shouldn’t surprise anyone, really; as New York became a more active port, where better to base to hit the trade coming in and out than marshy water where a low draft vessel can slide in and out of quickly and disappear into the reeds when finished?  Supposedly the situation was so bad that British and later American authorities had to set fire to the woods, which were aflame for three days, to drive the pirates out.

 

Unfortunately, the article suggests that there was so little written about the event at the time because there was no romance to be found in such actions, and so the happenings there were considered to be folklore until recently.  At best, the lives these buccaneers lived because of the lack of accounts had to mean that their existence was not worth writing about.

 

Well, here’s another item on the list for a future project for me:  The Pyrates of Secaucus…