a good, but tiny start to demystifying pirates. They were paid mercenaries for the English and possibly others. I wouldn't be surprised if they were an unofficial part of the Royal Navy, much like paramilitaries in Colombia. They would steal gold and silver from the Spanish, who killed and enslaved natives to get it. There were safe ports in the English colonies, so the pirates could hide when the Spanish came after them. I don't see any romance to pirates. Returning to the comparison of the paramilitaries, I wouldn't think of bunch of mercenaries that go around doing the dirty work for their master something to romanticize.