The devil's anarchy : the sea robberies of the most famous pirate Claes G. Compaen & the very remarkable travels of Jan Erasmus Reyning, buccaneer

Of interest to historians and students, Snelders here provides a scholarly history of Dutch pirates, focusing on the politics of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. By rebelling against hierarchical society and living under the Jolly Roger, pirates created an upside-down world of anarchist organization and festival, with violence and death ever-present. This creation was not a purely whimsical process. In The Devil's Anarchy, Stephen Snelders examines rare 17th-century Dutch pirate histories to show the continuity of a shared pirate culture, embodied in its modes of organization, methods of distributing booty and resolving disputes, and tendencies for high living. Focussing on the careers of Claes Compaen, a cunning, charismatic renegado who claimed to have stolen more than 350 vessels, and Jan Erasmus Reyning, who hit the seas at age 12 and became a buccaneer in the pirate jungles of Santo Domingo, Snelders paints a salty picture of the excesses, contradictions, and liberatory joys of pirate life. Preface by Peter Lamborn Wilson (Hakim Bey) 1. The Sea Robberies of the Most Famous Pirate Claes G. Compaen 2. The Other Loose Roving Way of Life: The Very Remarkable Travels of Jan Erasmus Reyning. Buccaneer 3. Devil's Anarchy: The Politics of Piracy