Romantic heroes forced to become outcasts, incredible adventures, heated battles, countless treasures - this is how the world of pirates and corsairs is usually seen by our contemporaries, who know about it from novels. In reality, there were cramped stinking cockpits, bouts of seasickness, skinned hands on ropes, rotten water in barrels, clouds of mosquitoes, heat and chills of fever, mortal risks for the sake of money spent on endless drinking bouts, and rare successes that made you forget about frequent disappointments. Ekaterina Glagoleva’s book tells about famous and unknown pirates, corsair capitals and pirate islands, what the line from the song “fifteen men on a dead man’s chest” means, where the well-known Jolly Roger came from and what is the truth in the legends about pirate treasures. Alas, little changes over time: as long as money rules the world, piracy is ineradicable.