"When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet. But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged...

Over the years, thousands of tales, both true and fantastic, have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates, and their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Compiled here are more than 100 of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history's most debaucherous scalawags. The stories, songs, and verses include writing by Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson, and...

"The most powerful pirate in history was a woman who was born into poverty in Guangzhou, China, in the early 1800s. When pirates attacked her town and the captain took a liking to her, she saw a way out. Zheng Yi Sao agreed to marry him only if she got an equal share of his business. When her husband died six years later, she took command of the fleet. Over the next decade, the pirate queen built a fleet of over 1,800 ships and 70,000 men. On land...

Defeated by an unruly bunch of pirates who throw him overboard, a once-fearsome pirate is rescued by a mermaid only to be swallowed by a whale who suffers from indigestion because of a treasure-laden ship in its tummy.

Pirates, pets and puns run amok as a swaggering but softhearted captain swashbuckler embarks on a daring quest to find a perfect animal sidekick.

In a modern-day pirate story, ambitious documentary filmmaker Dara Barr and her right-hand man, Xavier LeBo, a seventy-two-year-old African American seafarer, get more than they bargained for on the Horn of Africa.

Sixteen-year-old Nix has sailed across the globe and through centuries aboard her time-traveling father's pirate ship, but when he gambles with her very existence, it all may come to an end.

A yacht bearing a young American couple is attacked by Somali pirates, leading to bloodshed and the violent kidnapping of the pregnant woman on board. To aid in her rescue from the lawless and war-torn jungles of coastal Africa, Sigma Force enlists the aid of a unique search team.

The son of a proud naval dynasty, Gabriel Hawkins was born to command the sea, until he leaves the Royal Navy in disgrace and is disowned by his family. As captain of his own ship, he's earned his living in ways both legal and illegal, and his experience makes him the best choice to ransom an aristocratic beauty captured by Barbary pirates. Having avoided the traps of convention and marriage, Lady Aurora Lawrence is horrified by the prospect of spending...