North Carolina has always loved pirates. We see them in every gift shop and souvenir store along our coast, with wooden carvings of Blackbeard, posters of old pirate treasure maps, and novelty cutlasses and swords. Pirates and privateers are part of our history. Even when we were kids, we knew that there was pirate gold buried somewhere on the beach, if we only dug deep enough. The Carolina coast has had more than just Edward Teach, the notorious Blackbeard, to grace its shores over the centuries. Stede Bonnet and Captain Kidd also have legends attached to the Old North State. When North Carolina was still a fledgling colony, and the coast was rugged and bare, before the first settlements would find take root in the sand dunes, pirates were using the barrier islands and sounds to hide and attack. Read about the many other pirates that found both success and failure across the coast. William Howard had a long and happy life after his career in piracy, while Israel Hands certainly did not. In the early 1800s Otway Burns had great success during the War of 1812. Theodosia Burr might have met a worse end from pirates at the same time. Of course, no pirate book would be complete without some pirate ghost stories, so they are included, too, just to chill your bones a little on a stormy night. Do the victims of a pirate attack still sail into Ocracoke? Does the ghost of a kidnapped woman walk the roads of the same sleepy village? Their stories are shared, too. And pirates weren't just icons of a past time long ago. The legend of the mysterious ghost ship Carroll Deering is intertwined with 20th century pirates. And if that isn't contemporary enough, there even is a pirate, complete with an armed sailing ship, anchored at Beaufort, complete with a privateer's letter of marque, ready to defend the U.S. when ordered. Until that time, Captain Horatio Sinbad teaches others how to be pirates, to work the lines, and live a sailor's life. So, if you ever, even once, yo-ho-ho'ed, put your knee up on a railing, or stared out to sea, wanting to be a pirate, this book is for you. There's so much more to North Carolina pirates and villains than just our favorite son Blackbeard. Get your copy today, put on that eyepatch, and get ready for your next adventure.