Categories
Explore the major topics across A Pirate's Glossary. Each category includes a selection of featured entries.
Anatomy of a Ship
From bow to stern and keel to mast: the parts, fittings, and rigging that make up a sailing vessel.
Famous Pirates
Biographies and lore of history’s most notorious buccaneers and privateers. Explore the figures who defined the Golden Age of Piracy.
Financials
Booty, shares, pursers, and prize courts—how pirates divided wealth and kept the books at sea.
Flags
Jolly Rogers, ensigns, and signaling flags flown by pirates and navies—symbols that struck fear and sent messages across the waves.
Measurement
Nautical units, speeds, depths, and distances used at sea—knots, fathoms, leagues, and more.
Merriment & Misery
Namecalling
Colorful epithets, ranks, and insults heard on quarterdecks and quaysides. Learn the nicknames pirates gave foes and friends alike.
Phrases
Everyday pirate sayings and shipboard exclamations. Learn the language of the high seas and talk like a true buccaneer.
Places
Ports, islands, and waters central to pirate history—from Caribbean havens to notorious capes and coasts.
Ships
Vessel types, rigs, and classes—from sloops and schooners to frigates—that plied the trade routes and hunted on the high seas.
Weaponry
Arms and ordnance of the age of sail: cutlasses, pistols, cannon, powder, and the tools that won (and lost) sea battles.
