Thanks very much for the names! Alas, I have no university access, but I've already snagged Rediker's pirate-specific book for when I've finished The Many-Headed Hydra (so good!), and have Cordingly's book on order.

We can play as many rounds of Real or Not Real as you want going forward, and I think you'll be delighted with how much of it is Real or at least Real-adjacent.

Yeah, I went diving for the Rediker&Linebaugh partly because I knew just enough smidges of the history to have a sense that a lot of the things that may strike some people as improbable or jarringly modern are actually well-documented fact, and wanted to check my recollections.