DeCuervo,
I was almost going to tell you that Captain Python already started this thread, and then I `re-read` your question and realized that it is a different question altogether from his.
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Another good idea for a thread!
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My favorite historical pirate is, surprisingly, Sir Christopher Mings, who was active in the Carribean around 1660. Henry Morgan was involved in many of the actions that Mings orchestrated, and it is reported that Morgan learned a great deal from Mings that he was later to put to use in his own conquests.
Mings' tactics involved, "Attack from an unexpected quarter at an unexpected hour, plunder swiftly and slip away before the Spaniards regained their senses." (I got that out of the `Time-Life` Seafarers series, "The Spanish Main".)
The main thing I admire about Mings is his ability to improvise; when Mings took Santiago, it was because he was willing to quickly switch gears and come up with a new plan, that caught the Spanish Commander, Don Cristobal Arnoldo Yssasi, completely by surprise, when the first plan became unworkable.
Mings was later killed in a battle with the Dutch Fleet in the English Channel, and Samuel Pepys reported in his diary how he had witnessed sailors who had served with Mings volunteering to man a fire ship against the Dutch Fleet to honor their fallen commander.
Here's a link to a site someone came up with about Mings that I like:
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/captcutlass/bio/myngs.html" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/captcutlass/bio/myngs.html</a>
Have you read the pirate biographies that PA members have written, that are on the main site? If you haven't, I think you will like them. Maybe you should consider writing one about Ned Low, William is always looking for contributions to the main page.
Also, Mad Jack, Catalina the Pirate and I have been putting together some limericks about how various famous pirates died that we eventually are planning to put together and put onto the main site. We're calling it the "Pirate's Graveyard" and we are trying to stick to what has been reported as being factual, pirate facts being what they are notwithstanding. You, along everyone else, are more than welcome to participate in this project. What we have so far is in the "There Once was a Pirate from Limerick..." thread.
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