A one-word summary of what we do might well be “pirate-hunting”.

Pirates are one of the most popular icons in modern culture, yet novelists and film-makers have greatly distorted who they really were.

Some of us have worked for over twenty years to separate fact from fiction. In so doing, we have learned—yet again—that “truth is stranger than fiction”.

As Barry puts it: “It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out”

These pages are devoted to some of the things we’ve found out about pirates…