Free Republic

To life, love and a legendary privateer’s lost fleet. U.S. archaeologists are continuing their search for real-life buccaneer Captain Henry Morgan’s lost fleet after the discovery of six cannons, a 17th century wooden shipwreck and even a barrel that may very well contain rum. Yo, ho ho indeed. Aptly backed by the Captain Morgan rum brand, a team of leading archaeologists led by Frederick “Fritz” Hanselmann of Texas State University hope to unlock the myth and mysteries of one of history’s most iconic sea captains. “We’re interested in telling the true story of Henry Morgan,” Hanselmann, who is a director...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2009 – Pirates often are in the news for their criminal activities at sea, but their antics are far from new. Pirates have been around since man first took to the high seas, and a type of sea raider known as a privateer made a mark between the 15th and 19th centuries. Michael Crawford, a senior Navy historian, traced the rise of privateering and touched on strategies to combat modern pirates during an Aug. 24 “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable. “A privateer is a private man of war who has a license from his sovereign government to attack the...