Professor Mills Kelly of George Mason University had his History 389 class spend the fall semester on a class project about the intriguing figure of Edward Owens, the "Last American Pirate". They blogged about their research, made videos for YouTube, and gave Owens a Wikipedia entry. The story even got some media attention. There was just one problem: History 389 was a class on historical hoaxes, and Edward Owens was their fictional creation. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole on Jan 4, 2009 - 47 comments

On the Chilean island of Robinson Crusoe, a small GPR-enabled robot named Arturito (google translated page) has apparently just found "The biggest treasure in history..." (estimated at $10 Billion).
posted by numlok on Sep 26, 2005 - 25 comments

Tell me, maties... Who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe? Who stole more treasure than he could carry from the Spanish pig-dogs? Aye, the most famous pirate of all, Sir Francis Drake! Some say he even invaded British Colombia with the world's first steam-powered ship...
posted by kaibutsu on Sep 19, 2003 - 6 comments

The Mother of All Maritime Links. Feeling a little landlocked? From "Pirates" (over twenty links) to "Weather & Tides," from plain old "History" to "Music" and beyond, this site is one of the more comprehensive available.
posted by datawrangler on Feb 7, 2003 - 5 comments

The only "war" I can think of in U.S. history anything like the present situation is the U.S. Navy's war on Caribbean piracy (1814-1825). Stateless, decentralized foe, no defined fields of battle, no "high-value targets"...Again, 1814-1825: eleven years. Any U.S. history majors out there?
posted by luser on Sep 19, 2001 - 19 comments