MetaFilter posts tagged with pirates and history

Avast ye!

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:12:44 -0800

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. Professor Kelly actually warned readers of his blog in advance that the hoax would be coming, and argued that "we need to be playful sometimes in the study of history and that this course is a good way to do just that, even as we do some serious learning along the way." But others question the costs that the class's learning experience might have for the rest of us. There's a good article at the Chronicle of Higher Education if you have subscriber access. (Via).

Welcome our big-bootied robot overloards

numlok — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:14:47 -0800

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).

up for a quick jaunt 'round the globe, followed by some plundering of spanish gold, and then home to bed the virgin queen...

kaibutsu — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 15:03:54 -0800

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...

The Mother of All Maritime Links.

datawrangler — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 19:38:09 -0800

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.

luser — Wed, 19 Sep 2001 06:19:46 -0800

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?