If a pirate I must be

Speaker: Richard Sanders
22nd September

The speaker talked about the life of Welsh pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, who ravaged the Caribbean and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. Roberts was the most successful of all pirates, capturing around 400 ships, but today he is almost forgotten, probably because he does not conform to our stereotype. He drank tea rather than rum. He organised his ship along strictly democratic and egalitarian lines. A third of his men were black. And he was probably gay.

Richard Sanders: is a freelance journalist and documentary-maker. His films include Escobar's Own Goal, on the murder of the Colombian footballer Andres Escobar following the 1994 World Cup; Invading Iraq: How Britain and America Got It Wrong; and Katrina: The Hurricane that Shamed America, all for Channel 4. He developed an interest in pirates while living in Colombia in the mid-1990s.

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