BtbH is as adventuresome as any exploits of more famous pirates like Morgan or Blackbeard, perhaps with more recklessness and miraculous escapes than the fictitious adventures of Jack Sparrow. Their journey is almost a comedy of errors and bad judgment, surviving scrape after scrape with their Spanish adversaries. What I particularly appreciated in Thomson’s narration, was his ability to bring to life how arduous and awful life on the seas actually was. Far from the romanticized image of the Pirate Life, reality was a much more gruesome and toilsome endeavor. It was incredibly dangerous, and not just from Spanish War Galleons; literally anything could kill you. Thomson pairs the picture well with the desperation of the crew for a story that is hard to believe that anyone survived.