"[A]n absorbing, fact-based biography that sheds light on some of
the murkier waters... It is a significant addition to any collection
dealing with pirate history." -- Pirates and Privateers
Edward 'Ned' Low's career in piracy began with a single gunshot. While
working on a logging ship in the Bay of Honduras the quick-tempered Ned
was provoked by the ship's captain. He responded by grabbing a musket
and inciting a mutiny. Then the London-born sailor and a dozen of his
crewmates held a council, stitched a black flag and voted to make war
against the whole world preying on ships from any nation, flying any
flag. Low's name became synonymous with brutality and torture during the
1720s as he cut a swathe of destruction from the shores of Nova Scotia
to the Azores, the coast of Africa and throughout the Caribbean. Ned
Low's life was one of failed redemption: a thief from childhood who
briefly rose in the world after moving to America, only to fall again
lower and harder than before. He was feared even by his own crew, and
during his life on the wrong side of the law he became infamous for his
extreme violence, fatalistic behavior, and became perhaps one of the
best examples of why pirates were classed in Admiralty Law as hostis
humani generis: the common enemies of all mankind.
