风度翩翩的西拉船长与他关系密切的船员往来于加勒比海:侯爵,一个前奴隶,戴着粉末状假发;聪明的、面容粗糙的荷兰人;身材魁梧、蓄着胡子的勒努瓦;大副奥利维耶,生性忧郁,被认为会带来厄运。这可能是因为他把时间都花在写日志上了,收件人是一个虚构的英国“准将”,他有一天会抓住他们。但也许他是其中唯一一个头脑清醒的人:帝国海军的不幸弃儿,这些海盗的自由和博爱的日子屈指可数,因为法律、秩序和资本的力量正在压制他们。
The dashing Captain Sylla plies the Caribbean with his close-knit crew: The Marquis, a former slave who sports a powdered periwig; the clever, craggy-faced Dutch; the burly, bearded Lenoir; and first mate Olivier, given to gloom and considered a bringer of bad luck. This is likely because he spends his time composing log entries addressed to a fictive British "Commodore" who will someday capture them. But perhaps he is the only clear-eyed one among them: luckless outcasts of imperial navies, these pirates' days of freedom and fraternity are numbered, as the forces of law, order, and capital bear down on them.