Like beads threaded on a necklace, hundreds of islands stretch in a 3000-kilometer arc between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. On one end, there is Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, on the other end the northern coast of South America. They are known as the Caribbean Islands, but on some maps, they are still designated as West Indies. The islands consist of three main groups: Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles.
Shortly after Columbus discovered the Caribbean, the traffic became quite heavy. A different one than today, of course. First there were ships with discoverers and settlers, then ships with slaves, and later galleys transporting goods of all kinds to hundreds of places around the globe. The pirates took full advantage of these possibilities and plundered to their hearts’ content. But they were not the only looters there. The corsairs, also called buccaneers, were another danger to freight ships. The buccaneers differed from pirates in that they had permission from their governments to assault and loot enemy ships. The pirates, on the other hand, acted on their own.