It is unremarkable that piracy inspired an anonymous composer to pen the above lyrics. Piracy has the quality to capture the human imagination and continues to influence poetry, books, music and movies to this day. Likewise, it is unremarkable that piracy inspired artistic endeavour as early as 1822. Less than a decade previously, Lord Byron – the British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic Movement — had published The Corsair, in which the pirate captain Conrad fought for noble causes and won ladies' hearts. What is remarkable about ‘The Pirates of 1822’, however, is that it refers not to fictional and fantastical pirates as Byron's poem did and as the novels of Ballantyne, Stevenson and Barrie would do over the course of the next century, rather, ‘The Pirates of 1822’ referred to a very real threat.