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David Cordingly is an English maritime historian, who is considered one of the leading authorities on piracy. He was on the staff of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich for twelve years, where he was Keeper of Pictures and then Head of Exhibitions. Cordingly was also the author of such books as Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates.

David Cordingly was the historical consultant and pirate expert for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In addition, Cordingly appears in the DVD/Blu-ray bonus features in a section titled "Below Deck", a virtual tour of a pirate ship.

Biography[]

Life and career[]

A graduate of Oxford University where he read Modern History, David Cordingly subsequently worked as a graphic designer in London, taught in Jamaica, and was an exhibition designer at the British Museum. He was Keeper of the Art Gallery and Museum at Brighton and then Assistant Director of the Museum of London. He has a doctorate from the University of Sussex for his thesis on the artist John Brett, and was awarded a Leverhulme research grant which enabled him to complete his book on the life of the marine artist Nicholas Pocock.[1]

David Cordingly was the author of such books as Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates.[2] He has appeared on camera in several television documentary programmes, and has been a regular contributor to BBC radio programmes. In America he has given lectures at the Smithsonian in Washington and many of the major maritime museums on the east and west coast. In Britain he has given talks at the Royal Geographical Society, the Cheltenham Literary Festival, and various museums and galleries. He has been sailing since he was a boy and currently has a 26-foot Vertue which he sails from Brighton Marina in Sussex. He is married to Shirley who works as a garden designer. They live in small Regency house in the centre of Brighton and have two children and three grandchildren.[1]

While at the museum, David Cordingly organised a series of major exhibitions including the highly successful Pirates: Fact and Fiction,[1] which included artifacts from Port Royal, Jamaica; Captain Kidd's privateering commission; fine portraits of William Dampier and Robert Louis Stevenson; as well as the Peter Pan costume worn by Pauline Chase in the 1909 London production, and the pirate costumes worn by Dustin Hoffman (Captain Hook) and Bob Hoskins (Mr. Smee) in Steven Spielberg's film Hook. His book Under the Black Flag was published by Random House in the United States where it received enthusiastic reviews and led to him acting as curator for exhibitions of piracy in New York, Virginia, and Nassau in the Bahamas.[3]

Pirates of the Caribbean[]

David Cordingly was historical consultant for the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[1] Costume designer Penny Rose notably spent three weeks absorbing ideas, having consulted with David Cordingly and went to other resources to learn about costumes from the period.[2] Cordingly would appear in one of the bonus features in the film's initial DVD release in a section titled "Below Deck", a virtual tour of a pirate ship which consists of several documentary shorts, hosted by Cordingly, comparing piracy fact and fiction.[4]

The instructions for author A. C. Crispin in writing the 2011 novel Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom were to "stick to historical fact, unless it conflicts with established Pirates of the Caribbean continuity." Crispin made a faithful effort to do this, having done plenty of research, with Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly being one of the four pirate-related books she found herself using the most consistently.[5]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

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