Sea-Rogues

UNDER THE BLACK FLAG--Don C. Seitz Dial ($4.00).

THE REIGN OF THE PIRATES--Archibald Hurd--Knopf ($3.50).

It is disheartening to learn that Captain Kidd was only an inept revenue agent, but these histories have their compensations. Henry Morgan of Jamaica comes up to scratch as the bellicose gentleman adventurer. No brigand could be more fearsome than Blackbeard Teach, who festooned his ears with braids from his chin and decked his hat with blazing brimstone. Also, there are the two extraordinary prototypes of the bobbed-hair bandit, Pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who successfully combined marauding and maternity. Author Hurd selects a dozen of the sea-rogues, letting a good tale justify its telling. Author Seitz collects a murderous crew of some two-score--all there were to be found, one feels and touches off the exhaustive store of anecdote in a rare, quirky style that smacks tartly of 18th Century.