As told in my book, The Republic of Pirates, Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, Calico Jack Rackham, and other members of the infamous Nassau-based pirate gang operated throughout the Bahamian archipelago, including the Turks & Caicos (where they enjoyed ambushing Bermuda vessels that came here to rake salt.) I also had an opportunity to compare colonial history notes with my fellow presenters: antique book and map dealer Graham Arader (who let me peruse an original copy of a famous 1655 account of the West Indies) and the erstwhile cocktail aficionado Patrick Costigan (who introduced me to The Hemingway.)
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The Turks & Caicos Sporting Club, located on Big Ambergris Cay, is an unusual place: an 1100-acre private island resort with its own international airport, airline, utility company, and desalinization plant. Building lots go for $600,000 to $6 million. It's a world apart from Providenciales, the hub of the Turks & Caicos, where a corruption inquiry has triggered the resignation of the prime minister and prompted the United Kingdom to prepare to suspend the territory's constitution. (More on that later.)