The Maine nurse saving lives in the Mediterranean

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram I profile Tim Harrison, a veteran Medecins sans Frontiers nurse from Union, Maine who has spent decades saving lives in some of the most dangerous and unstable parts of the world. Now he's on an MSF rescue ship off the coast of Libya, saving thousands of migrants fleeing war, torture, and sex trafficking in their home countries, which are spread across the Eastern Hemisphere.

European governments, for their part, tried to shut them down, refusing scheduled refueling stops or even threatening prosecution (because the rescuers don't return migrants to Libya, the lawless country they are fleeing from in overloaded rubber rafts.)

Details in the story.

My Life as a Pirate Guru (continued)

Ubisoft is less than a week away from releasing Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, and the pirate-related media blitz is underway. I'm pleased The Republic of Pirates -- and the intriguing era it explains -- is getting so much reflected attention.

As I noted last week, I've been in demand as a pirate consultant of late, and this week has been no exception. Viz:

VICE Media has released the third and final installment of their pirate mini-documentary, Rum, Guns, and Gallows, this one focusing on Calico Jack Rackham. Yes, I return in my cameo roles as "pirate guru" to the project. (You can see parts I and II here.)

Earlier today, the German site GamesTrust.de released this video wherein I can be seen discussing early 18th century diving technology next to a tank of sharks in (dubbed) German. Can't miss television there. There's also this piece from Italy's EveryEye.It. [Update: 10/28/2013: And this from Stern, the German weekly magazine.]

This morning, I decreed that pirates are back in a big way in the Calgary Sun, Toronto Sun, and sister papers. (You read it there first.)

And, finally, there's this from Latin Times on how Republic of Pirates is boosting the economy of Puerto Rico (with a little assist from NBC's Crossbones.)

Pirates. They're everywhere. There's no escape.

[Update, 10/31/13: Some more of my interviews are out now:

* Here in the U.S., this enjoyable discussion with Kill Screen.

* From Finland, an extensive print-and-video interview with Dome.fi (in Finnish).

* From  France, my feature article on the early founding of the Nassau pirate republic in this special pirates issue of Historia, the monthly Paris-based history magazine. (There's a paywall for the article, alas.) ]

Talking pirates in Italy

"World Wide Woodard" hasn't been bounding from continent to continent as much in recent years, but last week did have me in Italy, talking about the golden age pirates with European media aboard a full-scale replica Spanish galleon and from the inside of the dungeon of a Piedmontian castle.

I'm the author of The Republic of Pirates, a history of the pirate gang that is responsible for nine-tenths of our pop culture pirate imagery, and media have been wanting to hear from me of late because of the forthcoming release of a major video game. Ubisoft's Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag is set among the same pirates -- who included Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, and Ann Bonny -- and I was a script consultant, helping improve the historical accuracy of details and dialogue in the game.

My first interviews were held in Genoa aboard the Neptune Galleon, a replica galleon built in Tunisia for Roman Polankski's unsuccessful 1986 film, Pirates. Rogert Ebert said the ship was the best thing in the production, which he introduced thusly: "There hasn't been a pirate movie in a long time, and after Roman Polanski's "Pirates," there may not be another one for a very long time." As a backdrop to a pirate video game launch event, however, it can't be beat.

Later, I found myself in front of rival Spanish television crews, explaining the unusual staying power of the Bahamas-based pirate gang in the dungeon of the Castello di Tagliolo Monferrato, still the residence of the Marquis of Tagliolo and his family. (The Marquis, who was on hand to welcome our polygot group, told me his ancestors invested in Christopher Columbus' voyages.) In a wonderful collision of history and historical fiction, the castle was festooned with flags and multi-story banners bearing the Assassins Creed IV logo. Arrr.

In any case, some of the first interviews have begun to surface, and I'll post links to others as they come. For now, Italian speakers can enjoy this piece in Corriere della Sera, the Milan-based paper that is Italy's second largest.

More on pirates to come....

[Update, 10/25/13: Additional coverage and interviews from this and other events linked to here.]