Pirate ship histories vanish when crews leave no records

Why has so much information about Age of Sail pirate ships been lost?

Because pirate crews rarely kept systematic records, there was little information available to survive.

Historians lack pirate-ship information because there was little documentation to preserve. Pirate crews were not maintaining the administrative records expected from a state navy or merchant organization. Gaps in the surviving narrative therefore reflect the conditions under which the vessels operated, not merely later archival loss. The exchange is a compact lesson in how record-keeping determines which maritime lives and ships can be reconstructed.