This is the true relation of the treacherous, mutinous, and violent acts of the pirate Captain John Mucknell. It tells of how he came to steal a brand new 44 gun flag ship, the John, only to loose her upon the rocks of Scilly, where a pirate fleet he commanded were then based. Operating in the name of King Charles I, Mucknell's ships wreaked havoc upon shipping, of all trading nations, in the western approaches during the English Civil War; until, as it was then written - "that God, or the gallows, make an end of him" The story also incorporates a modern day hunt for the wreck.