Daniel Defoe

Captain Singleton Daniel Defoe

The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton is a novel by Daniel Defoe, originally published in 1720. It has been re-published multiple times since, some of which times were in 1840, 1927, 1972 and 2008. Captain Singleton is believed to have been partly inspired by the exploits of the English pirate Henry Every, who operated in the late 17th century. The narrative describes the life of the Englishman, Singleton, stolen from a well-to-do family as a child and raised by Gypsies, eventually making his way to sea. The former half of the book concerns Singleton's crossing of Africa, the latter half concerning his life as a pirate in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Defoe's description of piracy focuses for the most part on matters of economics and logistics, and Singleton's pirate behaves more like a merchant adventurer, perhaps Defoe's comment on the mercantilism of his day.