PIRATES IN PETTICOATS

Although a salty old hag decorates the book jacket, the "ladies" reported on emerge desalinated. Well researched but heavily fictionalized accounts of the likes of Anne Bonney and Mary Reade reveal three motives that brought the girls before the masts: love, revenge and money. The lady pirates of the China seas have a certain exotic appeal but, altogether, they are made out a bland crew here. Their buckles just don't swash as much as they swish.