If you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘shipshape and Bristol fashion’ you might not know that it comes from when Bristolian sailors had to keep their cargo neat and tidy on their ships to prevent them from tipping over when the tide went out. First listed as a trading city in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1051, Bristol’s maritime history is one of the oldest and most important in all of Britain, indeed the world.
The city’s strong links with Transatlantic slavery and the tobacco trade inevitably led to Bristol’s involvement with piracy. Two