Philip Royce Earnhart - The Mutiny Series

“It was, in royal eyes, quite acceptable to plunder ships and steal their booty, as long as that was being done so for the furtherance of the empire, so long as riches were still being channelled back to the capital. Pirates were ‘the very negation of imperial social order’ precisely because to turn pirate they had raised two fingers at those who commanded them. It wasn’t their thievery that was so heinous, so unutterably villainous, but their self-determination and refusal to be governed.”