I begin with words written by the West Indian novelist Jamaica Kincaid:

English-speaking world, these words will sound treasonous. I suspect the author meant them to be. In any case, whether they are or they are not, whether we like them or we do not, we nonetheless need to hear them, for they contain an important truth, one that everyone interested in maritime history needs to ponder. Those historical figures some see as heroes, others see as criminals. And the reverse is true: those historical figures some see as criminals, others see as heroes. Lord Nelson, hero to many, is a criminal to Jamaica Kincaid. Conversely, pirates, criminals to many (certainly to Nelson), were heroes, in their own day as in ours, to many. It is all a question of perspective – more specifically, of the power to impose perspective in the interpretation of history, as in the naming of streets, as in the building of museums, as in the writing of books.

It is an old question, of course. Well before Jamaica Kincaid was born, Bertolt Brecht asked:

Or more to the point, from the same poem:

So let us remember the names of Nelson, Rodney, Hood, and Drake, but let us also ask: who sailed their ships? ho made possible their victories at sea? Over whom and with whom did they triumph? At whose expense the victory ball? Or better yet: whose history is it after all? Whose maritime history is it? Who is in? Who is out? We now live, worldwide, in an age of heightened cultural sensitivity. Whether in London or New York, Cape Town or Calcutta, we live in heterogeneous, multi-ethnic, often divided and conflicting societies. The questions raised by Kincaid and Brecht inform deep and current struggles over history, memory, and identity in the modern age.