HARD VIOLENT: UNPREDICTABLE: Pirates captured by an increasingly powerful British state were routinely executed. But what happened to the families they.

The article looks at the families left behind by pirates and sailors who were executed by the British state in the 18th century. Among these pirates is Captain Joseph Halsey, who found guilty of murder. It states that the executions of these pirates and other sailors left too many orphans, widows and families ruined.