[1] The story stars the fictional privateer Captain Charles Hunter who, hired by Jamaica's governor Sir James Almont, plots to raid a Spanish galleon for its treasure.

[1] According to Marla Warren, there is evidence that Crichton had been working on Pirate Latitudes at least since the 1970s; to substantiate her position, she quotes a statement by Patrick McGilligan in the March 1979 issue of American Film that Crichton was aiming "to complete a long-standing book project about Caribbean pirates in the seventeenth century.".

[2][3] In 1981, Crichton said he was working on a pirate story,[4] and he mentioned a research trip to Jamaica in 1982 in his non-fiction book Travels (1988).

According to Jonathan Burnham, a publisher of a HarperCollins imprint, Pirate Latitudes had been written concurrently with Crichton's then most recent novel, Next (2006).

Alan Cheuse said, in review for NPR Books: "It builds on an actual event in maritime records" when pirates out of the Caribbean port of Port Royal attacked a fortress on a Spanish island in order to plunder – I like that word, and it's what pirates do, they plunder – a ship filled with new world treasure.

In 1665, Captain Charles Hunter is hired as a privateer by the Governor of Jamaica, Sir James Almont, to lead an expedition to the island fortress of Matanceros.

[7] Almont is excited about the possibility of reward in this venture, though his secretary, Mr. Robert Hacklett, is less than enthusiastic and calls Hunter a pirate.

Encountering high cliffs, rough jungle foliage, and deadly animals, the crew comes to see that Cazalla has docked under the suspicion that Hunter is still on his way to the island.

However, after a moment of inactivity, Hunter realizes the second shot actually landed a devastating blow, and the attacking ship explodes and sinks rapidly.

Hacklett is shot in the groin by his wife (whom he has caused to be raped by an associate), and Sanson sends word that he alone knows where the other half of the treasure is.