Piracy has long held the imagination of many and tall tales of danger, adventure and treasure fill numerous book shelves. Robert Louis Stevenson, of course, has much to answer for. His own story, Treasure Island, comes with its own map of the island, a map that has inspired many a young reader to further investigate the world of maps.

But piracy today is much less exotic (and so are its maps) and still very much a threat to commercial shipping. Few maps exist showing the location of piracy attacks, even though locational data for such events exists. The International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau issues a weekly piracy report that provides the location of suspicious incidents and reported attacks. The Bureau has also produced a number of maps showing the location of incidents over the past five years (scroll to the bottom of the page) but the quality of the maps leave much to be desired. A similar set of maps, just more colourful, exist elesewhere on the site. An interesting and relevant topic such as this deserves better cartographic treatment. Even a standard Google Map mashup would be an improvement.