A well written book/series by Tanith Lee. There is now Piratica and Piratica II. Read them when you wont be
distracted, because
otherwise you have no hope of following the storyline. They contain words like thou and thy every now and then, but its easy enough to
understand.
Piratica is about a tennage girl named Artemesia, who after a fall, recalls that her mother was once a famous pirate, but was killed when a cannon malfunctioned.
She sets out to find her mothers old crew so she can journey across the high seas and uncover highly sought after treasure before another pirate does.
Set mostly in England...which intrestingly enough is a republic in this book.