Pirates & Privateers: Books for Adults~History: Piracy

The Sack of Panama: Captain Morgan and the Battle for the Caribbean
by Peter Earle
St. Martin’s, 2007, ISBN 978-0-312-36142-6, US $25.95 / CAN $31.95

Legendary and auspicious, the sack of Panama was a pivotal moment in history. Over 2,000 privateers and buccaneers, under the leadership of Henry Morgan, sailed aboard thirty-eight ships. These daring men made the arduous trek across the Isthmus of Panama to attack one of Spain’s colonial cities. In spite of hunger and disease, they defied the odds, but the success of the venture did not begin in 1671. Five years of struggle between Spain and England preceded this daring raid, and had Morgan not succeeded in the endeavor, the future of the Caribbean might well have evolved differently.

What makes Earle’s account unique is that he examines the raid from two perspectives, the privateers who defend Jamaica and the Spanish victims. This gives readers a well-rounded examination of the historical events that transpire and the people responsible for them. He vividly recounts what happens before the sack of Panama to ground the reader in the time, the place, and the political situation and provide him/her with a better understanding of what happened. The author’s intent is to not only retell a story often told, but also provide a new perspective to it, and he succeeds admirably in this attempt.

Seawolves: Pirates & the Scots
by Eric J. Graham
Birlinn, 2005, ISBN 1-84158-388-X, UK £16.99

At first glance one may think this book is about Scottish pirates, and the reader meets a number of them here, but this is a mistaken impression. Rather Seawolves is about pirates, their attacks on Scottish ships, and how the Scots dealt with pirates found near their country’s shores. What sets this book apart from other pirate books is that much of the information comes from the records of the Scottish Admiralty Court, an overlooked resource in the study of maritime piracy. While major emphasis is placed on the golden age of piracy (1690-1730), this account includes information on the last pirates in Scottish waters in 1822.

Table of Contents

1. Captain Macrae and the Pirates
2. Lord Archibald Hamilton and the Pirates of New Providence
3. Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pirates
4. The Pirates of Craignish Loch
5. The Scottish Slavers and the Pirates
6. John Gow: the Orcadian Pirate
7. The Scots and the Pirate Crews
8. Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott and the Pirates
9. The Company of Scotland and the Madagascan Pirates
10. The Piracy Trial of Captain Green
11. Heaman and Gautier: the Last Pirates in Scottish Waters
12. Conclusion

In addition to this information, Seawolves includes numerous illustrations, a glossary of 17th- and 18th-century maritime vocabulary, a who’s who of pirate captains that includes their ships, and an index.There is a selected bibliography, but the book lacks footnotes citing the sources used.

This is a rousing account of piracy that reads like a novel. The inclusion of materials from eyewitnesses and primary documents enriches the experience.

Treasure Island: The Untold Story
by John Amrhein, Jr.
New Maritime Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9830843-0-3, US $32.95

Rather than a search for buried gold, this is a search for a different treasure – the history that provided the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In 1750, on the coast of North America, a hurricane damages or wrecks the ships in a Spanish convoy bound for Spain laden with treasure. The captain of one vessel, Juan Manuel Bonilla, enlisted the aid of two Englishmen, Owen Lloyd and his brother, John, to transport these riches from the damaged galleon to a vessel headed for the West Indies. Owen, a charismatic man, persuaded the American crew to appropriate the transferred money after leaving Ocracoke, where the galleon sought shelter after the storm. In doing so, they become pirates and eventually bury their treasure on an uninhabited Caribbean island.

Divided into two parts, the first section of the book relates the story of the Lloyds, Bonilla, and how their paths eventually cross in North Carolinian waters. The account begins in 1746, and details Owen's and John’s lives and their families. Owen’s tendency to embellish tales and his ability to sway men to his side will eventually lead to his downfall, but at this time, he’s a successful sea captain with a wife who is the sister of a prominent citizen on St. Kitts. John, on the other hand, envies his younger brother’s successes and has trouble because of the loss of one leg during a naval battle with Spain.

Four years later, Bonilla hopes to return to Spain aboard Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe with a cargo that will increase his wealth and return a good profit for his mother-in-law and her influential friends who invest in the voyage. Then the hurricane strikes, and while Guadalupe survives the storm, she’s badly damaged.

The Lloyds aren’t the only ones interested in the treasure. The Bankers, who live in the remote marshes of Ocracoke, often plunder shipwrecks. Other English seamen, such as William Blackstock, also seek their fair share of the treasure. So does Bonilla’s own crew. Then there are the various government officials and lawyers who find ways to also profit from Bonilla’s circumstances.

After presenting all the various participants, Amrhein relates the events that lead to the actual theft, the burial of treasure worth nearly 250,000 pieces of eight, and the subsequent events that lead to the capture of these pirates. While it’s interesting to follow the hunt for the stolen cargo and the pursuit of Lloyd and the others, the recounting becomes confusing at times because of the numerous names that enter into the story. Painstakingly researched, the author clearly demonstrates how greed and old grudges against enemies-turned-friends play a significant role in the outcome of the recovery effort and the pursuit of justice.

The second half of the book delves into the author’s search for Owen Lloyd and the stolen treasure. The beginning of this, which reads like a travelogue to some extent, slows the book’s pace, but that quickly picks up again once Amrhein delves into Robert Louis Stevenson and the writing of his novel, Treasure Island. This riveting account showcases where he gets his ideas, how his family’s history is connected to the stolen treasure, and how the fictional pirate tale becomes the story we know today, which is based (in part) on Lloyd burying treasure in the Caribbean. Equally compelling is the historical path that permits the author to track the real pirates through documentary evidence. This trail takes him from American repositories to those in the Netherlands and the Caribbean, and incorporates the assistance of researchers familiar with the various languages in these foreign archives, as well as a psychic.

Black-&-white pictures and maps accompany the text throughout the book. There are also two sections of color photographs, although the first comprises many pictures more suitable to a family album than a history book. The author also includes a detailed bibliography, which lists many primary documents and a variety of libraries. The endnotes follow, but the reader is unaware of their existence until reaching the end of the book, because there are no numbers within the text to indicate an endnote contains additional information. These would have been more beneficial and helpful had the author indicated their existence on the pages in question so readers could consult the endnotes as they read. A lengthy index completes the book.

Learn more about the book

Under the Bloody Flag: Pirates of the Tudor Age
by John C. Appleby
History Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7524-4851-0, US $34.95 / CAN $38.95 / UK £20.00

"In theory, pirates were criminals, the enemies of all mankind who faced execution if caught; in practice, they were often maintained by seafaring communities and protected by local officials or rulers." This sentence from the introduction of Under the Bloody Flag encapsulates what this book is about. While the House of Tudor rules England, theory becomes muddied by the issuance of letters of reprisal and letters of marque and the fine line the bearers sometimes walked between that which is legal piracy and that which is not. Professional navies as we think of them haven’t yet formed, so to gain the power and prestige desired, monarchs walk an equally wavy line between theory and reality.

Accompanied by illustrations, maps, and an index, this book’s time period, 1480s to 1603, is divided into six chapters:

1.     War and Maritime Plunder from the 1480s to the 1540s
2.     Pirates and Rebellious Rovers during the 1540s and 1550s
3.     Pirates, Privateers and Slave Traders from the later 1550s to the later 1560s
4.     Piracy, Plunder and Undeclared War during the 1570s
5.     The Profession of Piracy from the mid-1570s to 1585
6.     War, Reprisals and Piracy from 1585 to 1603

Among the many resources the author consulted in compiling this account of maritime piracy and privateering are archival records of the High Court of Admiralty, State Papers, and a variety of primary and secondary works.

Appleby’s objective is to “provide a narrative of English piracy and sea roving from c. 1485 to 1603,” which he admirably achieves and, in the process, skillfully shows the complexity of the period, its effect on the pirates, and their effect on nations, particularly England. Within these pages readers will encounter well-known pirates/privateers (Martin Frobisher and Francis Drake) and those not so famous (Henry Strangeways and John Callice). The final chapter also touches upon Grace O’Malley and John Ward, whose piracies were directed against England.

Although the narrative of this scholarly work sometimes plods along, Under the Black Flag examines a period of English piracy rarely touched upon in any detail. For those fascinated with the Tudor period, this is a worthy tome to add to one’s collection.

Cover Art:
Women and
English Piracy
1540-1720

Women and English Piracy, 1540-1720: Partners and Victims of Crime
by John C. Appleby
Boydell, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84383-869-2, US $95.00 / UK £55.00

This book focuses on women and how they interact with pirates in England and her colonies. By examining these relationships over a period of nearly two centuries, Appleby shows readers the evolution their interdependency, as well as how the state alters its view of piracy, from privateers at the start to enemies of all mankind by the 18th century. The information provided also demonstrates how women start as an integral part of the microcosmic world in which pirates operate, but are eventually relegated to the periphery.

Chapter one, “The Rise and Fall of English Piracy from the 1540s to the 1720s,” is a survey of the period, the changes piracy undergoes, and why. The second chapter, “Pirates, Female Receivers and Partners,” delves into how women depend on pirates and vice versa, as well as the close relationships that grow out of this interdependency. This is a period in which women receive stolen goods, sell the contraband, and provide aid to the rogues. As pirates prowl farther from home waters, the roles women play become more economical in nature. This change, how women adapt to it, and the rising sexual relationships between the pirates and women are discussed in chapter three, “Wives, Partners and Prostitutes.” One interesting facet of this discussion is the letters pirates write to their wives. The fourth chapter, “Petitioners and Victims,” examines the ill-treatment women endure at the hands of pirates and how piratical attacks result in the loss of family members, which necessitate that the women still at home have to find ways to survive and to rescue their loved ones.

A series of maps and an introduction open the book. In addition, there are seven black-&-white illustrations. The chapters have footnotes, rather than endnotes, which makes it far easier to check references. An extensive bibliography and an index follow the epilogue.

Those seeking information about women pirates will be disappointed. The last chapter, “Women Pirates: Fact or Fiction?”, concerns these, but aside from Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Grainne O’Malley, the others are merely mentioned rather than discussed in any detail. One wonders why two of these ladies aren’t included in the list of women pirates in the index (pages 263-4) and why those who are aren’t in the chapter specifically devoted to female buccaneers. Overall, however, this is an interesting examination of an aspect of piracy that often is given only a cursory look. It provides readers with a comprehensive overview, interspersed with specific examples and primary evidence, to show how women and pirates interact, both as victims and cohorts. Although the price puts this volume out of reach of most lay readers, academic libraries with strong collections on maritime piracy, maritime history, and women’s history will find this a welcome addition.