The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
To read of sea roving's various incarnations-piracy, privateering, buccaneering, la flibuste, la course-is to bring forth romantic, and often violent, imagery. Indeed, much of this imagery has become a literary and cinematic cliché. And what an image it is!
But its truth is by halves, and paradoxically it is the picaresque imagery of Pyle, Wyeth, Sabatini, and Hollywood that is often closer to the reality, while the historical details of arms, tactics, and language are often inaccurate or entirely anachronistic.
Successful sea rovers were careful practitioners of a complex profession that sought wealth by stratagem and force of arms. Drawn from the European tradition, yet of various races and nationalities, they raided both ship and town throughout much of the world from roughly 1630 until 1730. Using a variety of innovative tactics and often armed with little more than musket and grenade, many of these self-described "soldiers and privateers" successfully assaulted fortifications, attacked shipping from small craft, crossed the mountains and jungles of Panama, and even circumnavigated the globe. Successful sea rovers were often supreme seamen, soldiers, and above all, tacticians. It can be argued that their influence on certain naval tactics is felt even today.
"The Sea Rover's Practice" is the only book that describes in exceptional detail the tactics of sea rovers of the period-how they actually sought out and attacked vessels and towns. Accessible to both the general and the more scholarly reader, it will appeal not only to those with an interest in piracy and in maritime, naval, and military history, but also to mariners in general, tall-ship and ship-modeling enthusiasts, tacticians and military analysts, readers of historical fiction, writers, and the adventurer in all of us.
From the Publisher
"As colorful as a Howard Pyle illustration and as compelling as an Errol Flynn film."-Michael J. Crawford, naval historian and editor of The Autobiography of a Yankee Mariner: Christopher Prince and the American Revolution
"A remarkable book that casts much new light on the sea rovers of the Age of Sail." - Frank Sherry, author of Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730
The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730,Benerson Little,Potomac Books,1574889109,17th century,18th century,Caribbean & West Indies - General,History,History - General History,Maritime History,Military,Military - General,Pirates,History / Military / Naval
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