This book describes the life of a pirate of the early 18th century - the heyday of the 'Golden Age of Piracy'. It charts the way these men (and a few women) were recruited, how they operated, what they looked like and what their prospects were. In the process the book attempts to strip away many of the myths associated with piracy, to reveal the harsh realities of life beyond the normal bounds of society. The book draws on decades of research into the subject, and pulls together information from a myriad of sources, including official reports, contemporary newspaper reports, trial proceedings...
This book describes the life of a pirate of the early 18th century - the heyday of the 'Golden Age of Piracy'. It charts the way these men (and a few ...
During the 17th century England and Holland found themselves at war three times, in a clash for economic and naval supremacy, fought out in the cold waters of the North Sea and the English Channel. The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54) pitted the Dutch against Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth Navy, which proved as successful at sea as his New Model Army had been on land. Following the Restoration of 1660 the two maritime powers clashed again, and in the Second Dutch War (1665-67) it was the Dutch who had the upper hand. They humiliated the English by burning their fleet in the Medway (1667),...
During the 17th century England and Holland found themselves at war three times, in a clash for economic and naval supremacy, fought out in the col...
The most famous admiral in history, Horatio Nelson's string of naval victories helped secure Britain's place as the world's dominant maritime power, a position she held for more than a century after Nelson's death. A young officer during the American Revolution, Nelson rose to prominence during Britain's war with Revolutionary France, becoming a hero at the battle of Cape St. Vincent. He went on to win massive victories at the Nile and Copenhagen, before leading the British to their historic victory at Trafalgar in 1805. But, in that moment of his greatest glory, Nelson was struck down by a...
The most famous admiral in history, Horatio Nelson's string of naval victories helped secure Britain's place as the world's dominant maritime power, a...
Angus Konstam sets sail through the brutal history of piracy, separating myth from legend and fact from fiction. Pirates takes us into the depths of the pirate's dark world, examining the many colorful characters from Cretans and Vikings to French corsairs and the British rogues of the golden age of piracy, such as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd and even two women pirates, Mary Read and Ann Bonny, who became pregnant to avoid execution. A blood-soaked, riveting account, it provides a complete history of the fearsome threat on the high seas from the marauders in the pages of antiquity to the...
Angus Konstam sets sail through the brutal history of piracy, separating myth from legend and fact from fiction. Pirates takes us into the depths of t...
This title tells the dramatic story of how the Royal Navy transformed ordinary citizens into first-rate and fearless sailors and navy personnel during World War II. It covers how they were recruited and trained, and how they endured life at sea in hostile waters, protecting convoys in the Atlantic, hunting submarines in the Mediterranean, and standing up to relentless air attacks in the Pacific. Told from the perspective of vivid first-hand accounts of life onboard, it reveals what it was like to be a sailor navigating, patrolling, and fighting in the largest theater of the war- the vast...
This title tells the dramatic story of how the Royal Navy transformed ordinary citizens into first-rate and fearless sailors and navy personnel during...
The Royal Navy entered World War II with a large but eclectic fleet of destroyers. Some of these were veterans of World War I, fit only for escort duties. Most, though, had been built during the interwar period and were regarded as both reliable and versatile. Yet danger lurked across the seas as new destroyers being built in Germany, Italy, and Japan were larger and better armored.
So, until the new, larger Tribal-class destroyers could enter service, these vessels would have to hold the line. Used mainly to hunt submarines, protect convoys from aerial attack, and take out other...
The Royal Navy entered World War II with a large but eclectic fleet of destroyers. Some of these were veterans of World War I, fit only for escort ...
From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Balkans to Mesopotamia, gunboats played an influential part in the story of World War I. This detailed technical guide to the gunboats of all the major navies of the war means that, for the first time, the story can be told.
Naval action in World War I conjures up images of enormous dreadnoughts slugging it out in vast oceans. Yet the truth is that more sailors were killed serving on gunboats and monitors operating far from the naval epicentre of the war than were ever killed at Jutland. Gunboat engagements during this war were...
From the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Balkans to Mesopotamia, gunboats played an influential part in the story of World War I. This det...
Even with Germany in the ascendency at the beginning of World War II, Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safe home base of the British Navy. Nothing and nobody could penetrate the defences of this bastion, which was built up to formidable levels in World War I and symbolized the faith placed by the British in the invulnerability of their navy. So how, in the dead of night on October 13, was Gunther Prien's U-47 able to slip through the line of protective warships undetected to sink the mighty "Royal Oak"? This book provides the answer with an account of one of the most daring naval raids of...
Even with Germany in the ascendency at the beginning of World War II, Scapa Flow was supposed to be the safe home base of the British Navy. Nothing an...
For the best part of three centuries the "corsairs," or pirates, from the "Barbary" coasts of North Africa dominated the western and central Mediterranean, making forays far into the Atlantic and preying on the shipping and coastal settlements across Christian Europe, ranging from Greece to West Africa to the British Isles. In the absence of organized European navies, they seldom faced serious opposition, and the scope of their raiding was remarkable.
As well as piracy and slave-raiding, they fought as privateers, sharing their spoils with the rulers of the port cities that...
For the best part of three centuries the "corsairs," or pirates, from the "Barbary" coasts of North Africa dominated the western and central Medite...
Days before the outbreak of World War II, a handful of German commerce raiders put out to sea to prey on Allied merchantmen. Among them was the Panzerschiffe ("armored ship") Graf Spee, a formidable warship that boasted the firepower of a battleship, but had the size, speed, and range of a cruiser. When World War II commenced, the Graf Spee, under the command of Captain Langsdorff, began a hunting spree across the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean that eventually took her to the River Plate in search of her next victim--an Allied convoy. Instead, she found three...
Days before the outbreak of World War II, a handful of German commerce raiders put out to sea to prey on Allied merchantmen. Among them was the ...
