Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Book Review: "Empire of Blue Water"

A first-rate book centering upon the exploits of the Seventeenth Century Pirate/Privateer Henry Morgan, the piratical and freebooting "Brethren of the Coast", and the founding of the British settlements on Jamaica.

If you're like me, you know very little of that locality and era beyond vague generalities. A surprise to learn that the pirates' greatest victories occurred during gruelling overland campaigns against the Spanish in Central America, and with amphibious assaults against fortifications that would do the Navy Seals or the British Commandos proud.

A surprise too the stock these rough men put in their weapons, we tend to think of one smoothbore musket being much the same as another, but apparently it was not so.

Hard to find another era like it, unless it were the Vikings during their own time; Tough men living in a condition of rough equality, coming together to perform prodigious feats of arms where the payoffs were fortunes unimaginable. The winnings strictly parcelled afterwards out under agreements settled beforehand. Those same winnings then dissipated in the booze and whoring dens of Port Royal.

The book centers on Henry Morgan, of titled British nobility. As a foil presented too is the account of one semi-fictional character named Roderick, a British commoner pressed into the pirate's life and thriving there after a fashion, his life story a composite of many individual accounts.

As the political tides shifted, Morgan later turned from piracy to life on a sugar cane plantation, turning upon his former comrades, hanging many for the British government.



Also remarkable, their prodigious loss of ships (these enormously expensive and requiring months to build), replacements being captured, "chopped" and used as opportunity and fortune permitted...



And of their weapons...



Morgan, after a lifetime of prodigious exploits, died on his Jamaican estate in middling age of the accumulated effects of debauchery and hardship. Roderick? He died too....



A fine book, and worth a read (if'n I didn't already spoil it for ya). 2007 by Stephan Talty, $14.95 in paperback.

Birdwatcher

I read it a couple of months ago. Fascinating book, and well worth the time.

Nothing like Hollywood.

- Tom

Well I just ordered it from Amazon. You haven't steered me wrong yet.

Gracias!

Sounds like Keith Richards back when he was in better shape.

Ethan, you made me baptize my keyboard, bro.


I read it when it came out, very good read. And a story I was totally unfamiliar with.

Read two swashbucklers since then that I would recommend for those who like a good sea story, sort of a non-fiction Patrick O'Brian.

The War for All the Oceans is a history of the wars of revolutionary and Napoleanic France vs. the Royal Navy....I cheated and got it on CDs....great, if familiar, story.


The other is Storm and Conquest, about the hurricanes that decimated the East India Company fleets in 1809 and the British attempts to take Isle de France, now Mauritius, which was a French navy base in the Indian Ocean..attacking the Indiamen going to and from India. I didn't know it, but the saltpeter in India was the best and strongest in the world, and the Brits desperately needed it for their wars. Lots of India and empire politics, many memorable characters.

Have any of y'all seen Master and Commander? I've seen it at Wal Marts for $5 and wondered if it was worth it.

Not to hijack your thread Bird, but I got Morituri, a pretty good WWII maritime flick for $4.88 the other day at WM. Also, unrelated to the thread but still a good movie, got Warlock for the same price.

+1

Great Book.

I too was surprised to learn that Morgan's greatest exploits were coastal raids as opposed to just taking Spanish and French ships.



Thing was, Morgan didn't turn from piracy to plantation life. He never was a pirate. He had letters of Marque from the crown and was basically a mercenary/privateer/investor. He had foresight and knew that his very successes would precipitate an influx of traders and merchants, who would become increasingly intolerant of the privateers and their way of life. That was the whole point of establishing a British presence.

He saved his money and invested it rather than drink and whore it away as most of his men did. He was intent upon becoming a man of substance and wealth from the very beginning. When hostilities with the Spanish slowed to grudging trade agreements, what he was doing became piracy. He pushed it to the limit before ceasing his war upon the Spanish, but cease he eventually did. Many of his former men did not. Nor did they limit their attacks to the Spanish. Morgan could not support such actions if he wished to attain the status he had always sought.



Exactly. The same is true of their every action. The very Merchants and businessmen who deplored them owed the fact that they were able to come to the Caribbean and prosper in the first place to men like Morgan. They broke the stranglehold the Spanish had over the Americas and forced them to begin trading with other nations. After this was accomplished however, British interests that began investing in the region and beyond had no more use for such rough men. Such is the way of empire and Morgan just saw that coming from the start.

The detail and precision with which Talty relates the history of the true "Pirates of the Caribbean" is unmatched by many of the historical accounts I've read. And he presents them in an entertaining style with just a bit of speculation into the thoughts and emotions behind the action.

A must read for anyone who likes history, or even just likes pirate tales.

While we're adding recommendations and since you brought it up, try Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander. by David Cordingly.

Yes, it is easily worth $5. I thought it was an excellent movie, but made for the big screen. Still, at $5 it's worth it.

Ethan...its spectacular.....I'm not a Russel Crowe fan but he's great as Jack Aubry. It's really a combination of two of O'Brien's books, with some changes, but it makes a good story.

That's okay. I finally broke down and bought a 42" TV.

I'll get it next time I'm in there. They also had The Sand Pebbles for the same price.