Pirates on the Chesapeake: Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay, 1610-1807

By Donald G. Shomette

Book Overview

Here is a dazzling array of swashbuckling pirates, picaroons, and sea rovers pitted against the often feckless representatives of an outpost government authority in the Chesapeake Bay region. It is an exciting and dramatic 200-year history that begins grimly with the starving time in the Virginia colony in 1609 and ends with the peaceful resolution of the Othello affair with the French in 1807. In between lies a full panoply of violent and bizarre buccaneering incidents that one is hard pressed to imagine.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870333437
• ISBN13: 9780870333439
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Tidewater Publishers
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Facts

I haven't completed this book yet but the author did and excellent job researching the politics of the time and motivation of the characters and what in some cases drove them to piracy. All information is footnoted to refer you to the source of the information.

all the things you never knew about life on the chesapeake!

this is a great book. written very well. I gave this as a gift to my husband and he is enjoying the writing style as well as the story line.

Arrrgh ! A Staggeringly Good Read !

A tremendous book. If you have any interest in the material - buy it. The stories are superbly told and really capture the flavor of the time through liberal use of original documents. This is a scholarly work that manages to still have fascinating stories within. Pirates who turn themselves in after escaping jail after completing a mysterious "mission" or the sad tale of a pirate whose kindness to those captured by his ship didn't spare him the hangman's noose are all part of this well documented book. Great material including a wonderfully funny ongoing fued between a frustrated Governor and a Royal Ship Captain and their bureaucratic wranglings. I read this on vaction on the Elk River on the Chesapeake - just a great read.

Sets the Standard

Very easy read. Enjoyable and very well documented. It is in this book that the names of the ships that were used to hunt down Blackbeard are revealed. Nearly every book on the subject of American Colonial Pirate actions that has come out in the last 15 years has been heavily influenced by this work. I have also used it as a guide to visit many of the naval battle sites. It is wonderful. I wish the author would turn his talents to other geographical locations.

Great, informative, my favorite book by far. WHENS THE MOVIE

When I saw the book"Pirates on the Chesapeake" , I new it had to be a good book. But, BOY! was I surprised when I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I even gave copies for presents. I felt like I was there. This book would make a great movie or documentary and IT SHOULD! Full of history. I can still here the cannons and see the sails.