Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime Piracy

Cindy Vallar, Editor & Reviewer
P.O. Box 425, Keller, TX  76244-0425

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During the seventeenth century and the first third of the eighteenth, sea rovers -- pirates, privateers*, and buccaneers -- preyed on ships.  Fictional accounts of this time period tend to romanticize the era.  Nonfiction books often examine the period as a whole and what it was like to be a pirate.  Neither, however, spends much time on how sea rovers accomplished their seizure of ships and raiding of towns.  The Sea Rover’s Practice corrects this oversight, and does so in such a way that anyone -- general reader or scholar -- can learn the methods these marauders employed.  Benerson Little uses quotes from primary documents to illustrate these practices, allowing readers to witness firsthand what and how sea rovers accomplished their deeds.

Twenty-three chapters cover such information as the perils and rewards of garnering wealth by force, the various types of sea rovers who roamed the seas, how they recruited and organized their brethren, the types of vessels and armament they used, life at sea and in port, and how they spied their prey, gave chase, and acquired their prizes at sea and on land.  Aside from the illustrations that accompany the text, the reader will also find seven appendices filled with additional treasures: comparative actions of sea rovers; lexicons pertaining to sea rovers, ships, and mariners; those sea rovers who kept journals of their exploits; culinary history and recipes; and information on ranges, distances, weights, and measures from the time period.  The text is footnoted throughout so readers can verify where quotes and details can be found.  A detailed bibliography and index round out the book.

No self-respecting sea rover should be without this manual!  Re-enactors and writers will find The Sea Rover’s Practice invaluable, but anyone who wishes a more in-depth look into the tactics of pirates and privateers will not be disappointed.

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* Throughout the book, Mr. Little uses “letter of mart” rather than “letter of marque” when discussing privateers.  I wondered about this, since the reader is more likely to encounter the latter, so I asked him about it.  He found “letter of mart” used in many journals of the period.  Among the examples he cited were:

• Nathaniel Uring’s The Voyages and Travels of Captain Nathaniel Uring from 1726 (Reprint: London: Cassell and Company, 1928).
...and having obtained a Letter of Mart from the Governour, I had orders to make Prize of such Vessels of the Enemies...

• Thomas Phillips’ The Voyage of the Ship Hannibal of London, in 1693 (Excerpted in Slave Ships and Sailing, edited by George Francis Dow in 1927 and reissued by Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, Maryland, in 1968.)
...so that had no colours flying most of the ingagement but the king’s pendant, which, by authority of my letter of mart, I fought under...

Book Review Copyright ©2006 Cindy Vallar

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