Pirates of New England: Ruthless Raiders and Rotten Renegades

by Gail Selinger

Overview

Tales of swashbuckling adventure, murder, treachery, and mayhem!

One would be mistaken to think of pirates as roaming only the Caribbean. Pirates as famous as William Kidd and Henry Every have at various times plundered, pillaged, and murdered their way up and down the New England seaboard, striking fear among local merchants and incurring the wrath of colonial authorities.
Piracy historian Gail Selinger brings these tales of mayhem and villainy to life while also exploring why New England became such a breeding ground for high seas crime and how the view of piracy changed over time, from winking toleration to brutal crackdown. Included in this volume are:

• Ned Low’s sadistic—at times cannibalistic—reign of terror on the high seas and his mysterious disappearance.

• John Quelch’s defiant and unapologetic proclamations before being hanged in front of Boston’s crowds.

• Henry Every’s daring attack on the Grand Mogul’s fleet, widely considered the largest maritime heist in history.

Pirates of New England opens up new chapters in the history of piracy, ones that you’ll come back to again and again—Welcome aboard!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493029297
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,035,408
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Gail Selinger is a maritime historian and pirate expert who served as a consultant on the History Channel’s Modern Marvels: Pirate Tech. Her commentary appears on the DVDs of The Princess Bride and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. She is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Pirates and lectures on pirates and pirate history.She lives in Redlands, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Author's Note on Wages, Cost of Living, and Pirate Booty xi

Introduction: The Evolution of Piracy xvii

Chapter 1 Why Turn to Piracy? 1

Chapter 2 The Allure of Pirate Life 13

Chapter 3 Politics, Economics, and the Pirate Round 25

Chapter 4 John Rhoades, Jurriaen Aernouts, and Peter Roderigo 33

Chapter 5 Thomas Pound and Thomas Hawkins 41

Chapter 6 Thomas Tew and Governor Benjamin Fletcher 55

Chapter 7 Henry Every 69

Chapter 8 William Kidd 85

Chapter 9 John Quelch and Crewmates 103

Chapter 10 Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy 115

Chapter 11 George Lowther, John Massey, and Charles Harris 133

Chapter 12 Edward "Ned" Low and Francis Farrington Spriggs 155

Chapter 13 William Fly 173

Appendix A The Complete Ship's Roster of the Adventure Galley 183

Appendix B The Forgotten Ones 185

Bibliography 189

Index 191

About the Author 199