Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate [Hardcover]

This is a grand tale of Blackbeard and piracy in the Caribbean in the early 1700's. Working against limited and sometimes contradictory historical records, the author creates a great story and divines the truth of what actually happened in that period of time. Most of all, this is a well written book that encourages you to flip to the next page. The narration is crisp and paints a vivid picture of the times. The research is well done and draws the complete scene, understanding the main people, their motivating factors, and how they all collated to form history

Why I take off one star: While this is a very good book, actually only about half the book is about Blackbeard himself. The book really doesn't start talking about Blackbeard as the main topic until about page one hundred (of 300 pages) There are really no swashbuckling tales of grand pirate fights, of trading canon blasts and boarding ships in epic swordfights. Most pirates were just actually gangs of thugs who used boats as their vehicles and canons as their means of intimidation. They scared and cowed their victims into submission, and were sensible enough to run when the force of authority came into view. The book is more about the business, conditions, and times of piracy, then of the individual pirates themselves and any great seafaring stories. Therefore, the real story is a lot less than the often romanticized tales of piracy. There's actually less interesting material to craft a story than one would expect.

The most compelling moment in the book is near the end, when Blackbeard meets the might of her Majesties Royal Navy. Standing up to the fight, this is a Hollywood scene when Blackbeard engages his opponents in a ship vs. ship battle. The Navy plants a trap to egg Blackbeard into boarding one of her ships, and Blackbeard takes the bait. A blood thirsty battle then ensues as the weapons come out and the men going at it in a classic hand-to-hand fight. At the end, the deck is stained red from all of the blood, and Blackbeard's head is hanging from the mask!

This was an interesting book but I found the detail on the sloops and sea adventures dragging at times. The discussion about the conflict between the Virginia Governor and the North Carolina Governor over handling Blackbeard and his men was an interesting backdrop for Blackbeard's ultimate demise.

What was most interesting was the privateering influence on the motivation to become a pirate. When countries at war would hire privateers to conduct state-sponsored piracy at sea, was it any wonder that these men who knew little but privateering would turn to piracy once the wars ended and their letters of marque rescinded?

There were interesting details about the sea and navigating the waters in the early 1700's, but at times the book dragged on in details that made it difficult to keep an interest in the subject. It is obvious that the author did a great deal of research and used his expertise in sailing and sea faring to add to the material in the story.

Overall, a 3-star rating is my review of an interesting book that does point out how short-lived the pirate times were in the early 18th century.

I found the book quite interesting since some of my ancestors immigrated to the Pamlico River area of North Carolina in the 1700's where Black Beard spent his final days. I was a bit disappointed that the book seemed to be more of a general history of the pirate situation in the 1700's and not an indepth biography of Black Beard. With that said, I was pleased with the book and would recommend it to any perspective reader.