- Hardcover: 426 pages
- Publisher: Hyperion Books (Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0786865334
- ISBN-13: 978-0786865338
- Product Dimensions: 24.9 x 17.3 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 981,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Pirate Hunter
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Review
Blood and thunder on the high seas of the 17th century. Captain William Kidd was in fact a 'privateer' not a pirate - employed by King William III to undertake a semi-legal secret mission to track down pirates and recover their spoils (keeping their booty for himself and his high-born investors, naturally). As a counterpoint to this, Richard Zacks fascinatingly details the forgotten story of Kidd's great rival, Robert Culliford, a ruthless buccaneer who flew a blood-red flag which signified 'no mercy' and whose surgeon was named Jon Death. Kidd's and Culliford's paths were to cross again and again during the course of their lives, but in a tale of double-crossing, betrayal and political scandal, the outcome was surprising. Zacks brings a colourful period of history to vivid life.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Time Magazine
An enthralling new biography ... Captain Kidd practically swaggers off the pages of this rich, riotous bio
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive Kidd?,
By gronow (Worcester) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (Hardcover)
The first thing to be said about this book is that it is very, very readable. It was a surprise to me that there was so much information about Wm. Kidd to me he was a pirate pure and simple, this book gives the impression that he became a pirate almost by accident, I'm not so sure. He comes across as ambitious, over confident and strangely niaive. He must have been a charismatic leader with a powerful personality and also a very competent seaman.
He was severely let down by his backers and why he didn't cut and run when he had the chance is a mystery. He certainly committed one severe act of piracy and possibly minor ones. Others who did the same or worse managed to get away with it, perhaps not many but Kidd may have done so had he played his cards differently and been less cocksure. Having read this I then read some other accounts of the same episodes and I think that the author paints a too sympathetic picture of Kidd. But the depth of his research would make it presumptious to differ too strongly with his conclusions. There is much information about Kidd's contempories and the conditions of the time and what the author has surmised appears fair enough! If there is little if any swash and buckle in this tale it is none the worse for that - it is still a "rattling good yarn" and excellently told. I trust Mr. Zacks will not rest on his pen. And my remark about "so much information" should not ignore the profundity of his research and the three years spent acquiring it. (Until you find the pearl opening oyster after oyster can be somewhat boring.) Good book give it a whirl.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captivating read,
By
This review is from: The Pirate Hunter the True Story of Captain Kidd (Thorndike Adventure) (Hardcover)
I brought this on the off chance for a quick read up on pirates and this was exactly what I wanted and more. The book is very well written and resulted in some late nights, as I just had to finish "one more chapter." Its a good mixture of captivating read and lots of facts and historical data. Whilst it focuses on just one pirate (Cpt Kidd) it brings in lots of contempories and historical context.
An ideal book to gem up on a few pirate facts and stories. Perfect for impressing one's children with!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (77 customer reviews) 33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The "Hunter" Becomes the Hunted,
By Brian D. Rubendall - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (Hardcover)
Richard Zacks's "The Pirate Hunter" is a lively adventure tale with the kind of twists and turns that prove the old adage that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Along the way, he sets the record straight and rehabilitates the reputation of Captain William Kidd, the late 17th Century privateer and gentlemen who set out to hunt pirates with noble backing and ended up branded as one. Kidd is a tragic hero of the first order. Honorable (at least, by the standards of the time), resolute and with an unshakeable faith in his own abilities, he was laid low by an incredible run of double crosses and sheer bad luck. Particularly touching were his devotion to his wife and his strong sense of duty, neither of which were ultimately enough to save him.The book's other main character is the despicable Robert Culliford, an actual pirate who betrayed Kidd twice and whose fate was tied closely to the Captain. Culliford's villany stands in sharp contrast to Kidd, giving the story a strong counterpoint. Along the way Zacks, who demonstrates himself to be a meticulous researcher, paints a vivid portrait of the lives of sailors and pirates during the period. Zacks's authentic descriptions of what it was like to be a real life pirate bears little resemblence to the modern literary and cinematic stereotypes. His prose is vivid and highly readable, and the book feels more like a novel than a work of history as a result. My only quibble is the Zacks occasionally gets a little TOO bogged down in the details, as evidenced by the narrative's 400 plus pages. 25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Kidding: great bio,
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (Hardcover)
This book is a surprising treasure that brings to life more than just the shocking life of Captain Kidd. The biography also takes an up close look at the late seventeenth century on the high seas and in the major harbor towns. Digging into the documentation, author Richard Zacks contends that Captain William Kidd was not a cutthroat killing pirate; but instead he was a family man renowned as a New York sea captain. Thus, merchants and politicians like the governor of the New York colony hired Kidd to chase down pirates like Robert Culliford to reclaim the booty they stole. THE PIRATE HUNTER: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD is a fabulous historical biography that never slows down and worth reading for as much as learning the real record as for how well Mr. Zacks tells a nonfiction adventure tale.Harriet Klausner 41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Notorious Pirate Who Wasn't,
By R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (Hardcover)
Mention the name of Captain Kidd, and you can't help thinking of buried treasure, bloodthirsty tales of plunder, and general maritime mayhem. There was a real Captain Kidd, and he did sail among the pirates, but we all have the wrong idea about him, according to Richard Zacks, whose _The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd_ (Theia / Hyperion) sets the record straight. William Kidd was a master mariner who lived in New York, on Wall Street, no less, at the end of the seventeenth century. He had a wife and daughter. "He was no career cutthroat, no cartoon Blackbeard, terrifying his prey by putting flaming matches in his hair." Kidd was a respectable sea captain, who had enormously bad luck in his endeavors to hunt pirates for profit. Kidd was no pirate, but a privateer, recruited by powerful Lords and merchants to rob from the pirates that had robbed from the merchants. He had a secret commission from King William III himself, who privately took a ten percent share of any profits that Kidd might come up with. Kidd sailed on _Adventure Galley_, a three-master built in England and launched in 1696 specifically for Kidd's mission, with a crew of 150. Many of the crew had been pirates themselves, and Kidd was putting himself in an uncomfortable management position. He had nothing but bad luck in finding pirates to rob, but even before he did so, rumors of his being a pirate himself had sprung up. After his crew mutinied, he tried to return to his home in New York, but discovered to his surprise that he was the most wanted man in America. He sneaked back towards New York, and in another unpiratical act, sought the help of his lawyer. He made overtures to Lord Bellomont, his prime backer, but the gouty and treacherous Bellomont, having learned of the extent and whereabouts of the haul Kidd had brought back, put him into jail. Kidd was shipped in chains to England. The corruption involved in his jail term and his trial are well detailed here. Zacks has dug into account books, diaries, and forgotten, centuries-old governmental documents to bring out the truth about Kidd, but this is far from a dusty academic account. Zacks has fun telling us about how pirates really lived, how politics was conducted, the difficulties of shipboard life, and how different the times were from our own. For example, he writes of a messenger: "As he reached the East River, the Manhattan skyline loomed: a windmill and two church steeples towering over a seaside row of three-story gable roofs." Kidd's was a wild and eventful life, even if it wasn't the life of a pirate. My guess is that Zacks's book will never overcome the centuries of folklore that have accumulated around Kidd's story, but the true story is still a rousing treasure. |
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