Hello Historians,
I am currently researching for a novel which will involve pirates (i.e. Golden Age, 17-18th Century) and a good deal of sailing. I want to be as "true" as possible when writing about my characters and the realities of their lives.
So in light of this, I'm looking for book recommendations to help me really understand the truth of pirate life, but also to get a good feel for the life at sea and learn about the technicalities of sailing. Is there a book you can recommend that combines all this?
Just as a disclaimer, I have actually sailed as part of a crew a couple of times in the English Channel, but it was in my youth and I'm assuming a lot of the terminology and technique will be different.
From my user profile:
N.A.M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649: The first volume of Rodger's multi-volume naval history of Britain, this book covers seapower from the earliest days of "England" until the end of the second English Civil War. He includes passages on non-English British navies, though the research in that area is still incomplete and spotty. The series the first comprehensive naval history of England/Britain in nearly a century. Rodger divides his books into four types of chapters: ships; operations; administration; and social history. The books can successfully be read as a narrative straight through, or each chapter can be read sequentially; I have done both. Replete with references and with an excellent bibliography.
N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815: The second volume of Rodger's history covers operations, administration, ships, and social history through Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy: An earlier (than the two previous citations) and arguably more accessible introduction to the navy of the mid-18th century, while still providing substantial detail. Establishes Rodger's interest in organizations and organizational history as a way to drive the conversation about navies and their successes or failures.
Patrick O'Brian, Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy: A slim volume but replete with illustrations, this was intended as a companion to O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, about which more below. Useful to understand details of daily life, ship construction, rigging, etc.
King, Hattendorf and Estes, A Sea Of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian: Meant as an atlas and glossary for the O'Brian novels, it's a useful companion for all sorts of naval reading.
The Social History of English Seamen, 1485-1649, edited by Cheryl A. Fury. A series of essays on the social history of English seamen from the Tudor period onwards. Includes a very interesting chapter on the archaeology of the Mary Rose.
Royal Tars: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 875-1850 by Brian Lavery. A social history of the lower deck (common crew/sailors) of English and British ships.
Able Seamen: The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy, 1850-1939 by Brian Lavery. The follow-up to his Royal Tars, covering the British navy during its transition from sail to steam and the run-up to World War II.
If you're looking for books on the Golden age, I highly recommend the works of one of my favorite Pirate scholars, Benerson Little.
Benerson really focuses on their daily lives, culture, personal equipment, and so forth.
The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths gets into debunking the classic myths like burying treasure, walking the plank, sea battles, peg legs and pirates. Yeah, it bursts your fantasy pirate bubble, but its informative.
The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630–1730 If you get any book on this list, this is the one. It covers everything from how pirates stalked their prey at sea, the weapons they used (not all cutlasses and pistols), the types of ships they hunted and used themselves, their land tactics when raiding towns, and even into the boring things like basic ships maintenance. It even includes examples of the food and drink they would have regularly consumed as part of their diet and talks about how they acquired and stored it.
The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674-1688 This one dispenses with the technical analysis of sloops, swords, sails, and ropes and get's into the culture of pirates broadly overall but specifically a type of pirate known as the Buccaneer. It talks about the towns they lived in, their motivations to go a'rovin, their religious beliefs and superstitions, their interactions with governmental authorities and the law. One important part is the study of pirate medicine and diet, which often gets neglected. He discusses their cultural codes and conflict resolution. This one is very good to have to really understand who these people were.
If you are are looking for original sources from the Golden Age of Caribbean pirates (or as close as you can get, considering pirates didn't usually keep biographers around) I would recommend A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates by "Captain Charles Johnson" from 1724. A word of warning though; the author stretched the truth quite a bit, especially in the second volume.
An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization by Peter T. Lesson gives insight into ways of governance and maintaining order in their institutions; it is freely downloadable in pdf format, for example here: http://www.peterleeson.com/An-arrgh-chy.pdf