The Pirate Menace

This new account explores the most notorious pirates in history and how their rise and fall can be traced back to a single pirate haven, Nassau. Angus Konstam, one of the world's leading pirate experts, has brought his 30 years of research to create the definitive book on the Golden Age of Piracy. Many of the privateers the British had used to prey on French and Spanish shipping during the War of the Spanish Succession turned to piracy. The pirates took over Nassau on the Bahamian island of New Providence and turned it into their own pirate haven, where shady merchants were happy to buy their plunder. It became the hub of a pirate network that included some of the most notorious pirates in history: Blackbeard, "Calico Jack" Rackam, Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts. The growth of piracy led to a major surge in attacks in the Caribbean and along North America's Atlantic seaboard. With the fragile maritime economy of the Americas threatened with collapse, major ports were threatened and trade brought to a standstill, the British government finally declared war on the pirates. The Pirate Menace draws on extensive research, as well as a wide range of first-hand accounts, to produce a new history of the heyday of historical piracy.

Angus Konstam is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has written widely on naval history, with well over a hundred books in print. He is a former Royal Navy officer, maritime archaeologist and museum curator, who has worked in the Royal Armouries, Tower of London, and Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Now a full-time author and historian, he lives in Orkney.

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations in Plate Section A Note on Time, Nation and Distance Maps Prologue Introduction 1. Beyond the Line 2. Henry Jennings 3. Piracy in the Bahamas 4. Benjamin Hornigold 5. Profile of a Pirate 6. A Commune of Pirates 7. Edward Thatch 8. Sam Bellamy 9. Stede Bonnet 10. The Carrot and the Stick 11. Woodes Rogers and Charles Vane 12. The Pirate-hunter 13. Pursuing the Die-hards 14. The Buck Legacy 15. The Great Pyrate 16. The Enemies of Mankind Notes Bibliography Index