Rebecca Simon's Review of Pirate Nests in Journal for Maritime Research

Journal for Maritime Research ISSN: 2153-3369 (Print) 1469-1957 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmar20 The pirate nests and the rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740 Rebecca A. Simon To cite this article: Rebecca A. Simon (2016) The pirate nests and the rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740, Journal for Maritime Research, 18:2, 161-162, DOI: 10.1080/21533369.2016.1253314 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2016.1253314 Published online: 30 Nov 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 10 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rmar20 Download by: [The UC San Diego Library] Date: 16 December 2016, At: 15:59 JOURNAL FOR MARITIME RESEARCH 161 9780199743292/obo-9780199743292–0134.xml) that suggests many other works that would have widen his viewpoint. These are issues even before one even gets to the naval and maritime dimensions of the war. Here, Falkner describes the main events: Cadiz, Vigo, Gibraltar, Malaga, Toulon, and the Walker expedition to Quebec, but failed to use any of the volumes published by the Navy Records Society, nor has he consulted the several recent biographies of key French admirals. Works on the problems of French naval administration, and J.R. Bruijn’s The Dutch Navy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (1993) have also been overlooked. There is no general discussion of the numerous frustrated attempts to carry out amphibious warfare in what were called ‘descents’, nor any mention of the major issues of attack on trade or the protection of trade at sea. Privateering is ignored entirely and there is no mention of either William Dampier or Woodes Rogers, and their appearances in the Pacific to attack Spanish interests. Falkner refers to an expedition to the Adriatic, but says nothing ever came of it, ignoring Edmond Halley’s investigative work there that is detailed in Alan Cook’s 1998 biography of the English astronomer. Falkner glosses over the war in the Americas, completely missing the brutal character of the war fought between settlers and indigenous Americans, most notably at the massacre at Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704. The Franco-Spanish attacks on Charleston, and the colonial expeditions that made from Carolina into Spanish Florida and from Massachusetts into Nova Scotia, and to Newfoundland are also overlooked. In sum, it is remarkable that this book has avoided so many opportunities to broaden the frame of reference for discussing the War of the Spanish Succession. John B. Hattendorf U.S. Naval War College john.hattendorf@usnwc.edu © 2016 John B. Hattendorf http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2016.1253312 The pirate nests and the rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740, by Mark G. Hanna, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2014, 425 pp., 28 b/w illustrations, £42.95 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-4696-1794-7 Piracy remains one of the most exciting maritime topics, and it continues to generate considerable popular interest. It has also received significant attention from historians in recent years, as scholars from a range of backgrounds have attempted to revise some of the more enduring ideas about pirates and buccaneers. Much has been written about the relationship between pirates and society (such as Margarette Lincoln’s British pirates and society, 1680–1730) and how the state reacted to these criminals (such as Marcus Rediker’s Villains of all nations: Atlantic pirates in the golden age and Robert C. Ritchie’s Captain Kidd and the war against the pirates). Mark Hanna has now added a new treasure to the historiography with his new book The pirate nests and the rise of the British Empire, 1570–1740. Hanna’s aim is to provide a new history of piracy by connecting the sea marauders to imperial development during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and pushes against the traditional view of the swashbuckling pirate at sea. Instead, he argues that pirates played an important role on land, bringing goods into port towns and, as a result, helped diffuse communities flourish. They helped rather than hindered commercial expansion, and in doing so played a direct role in the growth of the British Empire. 162 BOOK REVIEWS The book takes a chronological approach: Hanna begins the narrative in the sixteenth century during the reign of Elizabeth I when ideas about a seaborne empire were first being shaped, and concludes with the outbreak of the War of Jenkin’s Ear in the late 1730s, when both English and American sailors and soldiers were united in defence of commercial depredations against the Spanish (19). During the first half of the book, Hanna discusses the effects piracy had on early British Atlantic colonisation in the West Indies and North America during the first half of the seventeenth century. The establishment of American colonies allowed for amicable relationships between colonies and pirates, particularly in Boston, Newport, Charles Town and New Providence in the Bahamas. Those who sailed under wellknown pirates such as Avery found refuge in the Americas as they brought in smuggled goods and treasures, while Red Sea pirates, operating during the 1690s, also had relationships with the North American colonies Amicable relationships between pirates and colonies did not last, however, and this deterioration is the focus of the second half of the book. Hanna argues that 1696 was a turning point in the history of Atlantic piracy, marked by the publication of Edward Randolph’s A discourse about pyrates, with proper remedies to suppress them. This document argued that the eradication of pirates could not come from attacking pirates themselves but rather by integrating maritime communities into the imperial system (223). The turn of the eighteenth century led to an extermination campaign, which saw vigorous actions taken against Atlantic pirates. New vice-admiralty courts were established in the Americas to eradicate piracy, and the dramatic trials and public executions of the more infamous criminals added to anti-pirate sentiment. A second turning point in the history of Atlantic piracy was the 1713 Peace of Utrecht, which transformed maritime communities. Privateering became formalised and thus ‘rogue pirates’ were no longer necessary to defend trade from ‘foreign enemies and local captains’ (366). From this point forward, Atlantic piracy rapidly declined until it only existed in memory and mythology. The great strength of this book is the depth of research that the author has undertaken. Hanna leaves no stone unturned as he navigates the murky waters of piracy and empire. His convincing arguments have been honed through extensive research in many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Caribbean. Famous pirates such as Blackbeard, Henry Every and Captain William Kidd take their rightful places in the narrative but Hanna also leaves large room to discuss some lesser-known individuals, such as Walter Kennedy and John Quelch, who were no less important to the development of empire. This book will make an excellent read for popular audiences who are curious about the history of piracy, and it will also be an essential piece of historiography for future historians and researchers. Rebecca A. Simon King’s College London rebecca.simon@kcl.ac.uk © 2016 Rebecca A. Simon http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2016.1253314 Modern naval history: debates and prospects, by Richard Harding, London, Bloomsbury, 2016, 260 + xii pp., £19.99 (paperback), ISBN: 9781472579096 In his History of the Peloponnesian War, one of the earliest scholarly works of history, Thucydides recorded and analysed the naval battles between the Greek city-states and their