Best Maritime History & Piracy Books
Here you will get Best Maritime History & Piracy Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. Into the Deep: A Memoir From the Man Who Found Titanic
Author: by Robert Ballard
English
336 pages
1426220995
The legendary explorer of the Titanic shares inside stories of danger, suspense, and discovery-plus previously untold stories about his own dyslexia and how it has shaped his life. Best known for finding the doomed ship Titanic, celebrated adventurer Robert Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths.
Now he gets personal, telling the stories behind his most exciting discoveriesincluding how a top-secret naval mission provided the opportunity for his Titanic discoveryand opens up about his private tragedies. He frankly recounts the struggles he has worked through, rising to prominence as a scientist whose celebrity drew academic scorn.
And he reveals the triumph and agony in the years after his Titanic find: While media around the world clamored for interviews, he grappled with the death of his 20-year-old son and the collapse of his marriage amid academic and military career demands.
Finally, he addresses his late-in-life discovery of his own dyslexia, which he now sees as a gift that has shaped his life and accomplishments. Twice a New York Times best-selling author, here Ballard partners with investigative reporter and bestselling author Christopher Drew to tell the dramatic and often surprising stories behind his newsworthy discoveries.
2. Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates
Author: by Eric Jay Dolin
B07BLK7YFV
September 18, 2018
English
With surprising tales of vicious mutineers, imperial riches, and high-seas intrigue, Black Flags, Blue Waters is rumbustious enough for the adventure-hungry (Peter Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle). Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the surprising history of American piracy’s Golden Age – spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s – when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond.
Deftly blending scholarship and drama (Richard Zacks), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them the towering Blackbeard, the ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey.
Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Black Flags, Blue Waters is a tour de force history (Michael Pierce, Midwestern Rewind) of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.
3. The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream
Author: by Charles Spencer
B084X4QP56
September 17, 2020
English
As gripping as any thriller. History doesn’t get any better than this’ BILL BRYSON’A brilliant read Game of Thrones but in the real world’ ANTHONY HOROWITZPICKED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN, THE DAILY MAIL AND THE DAILY EXPRESS.
The sinking of the White Ship in 1120 is one of the greatest disasters England has ever suffered. In one catastrophic night, the king’s heir and the flower of Anglo-Norman society were drowned and the future of the crown was thrown violently off course.
In a riveting narrative, Charles Spencer follows the story from the Norman Conquest through to the decades that would become known as the Anarchy: a civil war of untold violence that saw families turn in on each other with English and Norman barons, rebellious Welsh princes and the Scottish king all playing a part in a desperate game of thrones.
All because of the loss of one vessel the White Ship the medieval Titanic. Highly enjoyable’ Simon HefferBrilliant’ Dan JonesFascinating’ Tom Bower
4. Unsinkable: Five Men and the Indomitable Run of the USS Plunkett
Author: by James Sullivan
English
416 pages
1982147636
Certain stories we need to tell regardless of their size. One of Mr. Sullivan’s achievements is to remind us why. The Wall Street Journal In the bestselling tradition of Indianapolis and In Harm’s Way comes a thrilling and vividly told account of the USS Plunketta US Navy destroyer that sustained the most harrowing attack on any Navy ship by the Germans during World War II, that gave as good as it got, and that was later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk.
More than the story of a single, savage engagement, Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca in North Africa, to Sicily and Salerno in Italy and then on to Plunkett’s defining moment at Anzio, where a dozen-odd German bombers bore down on the ship in an assault so savage, so prolonged, and so deadly that one Navy commander was hard-pressed to think of another destroyer that had endured what Plunkett had.
After a three-month overhaul and with a reputation rising as the fightin’est ship in the Navy, Plunkett (DD-431) plunged back into the war at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and once again into battle during the invasion of Southern Franceperhaps the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre.
5. In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire
Author: by Laurence Bergreen
English
464 pages
0062875353
FASCINATING …Dramatic and timely. New York Times Book Review, Editors’ ChoiceIn this grand and thrilling narrative, the author of the 200,000-copy paperback bestseller Over the Edge of the World reveals the singular adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history.Entrancing …Very good indeed.
Wall Street JournalBefore he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe, or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wantedand successfulpirate ever to sail. Nicknamed El Draque by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queenand himself.
For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power. In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth’s covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully.
6. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Author: by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin Books
English
320 pages
In this lively debut work of history, Edward Kritzler tells the tale of an unlikely group of swashbuckling Jews who ransacked the high seas in the aftermath of the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of the fifteenth century, many Jews had to flee Spain and Portugal.
The most adventurous among them took to the seas as freewheeling outlaws. In ships bearing names such as the Prophet Samuel, Queen Esther, and Shield of Abraham, they attacked and plundered the Spanish fleet while forming alliances with other European powers to ensure the safety of Jews living in hiding.
Filled with high-sea adventuresincluding encounters with Captain Morgan and other legendary piratesJewish Pirates of the Caribbean reveals a hidden chapter in Jewish history as well as the cruelty, terror, and greed that flourished during the Age of Discovery.
8. Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
Author: by Steven Johnson
English
304 pages
0735211612
Thoroughly engrossing … A spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags. The Wall Street Journal From The New York Timesbestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the world Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate.
The press published wildly popularand wildly inaccuratereports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy.
Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key eventthe attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crewand its surprising repercussions across time and space. It’s the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century.
Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism?
9. Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man
Author: by Lynn Vincent
Simon & Schuster
English
592 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * GRIPPINGTHIS YARN HAS IT ALL. USA TODAY * A WONDERFUL BOOK. The Christian Science Monitor * ENTHRALLING. Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * A MUST-READ. Booklist (starred review) A human drama unlike any otherthe riveting and definitive full story of the worst sea disaster in United States naval history.
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the Philippine Sea when she is sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. For the next five nights and four days, almost three hundred miles from the nearest land, nearly nine hundred men battle injuries, sharks, dehydration, insanity, and eventually each other.
Only 316 will survive. For the first time Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic tell the complete story of the ship, her crew, and their final mission to save one of their own in a wonderful bookthat features grievous mistakes, extraordinary courage, unimaginable horror, and a cover-upas complete an account of this tragic tale as we are likely to have (The Christian Science Monitor).
10. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
Author: by David Cordingly
English
336 pages
081297722X
This is the most authoritative and highly literate account of these pernicious people that I have ever read. Patrick O’Brian[A] wonderfully entertaining history of pirates and piracy … A rip-roaring read … Fascinating and unexpected. Men’s JournalThis rollicking account of the golden age of piracy is packed with vivid history and high seas adventure.
David Cordingly, an acclaimed expert on pirates, reveals the spellbinding truth behind the legends of Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Sir Francis Drake, the fierce female brigands Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and others who rode and robbed upon the world’s most dangerous waters.
Here, in thrilling detail, are the weapons they used, the ships they sailed, and the ways they foughtand were defeated. Under the Black Flag also charts the paths of fictional pirates such as Captain Hook and Long John Silver. The definitive resource on the subject, this book is as captivating as it is supremely entertaining.
Praise for Under the Black Flag[A] lively history … If you’ve ever been seduced by the myth of the cutlass-wielding pirate, consider David Cordingly’s Under the Black Flag. USA Today, Best BetsEngagingly told … A tale of the power of imaginative literature to re-create the past.
11. The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria: The Sinking of the World's Most Glamorous Ship
Author: by Greg King
B07S9MJ8RS
April 7, 2020
English
In the tradition of Erik Larson’s Dead Wake comes The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria, about the sinking of the glamorous Italian ocean liner, including never-before-seen photos of the wreck today. In 1956, a stunned world watched as the famous Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria sank after being struck by a Swedish vessel off the coast of Nantucket.
Unlike the tragedy of the Titanic, this sinking played out in real time across radios and televisions, the first disaster of the modern age. Audiences witnessed everything that ensued after the unthinkable collision of two modern vessels equipped with radar: perilous hours of uncertainty; the heroic rescue of passengers; and the final gasp as the pride of the Italian fleet slipped beneath the Atlantic, taking some fifty lives with her.
Her loss signaled the end of the golden age of ocean liner travel. Now, Greg King and Penny Wilson offer a fresh look at this legendary liner and her tragic fate. Andrea Doria represented the romance of travel, the possibility of new lives in the new world, and the glamour of 1950s art, culture, and life.
12. The Last Slave Ships: New York and the End of the Middle Passage
Author: by John Harris
English
312 pages
0300247338
A stunning behind the curtain look into the last years of the illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States Long after the transatlantic slave trade was officially outlawed in the early nineteenth century by every major slave trading nation, merchants based in the United States were still sending hundreds of illegal slave ships from American ports to the African coast.
The key instigators were slave traders who moved to New York City after the shuttering of the massive illegal slave trade to Brazil in 1850. These traffickers were determined to make lower Manhattan a key hub in the illegal slave trade to Cuba.
In conjunction with allies in Africa and Cuba, they ensnared around 200,000 African men, women, and children during the 1850s and 1860s. John Harris explores how the U.S. Government went from ignoring, and even abetting, this illegal trade to helping to shut it down completely in 1867.
13. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History
Author: by Brian Kilmeade
B00SI0B5GW
English
12154 KB
Another blockbuster! Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates reads like an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller. You will love this book and also wonder why so few people know this story. No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.
Brad ThorThis is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America’s third president decided to stand up to intimidation. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis.
The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims.
14. World War II at Sea: A Global History
Author: by Craig L. Symonds
Oxford University Press
English
792 pages
Author of Lincoln and His Admirals (winner of the Lincoln Prize), The Battle of Midway (Best Book of the Year, Military History Quarterly), and Operation Neptune, (winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature), Craig L. Symonds has established himself as one of the finest naval historians at work today.
World War II at Sea represents his crowning achievement: a complete narrative of the naval war and all of its belligerents, on all of the world’s oceans and seas, between 1939 and 1945. Opening with the 1930 London Conference, Symonds shows how any limitations on naval warfare would become irrelevant before the decade was up, as Europe erupted into conflict once more and its navies were brought to bear against each other.
World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the “miracle” evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini’s Regia Marina at the start of the war the fourth largest navy in the world and the dominance of the Kid Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; the struggles of the Russian Navy and the scuttling of the French Fleet in Toulon in 1942; the landings in North Africa and then Normandy.
15. Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600–1900
Author: by Stephen R. Bown
Thomas Dunne Books
English
336 pages
Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern worldIt was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions.
They managed their territories as business interests, treating their subjects as employees, customers, or competitors. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people. The merchant kings of the Age of Heroic Commerce were a rogue’s gallery of larger-than-life men who, for a couple hundred years, expanded their far-flung commercial enterprises over a sizable portion of the world.
They include Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the violent and autocratic pioneer of the Dutch East India Company; Peter Stuyvesant, the one-legged governor of the Dutch West India Company, whose narrow-minded approach lost Manhattan to the British; Robert Clive, who rose from company clerk to become head of the British East India Company and one of the wealthiest men in Britain; Alexandr Baranov of the Russian American Company; Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers and Rhodesia; and George Simpson, the “Little Emperor” of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who was chauffeured about his vast fur domain in a giant canoe, exhorting his voyageurs to paddle harder so he could set speed records.
