After reading The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple, I wanted to read Mr. Whipple’s other Landmark pirate book, Famous Pirates of the New World. It was not a disappointment. In fact, I found this book even more compelling than Captain Kidd.
The book starts off with a bang, after an introduction about piracy in general and why it was such a problem. The author pulls the reader in by telling the story of “The Dark Secret of Captain Flood.”
“Captain James Flood had a secret. He kept it well, so well that when he died his secret almost died with him. In all his life Captain Flood revealed his secret to only one man, the first mate of his pirate ship. If he had not told his first mate, we would not know his strange, evil story. But we do, and here it is–the dark secret of Captain Flood.”
Can you resist that hook? Don’t you want to read all about it right now? The story is indeed a rollicking, strange, and violent one. Kids will love it, unless they are particularly sensitive to violence and mayhem. By the way, that disclaimer goes for the whole book. The pirates in this book are real pirates–murderous, evil, and greedy. There’s a description later on in the book of the advantages and disadvantages of fighting with a cutlass versus a rapier that will challenge even the battle-hardened veteran mom to read aloud. It’s fascinating.
And this isn’t a particularly moralizing story. As Mr. Whipple tells it, some of the pirates got what they deserved: they were captured and hanged by the neck, and good riddance to them. Others got away with their loot and settled down to a life of ease after their pirating days were over. “We know of hundreds (of pirates) who ‘retired’ and enjoyed their plunder without ever having to account for it.” Alas, that is the truth of the matter: sometimes justice doesn’t come in this life.
I thought this was a great book with all of the famous stories of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Calico Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonney and many more. The stories of the pirates are full of adventure, but the pirates themselves are not glamorized. You would not want to find yourself on a ship with any of these men–or women.
The book ends with the story of Governor Woodes Rogers of New Providence, Nassau, a haven for the pirates of the Caribbean and of how the Governor managed to civilize many of the pirates and put “an end to the almost unrestricted piracy which had plagued the seas around the Americas for more than two centuries.” It’s an amazing story of good governance and wisdom on the part of a British-appointed governor.
I have only one complaint about this book: I wish I knew where Mr. Whipple got his information. There are no footnotes or endnotes in the book, no bibliography. When I tried to look up the story about Captain James Flood online, I couldn’t really find anything to corroborate that spine-tingling story. Oh, well it’s a good story, nonetheless, and it could be a true one. Who knows? Maybe Mr. Whipple got his facts from a dark and secret source.