Piracy

PRIVATEERING

Naval History Piracy 19 Min Read

The 10 Lion’s Whelps built by the 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1628 are exemplars of the ‘war’ pinnace, a war ship that was built for several European navies for more than two centuries (c.1550-c.1750). The Whelps had sweeps (propelling oars) as well as sails (G R Balleine, All for the King, The Life Story of Sir George Carteret, Societe…

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Biography Piracy 117 Min Read

American Privateer George Coggeshall

American sea captain George Coggeshall tells of his experiences evading the British navy during the War of 1812 and spending over half a century at sea. George Coggeshall of Milford, Connecticut, was a sea captain in the great Yankee tradition. His father had been a successful shipmaster but was ruined…

Naval History Piracy 19 Min Read

PRIVATEERING

The 10 Lion’s Whelps built by the 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1628 are exemplars of the ‘war’ pinnace, a war ship that was built for several European navies for more than two centuries (c.1550-c.1750). The Whelps had sweeps (propelling oars) as well as sails (G R Balleine, All for…

Piracy 20 Min Read

American Privateers

A view of New Amsterdam (New York) in 1673. Port Royal as it appeared before the earthquake in 1692. The outer edges of the map are the borders of the old Port Royal, while the darkly shaded area toward the bottom and middle depicts the boundary of the city after…

Biography British Piracy 11 Min Read

John Oxenham, (c. 1535-1580)

John Oxenham is a prime example of the daring and courage with which Elizabethan seamen and adventurers assailed the Spanish empire. Other than a strong likelihood that he was born in Devonshire, Oxenham’s early life is almost completely unknown. In 1572, he sailed with Sir Francis Drake on an expedition…

Piracy 29 Min Read

The End of Black Bart

As night fell on Saturday, 13 January 1722, the two pirate ships pulled away from Whydah, taking the French prize with them, leaving the Porcupine blazing in their wake. Captain Ogle arrived in HMS Swallow twenty-four hours later. Bartholomew Roberts had got away with it again. He had sailed into…

France Piracy 39 Min Read

Robert Surcouf, ‘le Roi de Corsaires’

Capture of Kent by Confiance. Painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray. Robert Surcouf had made his name and fortune years in the East, capturing the 1,200-ton Indiaman Kent in 1800 and retiring to St Malo. At the Emperor Napoleon’s urging, he returned to Ile de France in 1807 in Revenant, an…

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Piracy in the Indian Ocean

Historians have been particularly interested in the fact that on two occasions during our period…

The Panzer Divisions

The military historian Matthew Cooper described the German Panzer arm of service as: ‘a failure.…

HMS Kingfisher (1675)

The Action of the Kingfisher with Seven Algerine Ships, 22 May 1681 under command of…

Norman Kingdom of Sicily

The island of Sicily was conquered and settled by Muslim invaders from North Africa in…