Book Review: Pirates: Flibuste et piraterie dans la Caraibe et les mers du sud (original) (raw)

International Journal of Maritime History, 2006

Abstract

Five chapters on the mid-seventeenth century have nothing to do with piracy in Newfoundland. De Ruyter's attack on Ferryland in 1652 and the Dutch raids in 1673 were not acts of piracy. The same problem arises in Crummey's discussion of the Nine Years' War (1689-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13), when English and French communities raided each other repeatedly. The most devastating were carried out by the French, especially in the winter of 1696-97, when Pierre LeMoyne D'Iberville terrorized the English Shore. Placentia also served as a base for privateers, which combined with French warships to carry out a form of commercial-military warfare. Crummey has more than a dozen chapters on this period, but they contain very little on piracy. Ironically, Crummey says nothing on the most serious "piracy" problem to face the Newfoundland trade in this period, namely the corsairs of North Africa. They terrorized Newfoundland fishermen the most, intercepting English vessels in and near the Straits of Gibraltar as they delivered cod to markets in Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean. As a result, hundreds of West Countrymen were killed or sold into slavery. Crummey has produced a series of case studies that will entertain a general audience. He brings many colourful figures to life, from Bernard Drake and Peter Easton to Bartholomew Roberts, the pirate captain known as Black Bart. The Treaty of Utrecht ended decades of Anglo-French warfare in 1713, and the Royal Navy was demobilized on a massive scale. Many unemployed seafarers turned pirate. It was in this context that Black Bart arrived in Trepassey in 1720, using the South Avalon as a base from which to pillage shipping, finding a suitable flagship, and replenishing provisions and manpower. Yet PiratesofNewfoundland suffers from a lack offocus and more thorough research. Readers would also have benefited from an index and bibliography. Crummey writes with passion and he enlivens a fascinating subject his book will probably generate further interest in Newfoundland's early history but he offers little real insight into its subject.

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