Book Review: Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean by David Cordingly

Sometimes a book can be worthwhile and still make you want your money back.

This is a review of the David Cordingly (author of the excellent Under the Black Flag) book Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean. Yes, I know. Let's say it again, this time in bold AND all caps. PIRATE HUNTER OF THE CARIBBEAN!!!

I mean, if this wasn't the title of a historical biography it would be the title of an anime series, right? That just sounds exciting! And it is...although there is very little pirate hunting, at least by the focus of the book.

PIRATE HUNTER (I just had to) of the Caribbean captures the life of Woodes Rogers. His life is kind of divided into halves (by theme, not chronologically). In the first half of the story of his life, he takes over his father's fishing business, only to see Spanish pirates and privateers take valuable catches and ships. To avoid bankruptcy and losing his standing in his community, he takes a commission and takes part in an privateering voyage to the Spanish Main. The privateers capture a good amount - but not the optimal amount (more later) - of loot by attacking both port cities and galleons, then set sail around the world in order to deliver the treasure to England while avoiding the Spanish. Along the way Rogers finds his leadership style (which is described as harsh), rescues not one but TWO people (Andrew Selkerk and a Moskito Indian) who were stranded on deserted islands for years and may have been the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, and also gets half his face blown off in a gunfight. Years later Rogers and what's left of his crew arrive back in England, where they are told they didn't capture enough treasure, they are sued by the East India Trading Company, and Rogers winds up in debtor's prison (although proceeds from his book about his voyage allow him to return to a normal life with an air of legitimacy).

Okay, that sounds like it sets you up to be a pirate hunter, right?

Now on to the second half. As piracy explodes across the Caribbean (yeah, yeah!), Rogers petitions the King to become (wait for it...) governor of the Bahamas. (Okay...a fighting governor! We can work with that!) He arrives in the port of Nassau, the former Caribbean capital of piracy (here it comes!), and as his flotilla arrives Henry Every makes a daring escape from the harbor (now it's on like King Kong!). He concentrates on building up Nassau's defenses so the island chain won't be easily captured in the wars against the French and Spanish (okay, sounds promising). He also holds a trial for a pirate band that ends in their hangings (okay, maybe this will spur him to take justice into his own hands?). Then he gets sick and moves back to England. Then he comes back and he dies.

Oh.

Now where oh where is the PIRATE HUNTING?!?!?!

This book does have chapters on the hunts for and deaths/executions of Calico Jack (with Anne Bonney and Mary Reade), Black Bart, and Blackbeard.

Woodes Rogers, however, has nothing to do with any of them.

Here's how hard it is to tie Woodes Rogers into anything interesting in the second half of his life: Three quarters of the Epilogue is devoted to who is the real inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.

Now I understand that it can be hard to make chicken salad out of everyone's life, and Rogers was in the unfortunate position of having the most exciting part of his life (the privateering and subsequent voyage around the world) happen when he was younger. And this book isn't the only casualty of that: While I was reading this book on vacation in Hilton Head (where I always turn to books about pirates even though they have nothing to do with Hilton Head), I was also listening to the excellent Pirate History Podcast. Episode #312 is called "Ladies and Gentlemen, Woodes Rogers". The host talks about Rogers for about 15 minutes, then dives into more on the War of Spanish Succession - he admits in a later episode that he realized he didn't actually have much to say about Rogers.

So we can take that as it is - but in that case, maybe don't call your book Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean!!!

So overall I'm going to give this book seven out of ten hot dogs. But I need to take one hot dog away for having a misleading title.