Zacks, Richard. The pirate hunter - Brief Article - Young Adult Review - Book Review

Hyperion, Theia. 426p. c2002. 0-7868-8451-7 $15.95. SA *

Shiver me timbers! If you've got a soft spot for pirates, want to know the inside story of their lives, or are curious about derring-do on the high seas, I don't know of another book that will give you more pleasure. Author Zacks is diligent in giving us the inside story of how in the late 17th century the worlds of commerce, shipping, speculation, piracy, and politics combined to produce the phenomenon of Captain Kidd. His title states his thesis: Kidd was not a pirate, but began as a hired pirate hunter, sent out from London to the Asian oceans to capture pirate ships and bring their booty back to his English investors. Through extremely complicated circumstances involving a mutinous crew, uncooperative natives, and unscrupulous ship captains, his three-year voyage went terribly wrong and he ended up in prison and finally on the gallows. His notoriety as a pirate is undeserved, argues Zacks. Instead he should be remembered as a talented sailor and a supremely unlucky man.

The lively pages of this book are studded with surprising details of life in New York and London and on ships in the 1690s. Zacks is interested in how these people married and ate as well as in how they hove to in a storm or fixed leaks with oakum. This is a rich, detailed book--a find for maritime enthusiasts. Michael Healy, English Teacher, Wood River H.S., Hailey, ID

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kliatt
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group