Customer Reviews

The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805

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Some people like suspense novels, some people like action adventure stories, and some people are real history buffs. This book will satisfy all three crowds. To find accurate history written in such an engaging, page-turning manner is a rare delight.

The United States became a nation at a time when the Barbary States (Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers) were enjoying a piracy trade they had been running for three centuries. This robbery took place by forcefully taking a ship on the high seas, then keeping the goods and enslaving the crew and passengers. The pirates would hold prisoners for ransom--typically for a year, while they negotiated a price--then release them when paid. No country would stand up to these pirates. In fact, other nations paid tribute to them to avert even worse problems.

This cowardly state of affairs would have continued for centuries more, had not William Eaton headed up a mission to end the reign of one of the bashaws (a bashaw is a sort of king).

This particular bashaw (Yussef) killed his oldest brother, who had been the rightful heir to the throne. Then, he took the middle brother's family hostage and sent him into exile--leaving Yussef the one occupying the throne. The middle brother, Hamet, wanted to regain his throne from his sadistic and unscrupulous younger brother. This is where William Eaton came in.

To understand the central story, you have to understand Eaton. Zacks helps us do this, by showing Eaton engaging in the failures that brought him to the point where his adventure with Hamet began. Eaton had a sound military mind, but he was lousy at politics. He was constantly shooting himself in the proverbial foot, and his enemies took pains to make him suffer.

Eaton's adventure with Hamet is the central story of this book. How that adventure begins, stumbles, picks up, and goes through a multitude of setbacks and political machinations is fascinating. How it ends is disheartening, because that ending shows the triumph of petty politics over common sense.
This book allows the reader to see into historical events and the people behind them. For example:

We see the pompous Tobias Lear--a long-time personal friend of George Washington who damaged that relationship by stealing rent money he was allegedly collecting for Washington--truly bungle negotiations in a way that makes you think of Jimmy Carter. He was that bad.

We see the incompetent Captain William Bainbridge surrender the USS Philadelphia, when there was no reason to do so. This act of stupidity wasn't his first surrender. But, this one got his whole crew enslaved (and some killed) and tortured for over a year. Officers, of course, were pampered by their hosts (only the enlisted men were barbarized). Amazingly, the Navy gave him command of yet another ship. I guess three's a charm?

We see Thomas Jefferson get an object lesson in why a gunboat navy doesn't work and why a navy needs massive ships. Jefferson was a complex character and a skillful political manipulator. Zacks shows the man at his scheming best, while also reminding us of Jefferson's many significant contributions. A balanced portrayal like this rarely occurs in accounts of major historical figures.

Today, we think of the US Marines as an elite force--the few and the proud. They are often the first into battle. But at the start of Eaton's adventure, they were not highly thought of. Their pay was less than that of a regular sailor, and their main job was to serve as a sort of police force for the ship they were assigned to.

But Eaton took a force of Marines into battle and made history. Eaton's Marines did what Marines have done ever since--the impossible.

Throughout this book, you can't help but share Eaton's sense of frustration as he faces one obstacle after another. Because the dialogue and narration are so alive, you experience his joys, his anger, his pride, and his worry. Zacks does an excellent job of bringing those emotions forth. But Zack stays true to history and doesn't let our view of Eaton be one-sided. He also shows, throughout the book, how Eaton's various weaknesses work against him. One weakness is his inability to stay out of debt. Another is his inability to garner mutual respect with those in authority over him.

But the weakness that does him in is his inability to let go. Eaton's mission ends, his obsession with Lear's incompetent bungling and Jefferson's complicity in undermining Eaton's mission gnaw at him. He lets his unhappiness drive him to drink. And in 1811, he finally drinks himself into his grave at the age of 47. Five years later, Tobias Lear--Eaton's most hated enemy--takes his own life.

Eaton's mission was the first covert operation conducted overseas by the United States. He did not accomplish what he set out to do, because of undermining from other people--most notably Lear and Jefferson. But in the year following Eaton's death, Stephen Decatur, Jr., commanded a Naval force that proceed to kick a-- and gravely weaken the pirate nations.
Decatur's actions stopped the Barbary Pirates from attacking US ships. But, those actions also emboldened other victim nations to fight back.

In 1829, two French brigates ran aground in the harbor in Algiers. The Dey (ruler) of Algiers had 109 officers and crew members beheaded. That action resulted in a massive French force descending upon Algiers. The French forced a surrender in three weeks, and took complete control of the country. France did not grant independence to Algiers until 1962, which is why French is a common language in Algiers even today.

The French also took control of Tunis in 1881, granting them independence in 1956. Tripoli did not come out of this unscathed. We are all familiar with this portion of The Marine Hymn: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli." Read this book to find out why US Marines still sing those words today. Or, read it simply for the pleasure of reading a good book.

Long before our current war with Islamic extremists our young nation engaged in the War with the Barbary Pirates. It had almost become a footnote for history for many until the likes of journalists like Christopher Hitchens brought its events back into the spotlight.

Now Richard Zack's "The Pirate Coast" brings the events of the war of Barbary Pirates into sharper focus.

During the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson our fledgling nation faced a thorny problem. The United States and other European nations were forced to pay tribute to the nations of the North African coast to do business in the Mediterranean or would be subject to attack by the Barbary pirates. The other nations of Europe went along with this practice but the US was against it not only on principle but because of its sheer cost (at one point we paid the Barbary pirates tribute which exceeded the entire US military budget).

At the time the practice of the Barbary pirates was to commandeer foreign ships and sell their crew into slavery.

Eaton was sent by Jefferson in 1805 on a clandestine mission to aid in a revolution going on in Tripoli. Now comes the intesteting character of Eaton. Eaton was by accounts a stubborn individual who seemed to get himself in trouble in every endevour he found himself in but Eaton was a super patriot who saw this mission as a chance to redeem himself. However the revolution in Tripoli sputtered. Jefferson was more than willing to aid a people in a revolution but wanted no part in overthrowing a government now that the revolution had been foiled.

Eaton was promised a large amount of funding but at the last moment after Jefferson hearing the revolution in the area has failed Eaton is sent off virtually alone. However Eaton once given the green light for the mission could not be stopped.

He was virtually alone an army unto himself. Little did anyone expect that is just what he was.
Sent out on impossible mission with insufficient provisions and just a few men anyone else would have given up but to borrow a name from popular culture Eaton was the "Jack Baurer" of his day and became an exemplar for the covert ops agent.

Once in Alexandria he employed mercenaries and Bedouins for an improbably march across the deserts of Libya. Eaton has to deal with the luke warm alliance and friendship of the Bedouins who often press Eaton into bargaining and renegotiations of their terms.

Amazingly Eaton and his group of misfits arrive in Tripoli and defeat the forces there playing a crucial role in the defeat of the Barbary Pirates. How crucial of this assault from land was to the outcome war is a matter of opinion but it does not take away from Captain Eaton's achievement.

However once back in America Eaton could not let go of the fact that Jefferson had let him down and did not kept the promises he made and was not shy in telling him so. For this reason perhaps Jefferson never gave Eaton the credit he was due. In the end Eaton dies an early death - drunken, in debt and unacknowledged.

A great yarn and thought provoking read that has implications for the war in which we are now presently engaged.
Highly Recommended.

"The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805," by Richard Zacks, is an enthralling work of history. It's full of bold and colorful characters, fascinating places, and perilous situations. Zacks takes us back to the early 19th century. The nation of Tripoli (modern-day Libya), which terrorizes the Mediterranean, declares war on the United States and eventually captures a U.S. naval vessel and its crew. Zacks tells the story of the military and political effort to free the captives. It's an epic tale that involves both land warfare in North Africa and naval warfare in the Mediterranean, as well as political intrigue in the city of Washington and diplomatic maneuvering in Malta and Tripoli. Although Jefferson gets mentioned in the book's subtitle, the real hero of the book is William Eaton, who leads "America's first covert military op overseas." He's a truly larger-than-life character.

Zacks draws on a rich variety of sources from which to tell the story of Eaton's remarkable mission, and he incorporates substantial quotes from these sources in the narrative. By doing this he allows the voices of Eaton and his contemporaries to be heard. Interestingly, Zacks also points out to the reader the places where there are gaps in the historical record. In the book's acknowledgements section, Zacks describes in detail how he got access to the documents he used in writing the book. The book also includes a "Cast of Characters" guide, extensive endnotes, a thorough bibliography, and an index.

Zacks' prose is witty, lively, and engaging. As he tells the story he includes many fascinating details--the use of lime juice for secret writing, the copious amounts of alcohol consumed by the builders of the U.S.S. _Philadelphia_, the fury of a North African sandstorm, etc. Especially fascinating is his description of how Eaton created a multiethnic, multinational task force of both Christian and Muslim troops as part of his daring mission. Zacks creates vivid portraits not just of Eaton, but of many other remarkable individuals. This work of richly documented history is both tragic and thrilling. For an interesting companion text, I recommend "Inside Delta Force," by Eric L. Haney.

A US Navy warship goes aground in the territorial waters of a hostil Muslim power, the crew is taken hostage, the President of the US dispatches a secret agent to overthrown the Mulsim leader and free the Americans ... Another Tom Clancy thriller? Not, just a history of what happened at the beginning of the nineteenth centry when the USS Philadelphia grounded in the harbor of Tripoli on the Barbary Coast, the officers and crews made prisoners, and Tom Jefferson sent former US Army Captain William Eaton to North Afric to find a brother of the ruler of Tripoli and support that brother in an attempt to gain the throne and free the Americans. It involved an incredible march across hundreds of miles of terrible desert with a small "army" of mercenaries (and eight US Marines), the successful capture of one of Tripoli's main cities, and betrayal of Eaton's mission by the politicians and diplomats. But in the process Eaton briefly became one of America's first post-Revolutionary military heroes. He was also a cantakerous, hot-tempered, hard-headed drunk, but nobody's perfect. Zacks skillfully tells the story of this remarkable adventure (one that was later immortalized by part of the US Marine Corps' hymn), although I wish he had provided few better maps so the action could be more easily traced.

After America became a nation it was only a few years before another country declared war on it. In 1801 Tripoli declared war on the United States. The pirates of the Barbary coast (including the Tripoli area) made a regular practice of capturing the ships of any nation plying the waters of the Mediterranean and declaring war made it easier to justify. When a Navy ship was captured and all on board taken for slaves Thomas Jefferson had to decide whether to pay the ransom or engage the nation's very small Navy in a war. Enter William Eaton, a failed military officer who, for various reasons, President Jefferson asks to engage in covert operations to remove the leader from power. This is the story behind the first covert operations of the United States long before the CIA ever came into existence. Author Richard Zacks' writing technique engages the reader so the story comes to life. The Pirate Coast is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in history.

A century before T.E. Lawrence led a desperate army to a surprise victory after crossing a seemingly impossible to traverse desert, American William Eaton did the same thing in Libya.

I'll confess right away that I am a Zacks partisan. I loved his last book The Pirate Hunter so I am predisposed towards his latest. That said, it does not disappoint. He once again showed his dual skills of painstaking research and talented writing to pen a story that seems as fresh as the latest news story, not surprising since it was America's first war against terrorism.

He chronicles Eaton's singleminded quest to overthrow the pasha of Tripoli and free several hundred U.S. Navy sailors enslaved after being captured by Barbary pirates. Meanwhile, Eaton is being undermined by events back home. It's essentially a race to see which will win: Eaton's military campaign or the crooked diplomacy of Tobias Lear.

Well worth reading!

Zack tells the exciting story of how one man's drive to free captured American prisoners virtually succeeds with eroding and minimal support by his own government undermined by President Jefferson and his diplomat Lear. William Eaton, the former consul of Tripoli who goes broke to free an enslaved young girl, returns to the US without rank only to propose a secret mission to over throw the pirate leader, the Bey of Tripoli, Yousaf and restore his pro-American brother Hammet. Upon arriving in Egypt, Eaton finds his has brave support from the Navy but limited. With six marines and a navy Lieutenant and two midshipmen, he attempts to find Hammet and fund an army to attack Tripoli. As Zack colorfully notes in rich research, Jefferson has a very late change of heart and withdraws the financial support and chooses to negotiate cash for hostages. Meanwhile, Eaton scrapes for money to fund his operation and miraculously holds his mutinous band of Arabs together with European mercenaries and his marines. In spite of an ailing commodore, a mischievous diplomat, half hearted Hammet, under funded Arabs, Eaton with his quick temper and drives leads an attack on an important town outside of Tripoli that shakes Yousaf's nerve. All this by barely crossing the Libyan dessert after an over 40-day treks worthy of Lawrence of Arabia. As Zack demonstrates, only then after a brave attack by his force and after surviving counter attacks does Eaton realize he has been betrayed by Jefferson's change of policy and the diplomat Lear. Great characterizations of the marines, midshipman and Lieutenant while also recognizing the efforts of Captain Hull and Rogers in supporting Eaton's efforts although at times grudgingly with little funds. In addition the previous brave actions of Lt. Decauter and Captain Preble are also captured along with the timorous personality of Hammet who at late is suddenly abandoned. But Zack is not done here as he demonstrates that although the sailors are free on ransom, Eaton does not forgive Jefferson or Lear, the latter having a sleazy mark in history explained very well by Zack. Eaton's somewhat reckless desire to secure his losses from Jefferson and to go public about the covert arrangement proves costly to this driven man. But Zack attaches another complicated story that is fascinating, Aaron Burr's attempt to include Eaton in his filibuster run at creating a separate nation. Eaton responds as a patriot first telling Jefferson although still bitter about his treatment. Zack tells this story of a heroic man that is driven as a virtual true life John Wayne action character who has country, pride and mission virtually blended as one. Regretfully, he cannot let go of the past and becomes a frustrated, pound-foolish man that never recovers. Zack tells a great story that spins in many complicated human conflicts but it is held together through excellent research and great story telling.

Zacks' off-beat history of William Eaton's campaign to free 300 American prisoner-slaves in Tripoli comes at the 200th anniversary of the dramatic events of 1805. Using primarily personal letters and other correspondence as primary sources, he paints a historical tapestry of all major participants after the American frigate, the Philadelphia, ran aground near the harbor of Tripoli. Its 300 crewmembers were taken prisoner. Wm Eaton and 7 Marines plus an assortment of European freebooters-mercenaries marched 500 miles from Egypt to Derne with the brother of the Bashaw of Tripoli to liberate them and to defeat or overthrow the ruler of Tripoli who had usurped the throne, extracted the usual centuries-old tribute from commercial vessels. This fascinating story involves Jefferson, on the one hand, sort of approving the military venture of Eaton but also, on the other, attempting to solve the issue through diplomacy and ransom payment. Tobias Lear, a former secretary to George Washington and of dubious character (he had already embezzled W.s rent and engaged in other shady deals) takes the diplomatic approach with Jefferson's approval, though he exploits his position in the Mediterranean for personal profiteering. As the story unfolds, Eaton's military approach clashes with Lear's diplomatic approach and Lear, ultimately, wins. Eaton, upon his return to the U.S. is feted and celebrated as a military hero yet remains heavily in debt and can never recover his expenses in spite of many appeals to Jefferson and Congress. Lear, ironically, becomes an auditor for precisely the military expenditures from which he profited.
This book must be read--on the 200th anniversary of the drama on the Barbary Coast which it so attractively recounts--in relation to current events in the Middle East. It describes bureaucratic manipulation involving spending the taxpayers' money on far-away foreign policy and military adventures. It provides profound insight, through heavy and extensive use of personal letters and primary documents, into miscommunication, working at crosspurposes, false information and interpretations and, above all, ignorance of foreign religion, politics and cultures.
Essentially, the perceptive reader will understand that not much has changed in 200 years as it relates to shadowy maneuvering, opportunistic exploitation and political manipulation for personal and bureaucratic grandstanding and careerism. If a Tobias Lear profits from wheat deals with the Barbary Pirates, it is not that much different than Halliburton reaping huge profits from the current mess in Iraq. Even the media's reactions and the actions of the various politicians and major characters of this fascinating story of l805 have their counterparts in the current imbroglio in Iraq. Above all, the constancy of racial and religious bigotry and cultural clashes is impressive though the author does not necessarily point them out but merely lets the reader observe them.

There are weaknesses in this book in terms of its style, occasional misspelling ("langauge") and the possible overuse--sometimes inappropriately--of the enormous quotes and references to personal letters at the expense of anchoring the story into a better historical evolution. Nevertheless, its use of personal letters provides unusual insight into the major characters ranging from Wm. Eaton to Tobias Lear to Jefferson and Burr. It is not a first-rate scholarly historical study but its delight resides partly in its more journalistic story-telling approach of a fascinating episode--the first covert mission abroad and the first appearance of the Marines.

Author Richard Zacks has followed up his brilliant work on Captain Kidd, "Pirate Hunter" by presenting a little known tale of marines "on the shores of Tripoli."
"The Pirate Coast" tells the story of covert US operations overseas (nearly 200 years before they become on on going aspect of public debate). The protagonist is William Eaton, a fascinating diplomat, sailor, soldier who's deserving of a fully told biography.
Eaton, previously involved in diplomatic intrigue on the infamous Barbary Coast, is out to dispose the ruler of a foreign land (sound familiar?) and in turn rescue American hostages (heard that one in the last 25 years too) in this case US Sailors being held in Tripoli.
This is a story of larger than life heroes, painstakingly slow diplomacy, evil tyrants, barbarity, heroism and the anti climatic realities that fiction rarely imposes.
Unfortunately no detail is left unreported. After a rousing start "Pirate Coast" slows to the kind of crawl typical of international communication circa 1805. A tighter more concise telling of the tale, perhaps embellished with more about the notorious pirates, the lands they ruled and the seas they terrorized would have helped.
As is it is this is still an amazing and at times stirring tale with many parallels to today's world and pirate's chest worth of lessons to teach us. Though not up to the dazzling standards of Zacks' previous book, a worthy effort and good enough read.

<em>State-sponsored terrorists! Kidnappers! Extortion! Human rights violations! Wishy-washy US and European response! US covert military intervention to enact a regime change! Meddling by self-aggrandizing diplomats! Peace treaties that solve nothing! Betrayed allies! Disgruntled war heroes! Vengeful, dissent-crushing presidents!</em>

If the above sounds like one of those "ripped from the headlines" tales, well, one could certainly draw parallels to US foreign interventions since ... well, since this one, the first honest-to-gosh military conflict and covert ops on foreign soil that the US ever pursued.

In response to ongoing piracy, enslavement, and ransom/tribute demands that the Barbary Coast -- the NW African coast from modern Libya to Algeria -- had plagued European and American shipping for decades, a former diplomat and army colonel, William Eaton, wangles a commission from Thomas Jefferson to try and displace the reigning pashah of Tripoli, Yussef, with his deposed and exiled brother, Hamet. The actual trigger for this action is the capture and enslavement of 300 men of a US warship that absurdly runs aground in Tripoli harbor and is captured.

The ensuing military campaign is, on one level, trivial. Eaton, with a handful of US Marines, a hundred foreign mercenaries gleaned from Egypt, Hamet's entourage, and as many Arab and Bedouin troops as he could manage to bribe from day to day, actually managed to take the Tripolitan port city of Durna from a vastly larger force and hold it for a month. It was the first time the US flag had been raised on foreign soil (outside of North America), and the campaign still echoes in the Marine Corps' hymn, "... to the shores of Tripoli ..."

Outside of that, the story takes on aspects of tragedy and farce. Half the US navy in the Mediterranean -- a tiny fleet to begin with -- wants little to do with the firebrand Eaton, himself a Shakespearean mix of bravery, bombast, and bull-headedness. Certainly the diplomats and consuls in the area disdain the whole idea of a military intervention, and undercut Eaton at every turn, ultimately throwing away his victory with a peace treaty that nearly gave away the store, and certainly betrays all those who had been egged on into action by the US.

And afterwards, an embittered and debt-ridden Eaton returns home to a hero's welcome, but as he undiplomatically expresses his dissatisfaction with the episode's resolution, President Thomas Jefferson decides he's an enemy who must be crushed, and effectively does so, driving the celebrated hero to an untimely self-destruction.

The tale is a great one, full of detail and recounting from primary records of the time -- diaries and letters from diplomats, naval officers and ratings, soldiers on the trail with Eaton, and Eaton himself. While real life rarely has the taut timing of fiction, Zacks does a good job of playing the different threads of the story together, and bringing the various players to life. While the campaign against the Barbary Pirates -- which would be resolved far more satisfactorily a decade later -- is now more of a footnote in history compared to what else was going on during Jefferson's administration, at the time it was the stuff of headlines, as the barbarous Musselman slavers dragged good Chistian men and women -- some of them Americans, by God! -- into Dantesque hells of slavery and degredation. Zacks captures the tenor of the time, and, most importantly, a sense of William Eaton, a man whose love of liberty and the principles he saw America founded on (plus, to be fair, whose jingoism, bigotry, and self-righteousness) led him to one disastrous adventure after another, ultimately to be defeated by both a surprisingly political President and his own inner demons.

While the subtitle on the book is "Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805," the focus is mostly on the latter (itself an ill-kept secret) and on William Eaton. Jefferson comes off much more as a political schemer, an ivory tower philosopher who learns far too well the ways of power and manipulation. The Marines -- a tiny portion of the US force, though important -- were not the renowned fighting troopsthey are today, but were usually lower-paid ship-board or dock guards, and they'd hardly show up in the title were it not for the "shores of Tripoli" connection.

No, this is Eaton's tale, and the story of the events around him that shaped his mission and its tragic aftermath. And it's a tale about how some things never change, about how regime change and covert ops in foreign countries (as often bungled or uselessly thrown away as not) have been themes in foreign policy for years.

Raymond Todd does a serviceable job with the narration, though the sound editing could use some work; while the recording is clear enough, some of the paragraphs, especially between narrative threads, get run together, and at times there are rather jarring transitions that almost certainly read more clearly on the page.

Anyone with an interest in early US history, especially its military/diplomatic aspects, would be well-served to read this book.