The Pirate Ship 1660-1730 (New Vanguard) [Paperback]

Angus Konstam (Author), Tony Bryan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: New Vanguard | Publication Date: June 20, 2003

The deeds and personalities of famous pirates have received significant attention in recent years: however, no detailed depiction of their vessels has ever been produced. This title redresses the imbalance, conducting a detailed exploration of the wide variety of pirate vessels that sailed the high seas during the 'golden age' of piracy (1690–1730), from gun-bristling warships to smaller craft such as sloops, brigantines and early schooners. It incorporates the latest archaeological evidence to produce a fascinating account of these vessels, detailing their origins, development and tactical engagement. Packed with contemporary illustrations and superbly detailed colour artwork, the ships of the 'golden age' are brought vividly to life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The unrivalled illustrated reference on fighting vehicles, transport and artillery through the ages. Each volume is illustrated throughout, making these books uniquely accessible to history enthusiasts of all ages.

About the Author

Angus Konstam, from the Orkney Islands, is the author of over 15 books, many of which are published by Osprey. Formerly the Curator of Weapons at the Royal Armouries, the Tower of London, he also served as the Chief Curator of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida. Currently based in London, he combines a freelance museum consultancy business with a career as a historian and writer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (June 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841764973
• ISBN-13: 978-1841764979
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.1 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #445,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With over 50 history books in print, Angus is a widely recognised and much-published historian. While he specialises in military and naval history he has also written numerous more general history books, designed to make the subject more accessible to a wider audience. Uniquely he has been able to draw on his expertise as a senior museum curator who has worked on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as on his academic training as a historian and as a maritime archaeologist.

His latest book is a full-length biography: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate, which is published by Wiley & Sons. of New York (June 2006)

Angus is also just finished writing a history of the Allied landings at Salerno in September 1943 for the British publisher Pen & Sword, and he is currently working on a new project, with the working title of Supership: The Quest for the Renaissance Battleship.

Angus lives in Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Life and Times of a Pirate Ship, September 19, 2005

By 

Dakota "daxydakota" (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pirate Ship 1660-1730 (New Vanguard) (Paperback)

THE PIRATE SHIP 1660-1730 by Angus Konstam is an interesting little book (48 pages total), which has some very nice illustrations of 16th/17th century pirate ships, including a cross-section of the inside of a ship.

What you should expect to find in this book ... Topics include the design, origins, and conversion of pirate ships; small vessels and pirate flagships; and the pirate ship in action. The narration is easy to read and nicely detailed, and of course the main subject of the book is the pirate ship itself. One of my favorite passages was the real-life entry of a pirate-attack survivor, who talked about how his merchant ship engaged in bloody combat with pirates while (shockingly) two other merchant ships looked on, doing nothing to help.

What you won't find in this book ... I knew this book wasn't about the pirates themselves, as there are other books in this series written by this author that exclusively discuss pirates (or buccaneers). What I HAD hoped for, and didn't find, was a discussion about what living in a pirate ship was like (where did they eat, sleep, use the restroom, etc.?). As a side note, the closest I've ever come to seeing what life aboard a pirate ship might have been like was visiting the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, which has a restored 17th century warship and includes a display on life inside the ship. It's a neat museum.

Anyway, this was a good little book for those interested in pirate ships. A recent pirate book I read and highly recommend is UNDER THE BLACK FLAG, which was rather entertaining for non-fiction.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Helpful but rather limited, August 4, 2008

By 

Whitt Patrick Pond "Whitt" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pirate Ship 1660-1730 (New Vanguard) (Paperback)

The Pirate Ship by Angus Konstam is helpful in terms of providing a brief overview of pirate ships and some very detailed illustrations, but at 48 pages (including the index) it's little more than a pamphlet on the subject and should not be viewed as anything close to a comprehensive reference. The (short) chapters are:

- The Design of the Ideal Pirate Ship
- The Origins of the Pirate Ships
- The Conversion of a Prize
- Small Pirate Vessels
- Pirate Flagships
- The Pirate Ship in Action

That said, The Pirate Ship did increase, to some degree at least, my understanding of the wide variety of ships pirates actually used and of how the popular film versions of pirate ships do not reflect the reality of most historical pirate ships. It is also useful in familiarizing the reader with the historical terms used to distinguish various types of ships of the period (brigantines, sloops, shallops, fluyts, etc) and how one could tell the differences (square-rigged, fore-and-aft rigged, gaff-rigged, lateen-rigged). In fact, not all vessels we think of as ships were actually considered such:

"Today, the word 'ship' means any large, sea-going vessel. To the mariners of the 18th century, the term had a far more precise meaning. To them, a ship was a sailing vessel that had three masts and carried square-rigged sails. This included the majority of warships, including ships-of-the-line, the larger merchantmen, East India Company ships, and some slave ships (or 'guineamen') Other substantial sailing vessels such as polaccas (polacres), tartans, fluyts and others were not strictly considered ships."

The main thing I learned from reading this book was that, contrary to the popular portayal in the movies, the sloop ("a small vessel with a single mast, rigged with a fore-and-aft mainsail and jib foresail") was the most commonly used pirate vessel:

"it is clear that vessel-for-vessel, the sloop was the most important type of pirate ship of the period, as almost all pirates began their careers in this type of vessel."

Again, I did find this book helpful and informative in improving my understanding of pirate ships of the classical age of piracy, but I also was a bit frustrated by its limitations and found myself wishing the author had done a more in-depth work on the subject, most particularly with regard to what life on a pirate ship was like, something this book barely touches on. Worth reading, but don't expect more than what you'd get from a lengthy magazine article.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and colourful introductory volume, January 9, 2012

By 

G. Simon (London, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pirate Ship 1660-1730 (New Vanguard) (Paperback)

This is a study of the ships used by the Pirates in their `Golden Age' - 1690-1730. The author is an expert naval historian of the age of the wooden ship, and also an excellent writer, and this is a suitably good book, which concentrates of the ships themselves, rather than the men who crewed them; they have their own Ospreys.

The Contents are -
P03: Introduction
P04: The Design of the Ideal Pirate Ship
P08: The Origins of the Pirate Ship
P12: The Conversion of a Prize
P15: Small Pirate Vessels
P21: Pirate Flagships
P34: The Pirate Ship in Action
P38: Glossary
P41: Bibliography
P44: Colour Plate Commentary
P48: Index

The Colour Plates
A: The Brigantine Ranger of Charles Vane c.1790 - a full side view with sails & rigging
B: The Royal James and the Henry, Cape Fear River, North Carolina, 27 September 1718 - this is a painting showing both ships aground during their battle, but still firing on each other.
C: The Adventure Galley, 1698 (William Kidd) - this is a full side view, with masts and rigging.
D: A two page cut-away of the Queen Anne's Revenge, 1718 (Edward Teach, `Blackbeard')
E: The Royal Fortune, 1722 (Bartholomew Roberts) - this is a full side view, with sails, etc.
F: `Blackbeard's Last Fight' - a full-page painting of Blackbeard's sloop Adventure pursued by two Royal Navy-crewed sloops, Ranger and Jane.
G: The Sloop Flying Dragon, 1719 (Edmund Condent) - a full-page side view, with sails etc.

There are also plenty of contemporary illustrations to support the text.

Further Reading
Pirates 1660-1730 (Elite)
Privateers & Pirates 1730-1830 (Elite)
Pirate: The Golden Age (Warrior)