Republic of Pirates Blog http://republicofpirates.net/blog/ Blog based upon Colin Woodard's book "The Republic of Pirates." en Copyright 2011 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:22:47 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2ysb5-20051201 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Talking with National Geographic about how pirates talked
But how did pirates really talk? And did some of them really say "Arrr"?

National Geographic interviewed me on the topic this morning, on account of my having written The Republic of Pirates. Their piece is now up on their site for those who arrrrrr interested. ]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/09/talking_with_national_geograph.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/09/talking_with_national_geograph.html Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:22:47 -0500 Republic of Pirates - the NBC drama?

 

You may have seen news accounts stating that a potential television series based on , has been sold to NBC by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Co-written by Jim Hart (Hook, Contact, Dracula) and Amanda Wells and executive produced by Parkes/MacDonald (Gladiator, Men In Black, Minority Report), Ted Gold and Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide: Life on the Streets, St. Elsewhere), the drama is apparently titled -- to my pleasure -- . broke the news and these details with this in late June.

Deadline reports it is the first drama buy for this development cycle by the new president of creative at NBC, Bob Greenblatt (Six Feet  Under). As fans of the book know, Republic of Pirates tells the true story of the greatest pirate gang of all time, the golden age pirates who operated out of the Bahamas between 1715 and 1720 and are responsible for nine-tenths of all of our pirate pop culture imagery. The gang -- which included Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, Charles Vane, Calico Jack Rackham, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and the "gentleman pirate" Stede Bonnet -- founded a rogue state based at Nassau and, for a time, severed the commerce of three empires and threatened their colonies with dislocation, invasion, and rebellion.

For those wanting to learn more about these pirates, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Nook, audiobook, Spanish and Danish editions. Links to all can be found at this page on the Republic of Pirates website. As this blog is cursed to be hosted via the horrid MovableType platform, most updates regarding the book are now posted at its Facebook page.

 

 

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/09/republic_of_pirates_the_nbc_dr.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/09/republic_of_pirates_the_nbc_dr.html Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:27:56 -0500 Republic of Pirates Facebook page I've created a Facebook page for Republic of Pirates, for those wanting to keep up on the latest Golden Age piracy discoveries, discussions, and the like. Do come join.

Sadly, this blog is currently trapped in the mire that is MovaableType v.3.2. If  I ever get some spare time to figure out how to rescue it, I'll update it more often.

 

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/02/republic_of_pirates_facebook_p.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2011/02/republic_of_pirates_facebook_p.html Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:35:12 -0500 Talking Pirates in Camden, Maine, April 22 I'll be giving a talk about Maine and the Golden Age Pirates at the Camden Public Library in Camden, Maine on April 22nd, starting at 6:30 pm.

As readers of the Republic of Pirates know, the Bahama-based pirate gang frequented out-of-the-way, thinly settled, Indian-war-ravaged places like Maine and North Carolina to hide out from the law after blockading major ports. Documentary evidence proves several visited Cape Elizabeth, Damariscove, and Monhegan Island, and there's reason to believe somebody set up camp in Machias, though it wasn't Sam Bellamy.

If you live in or near Midcoast Maine, come on by and say hello.

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2010/04/talking_pirates_in_camden_main.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2010/04/talking_pirates_in_camden_main.html Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:51:39 -0500 Radio silence explained Readers ask why I haven't been updating my pirate blog, so I wanted to put forth an explanation:

MovableType, from which this blog is composed, is just terrible!  I have been intending to spend the time to learn how to export the site to another medium, but with book and journalism projects (and my other blog)  I just haven't had a chance.

One of my New Years' resolutions is to bring the Republic of Pirates blog into the 2010s. Please stay tuned.....

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2010/01/radio_silence_explained.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2010/01/radio_silence_explained.html Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:54:27 -0500 Talk Like a Pirate Day: my interview in USA Today International Talk Like a Pirate Day and, in anticipation, a writer for USA Today contacted me a week or two ago to suggest "10 great places to swashbuckle down," the results of which are in today's paper.

I visited many of these locations while writing The Republic of Pirates: The True Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down. Sadly, there's not a lot left of the late 17th and early 18th century in the New World: hurricanes, fires, development, wars, and tropical decay wiped many locations off the map. Some of the places where one can best soak in the feel of the pirate era -- and walk in their footsteps -- are in Sarah Sekula's USA Today piece, and in more historical detail at my Republic of Pirates site, including Williamsburg and Cape Cod. There are also some additional ones, like Philadelphia and Boston. One of these days I'll get around to adding other locations.

If you're curious about the relationship between Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films and the lives and lifestyles of the actual pirates, you may enjoy this piece I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor when the most recent film came out. ]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/09/talk_like_a_pirate_day_my_inte.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/09/talk_like_a_pirate_day_my_inte.html Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:58:25 -0500 Republic of Pirates in The New Yorker The Republic of Pirates, gets a mention in the new issue of the New Yorker, in Caleb Cain's review of Peter Leeson's Invisible Hook.

Mr. Cain's review provides a nice capsule history (and historiography) of piracy, and is itself the product of impressively thorough research. Take a look at his bibliographic blog posting and you'll see what I mean.

If you're interested in learning more about what I'm up to outside the world of piracy, check out World Wide Woodard.]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/09/republic_of_pirates_in_the_new.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/09/republic_of_pirates_in_the_new.html Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:53:24 -0500 El Imparcial on Republic of Pirates ROP_spanish_cover.jpg
Yesterday's edition of the Madrid newspaper El Imparcial carried this review of the Spanish edition of my book, The Republic of Pirates. My Spanish is terrible, but from what the Google translator tells me, it sounds like they enjoyed it.

La republica de los piratas has been selling well and a paperback edition was recently released by Editoria Critica. The book - a thoroughly-researched history of the golden age pirates - is also available in Danish translation, as a Sony e-book, an Amazon kindlebook, a BBC America Audiobook, and in U.S. hardcover and paperback.


]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/08/post_3.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/08/post_3.html Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:49:46 -0500 Talking Pirates at Our History Project website. Hear all about the Bahama gang of Golden Age Pirates and how they influenced the early 17th century Atlantic world and subsequent pirate pop culture.
]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/08/talking_pirates_at_our_history.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/08/talking_pirates_at_our_history.html Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:22:08 -0500 Pirate talk: Kennebunk, Maine, June 25 The Republic of Pirates -- at the Kennebunk Free Library this Thursday, June 25th and 6:30. (Kennebunk's Community Read this year is Treasure Island, and we're kicking things off with the tale of the pirates who inspired Robert Louis Stevenson.)

I'll also be speaking about my new book project in Boothbay Harbor on July 1st and on the past, present, and future of coastal Maine (topic of my previous book, The Lobster Coast) in Stonington, Maine on July 23. Lobster Coast is going to be Scarborough, Maine's Community Read this year, and I'll be speaking there the morning of September 26.

There's a full schedule of upcoming events at my website.]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/06/pirate_talk_kennebunk_maine_ju.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/06/pirate_talk_kennebunk_maine_ju.html Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:40:33 -0500 Interviews on parallels between Golden Age and modern Somali piracy With the pirates of Somalia in the news, I've been fielding a number of media inquiries about the parallels between the current piracy outbreak and the Golden Age Pirates. (The latter are the subject of my most recent book, The Republic of Pirates.)

My most recent interview is in today's edition of The Daily Advance in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the newspaper of record for a swath of Blackbeard country. I also spoke about pirates with The Christian Science Monitor on April 12 (the day the captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed) and last Tuesday with San Francisco's non-profit KPOO-FM.

Finally there's a sidebar on the Somali parallels with my feature in the current issue of Military History Quarterly.

-- Colin Woodard

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/05/post_2.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/05/post_2.html Sun, 03 May 2009 15:44:23 -0500 Somali and Golden Age Pirates: the parallels The U.S. Navy successfully rescued the captain of an American-flagged cargo vessel from Somali pirates yesterday, ending a four-day standoff. Captain Richard Phillips was held hostage on a lifeboat after pirates seized and, later, lost control of the Maersk Alabama.

I was interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor about the possible historical lessons the official responses to the Golden Age Pirates might offer for the current situation. I described some of the extraordinary parallels between the Somali and Bahamas-based piracy outbreaks and the strategy the British successfully employed to defeat the infamous Flying Gang, described in my book, The Republic of Pirates.

-- Colin Woodard

 

 

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/04/somalia_and_the_golden_age_pir.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/04/somalia_and_the_golden_age_pir.html Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:25:59 -0500 Republic of Pirates en Español...in paperback ROP_spanish_cover.jpgThe Spanish edition of my most recent book, The Republic of Pirates, is now available in paperback from Editorial Critica of Barcelona.

La Republica de los Piratas, released in hardcover last year, was excerpted in the Spanish daily La Razon and has received favorable attention from Madrid's El Cultural magazine, the Madrid daily ABC, Argentina's Revista ñ, and Spain's sports paper AS. Now you can get it for less than €20.

The most thorough account of the lives of the great Caribbean pirates is also available in Danish and in English as a BBC America audiobook, an Amazon kindlebook, a Sony e-book, or in Harcourt hardcover or paperback.]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/04/republic_of_pirates_en_espanol.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/04/republic_of_pirates_en_espanol.html Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:59:39 -0500 Pirates of the Turks & Caicos Gage cover.jpg

I've been in the Turks & Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory, where I gave a talk on the history of the golden age pirates at this private resort island.

As told in my book, The Republic of Pirates, Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, Calico Jack Rackham, and other members of the infamous Nassau-based pirate gang operated throughout the Bahaman archipelago, including the Turks & Caicos (where they enjoyed ambushing Bermuda vessels that came here to rake salt.) I also had an opportunity to compare colonial history notes with my fellow presenters: antique book and map dealer Graham Arader (who let me peruse an original copy of a famous 1655 account of the West Indies) and the erstwhile cocktail aficionado Patrick Costigan (who introduced me to The Hemingway.)

I also had a chance to speak with Turks & Caicos television and newspaper reporters about the island chain's ties to the real Caribbean pirates -- my first opportunity to talk to bring the pirates' story to the people of the greater Bahamian archipelago.

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/03/pirates_of_the_turks_caicos.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/03/pirates_of_the_turks_caicos.html Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:47:51 -0500 How the Royal Navy confronted the pirates MHQ logo.jpg

My feature on how the Royal Navy responded to the rise of the Golden Age pirates is in the new issue of Military History Quarterly.

"Quelling a Pirate Revolt," (Spring 2009, pp. 9-19) shows how Admiralty policies helped provoke the piracy outbreak and hampered the Navy's ability to respond to the threat. Based on previously unpublished accounts from the letters and logbooks of naval officers, the article sheds new light on how Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Sam Bellamy, Calico Jack Rackham and other pirates managed to destabilize three Trans-Atlantic empires. There's also a sidebar on the parallels with the recent Somalia piracy outbreak.

The piece isn't available online - they'd like you to subscribe to the magazine.

 -- Colin Woodard

 

 

]]> http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/02/how_the_royal_navy_confronted.html http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2009/02/how_the_royal_navy_confronted.html Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:35:09 -0500