Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea

Fifteen sea rovers get a chapter apiece, and Charles H. L. Johnston makes little effort to sort the patriots from the plunderers. The run opens with Carlo Zeno of medieval Venice and closes with Raphael Semmes burning Northern commerce in the Civil War. Between them stand Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Jean Bart the scourge of the Dutch, Robert Surcouf of St. Malo, John Paul Jones and Josh Barney fighting for the young American republic, and Lafitte, working the Gulf of Mexico chiefly for himself. The preface opens “My dear Boys,” and the dedication honors G. A. Henty, which tells you the register: the running fight, the boarding party, the prize taken against odds. Published in 1911, it reads now as brisk adventure and as a record of what American boys were handed to admire.