A Review ofEmpire of Blue Water

For those of you who have an interest in the 17^th Century, particularly in the 17^th Century Caribbean and the Pirate Age, I would like to recommend to you Stephan Talty's Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle For the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign. In this book, Talty recounts the history of English-Spanish relations in the Caribbean and how the dreams of an Anglican Rector named Thomas Gage (not sure if he has any relation to Gen. Thomas Gage, the commander of British Forces in America at the start of the American Revolutionary War), and the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell re-ignited the spark of war between England and Spain for control of the Caribbean. On page 8, the book recalls that Gage wrote to Oliver Cromwell in 1654, "I offer you a New World.[1]"

From there, Talty tells us that the first attempt was against Hispaniola (Now Dominican Republic and Haiti), but the disastrous failure prompted the seizure of Jamaica. With that, the English, according to Talty, gained a position astride the Spanish treasure and trade routes in and out of New Spain. For the next twenty years, various pirates and privateers would cause consternation for Spain, but the real hero of the book is Captain Henry Morgan (more than likely, the Captain Morgan rum is named in his honor). Talty, in great style, tells how Morgan learned from his experiences with the 1654 expedition to Hispaniola, and the experiences of other pirates, to become the man most responsible for the fall of the Spanish Empire in the Americas that would come nearly two centuries later.

Talty also gives us a wonderful depiction of the Jamaican city of Port Royal, named so in honor of Charles II, King of England and Scotland after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the Restoration of the monarchy. As Talty says on page 40, "In the five short years since the English arrived, Port Royal had been transformed from a killing ground into 'the wickedest city in the world.'"[2]

Many came to call Port Royal a "Sodom," and describe it as "rich and wicked." As Talty says in Empire of Blue Water, "the town that Cromwell and Gage had dreamed of never materialized. Instead, it had become the first Wild West town, famously on the make.[3]"

Lest you think this book is all about Captain Morgan and Port Royal, serious Political History aficionados will find that Talty also intersperses the goings-on in the Caribbean with the political realities of relations amongst the various nations of Europe, England and Spain in particular, and the background of that reality. Those looking for a great tale of fortitude in adversity will find Talty's descriptions of the hardships Morgan and his pirate army endured in various attacks on Spanish towns such as Villa Hermosa, Portobello, and Panama. These true tales also give great insight into the "Brethren of the Coast," as the pirates referred to themselves in those days, and how its democratic modes of leadership and rewards systems contrasted with both the European political systems of the time in general, and in particular, the rigid obsessions with rank and title of the Spanish in the New World.

For sheer enjoyment, as well as educational and inspirational purposes, I recommend Empire of Blue Water. It is a smooth read that will leave you wanting to delve deeper into the Age of Pirates in the New World.

[1] Talty, Stephan, Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe that Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign. Crown Publishers (Random House), New York, 2007.

[2] Ibid., p. 40

[3] Ibid., p. 131