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Rating: 
Summary: The Spanish Viewpoint
Review: Having read through a couple of score books on piracy, many of them mere knockoffs of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates; you have to look at yet another book on piracy and almost yawn. Reading through the first chapter of this book you get a feeling that something is amiss, and it dawns on you that you are reading about the depredations of the Sea-dogs, buccaneers, flibustiers and pirates from the Spanish viewpoint. After years and years of reading the heroic exploits of the Elizabethan Sea-dogs it is refreshing to read another opinion.The author has provided ample illustrations, maps and pictures to help the reader visualize the narrative. While there are the usual names and places, Morgan, de Graf, Drake, Tortuga, Port Royal, Hipanola; the author has provided additional material on Spanish Costa Guarda and privateers. He also, spends a good deal of time detailing the Spanish efforts to deal with the scourge of piracy, from fortresses to warning towers. At times the reading is slow, but the novelty of the viewpoint always carries the reader forward wondering what new twists on the old stories might appear. Yet another book for my pirate library; it enjoys a place next to my copy of Angus Konstam's The History of Pirates. P-)
Rating: 
Summary: Pirates from the other side
Review: While a very good compendium of buccaneer tales from the days of derring-do, what makes this book unique (at least from an English-speaking perspective) is that it is an account of the pirates, buccaneers, etc from the Spanish viewpoint. Those of you who have read about the Caribbean pirates and have seen the usual Hollywood movies are in for a treat! Historical correction number one; the pirates didn't always win against the Spanish, and in fact, most of their encounters ended with disasterous consequences for the buccaneers, even the most famous! Historical correction number two; there were a lot more than just English-speaking pirates in the Caribbean (sorry, Henry Morgan!), and the efforts of the numerous Dutch and French (and even Spanish) pirates get full treatment in this book. All this is very well, and it is quite interesting to note the strenuous and often very successful efforts that the Spanish government of the times made to prevent pirate successes. That said, historical bias goes both ways, and the reader will quickly recognise that while they have been reading English-biased accounts in the past, they will soon recognise that they are reading a Spanish-biased version in this book, and some of the statements made can be quite ludicrous from time to time. Most pertinent in this regard is the gaffe that although a portion of the Spanish Armada did indeed make it back to Spain, the Armada as a whole lost over a third of its ships and men. Senor Apestegui would have us believe that this was in fact 'not militarily significant.' I don't know which military Sr Apestegui has served with, but every one that I have come in contact with will readily confirm that losses of a third of any military force constitutes a military disaster of the first order! My final criticism involves the often repeated assertion that piracy in the Caribbean essentially disappeared around 1720. I can assure you that nothing is further from the truth! This area suffered from pirates right through the 1840's, some of whom are very well known to this day (remember Jean Lafitte? Gained pardon from the US for helping to defeat the British at New Orleans in 1815? What do you think he was up to before then?). And the causes of piracy in this area remained the same; unemployed ex-privateers, lowered prices and a resurgence in trade based on the end of a war (the Napoleonic wars, the subsequent wars of independance throughout Central and South America). Oh well, perhaps in the next book!
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