The Buccaneers of America

Alexander O. Exquemelin, first published in 1678.

Unreasonably short one-sentence description: A former buccaneer's account of life, raids and battles in the Caribbean in the 17th century, with particular attention to the exploits of Captain Henry Morgan.

I first heard of this book while reading the fascinating Pirate Hunters (Robert Kurston, 2015).  It's a mostly first-hand account of buccaneering in the Caribbean, mixed with stories and tales the author heard which he presumes to be true.  Exquemelin recounts the customs, tactics and exploits of the buccaneers, but also accounts of the islands, the settlements, the flora and the fauna.  What surprised me most were his descriptions of the seemingly incongruous blend of extreme cruelty, tactical precision, military discipline and a refined sense of justice and democracy; at times, truly honor among thieves. I often don't have the patience for first-person accounts, but this one gripped me.  A few snippets:

• Buccaneers were a cross between genuine privateers, commissioned to defend a country's colonies and trade, and outright pirates.  There were clear economic and survival advantages to playing both roles.
• "The planters have few slaves... Some of them make it their business to go to France looking for labourers in the country towns among the peasants. They make big promises, but when the lads get to the island they are sold and have to work like horses, harder in fact than the Negroes. For the planters admit they must take greater care of a Negro slave then a white bondsman, because the Negro is in their service for life, while the white man is theirs only for a period."
• "The English treat their servants no better, but with greater cunning. The lads are usually indentured for seven years, and when they have served for six they are ill-treated beyond endurance, so that they are driven to beg their master to sell them to someone else ... which means they are sold for another seven years."
• "The captain (of a buccaneer ship) is allowed no better fare than the meanest on board. If they notice he has better food, the men bring the dish from their own mess and exchange it for the captain's."
• "When the provisions are on board and the ship is ready to sail, the buccaneers resolve by common vote where they shall cruise."
• Contrary to my going-in beliefs (from Pirates of the Caribbean? Captain Hook and Peter Pan?), the captain did not rule the ship. Rather, he served the men, as a contractor of sorts. However, the best captains earned the respect and support of their crews through leadership skills and a track record of successful missions--as measured by survival rates and profitability.
• Those wounded in service would be compensated by common decree, something like this: 600 pieces of eight or six slaves for loss of a right arm; for a left arm, 500 pieces of eight or five slaves; a left leg, 400 or four slaves; an eye, 100 or one slave.
  
• "These amounts having first been withdrawn from the capital, the rest of the prize would be divided into as many portions as men on the ship. The captain draws four or five men's portions for the use of the his ship."
• "When a ship has been captured, the men decide whether the captain should keep it or not: if the prize is better than their own vessel, they take it and set fire to the other. When a ship is robbed, nobody must plunder and keep his loot to himself. Everything taken--money, jewels, precious stones and goods--must be shared among them all."
• "They (the buccaneers) see justice done among themselves. If anyone has a quarrel and kills his opponent treacherously, he is set against a tree and shot dead by the one whom he chooses. But if he has killed his opponent like an honorable man--that is, giving him time to load his musket, and not shooting him in the back--his comrades let him go free. The duel is their way of settling disputes."

In 2017 I'm rereading 50 books I've enjoyed in recent years.  This is 5/50.

Isaac's Storm

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, Erik Larson (The Worst Hard Time; Devil and the White City --both highly recommended).

Unreasonably short one-sentence description of the book: The story of the hurricane that decimated Galveston, Texas in 1900, centered on Isaac Cline, the resident meteorologist stationed there.

Random snippets:

• The city was not evacuated, despite sufficient evidence that a deadly storm was approaching. Many of the more than 6000 lost lives could have been saved were it not for politics, egos and a tragic unwillingness to admit the possibility of errors in judgment.
• Prior to the flood, Galveston was a bustling city of great promise, with over 500 saloons.  "The city exhibited a rare harmony of spirit. Blacks, whites, Jews and immigrants lived and worked side by side with an astonishing degree of mutual tolerance. Through the Negro Longshoremen's Association, Galveston's black population controlled wharf labor and enjoyed a standard of living higher than almost anywhere else in the country."
• During this period, meteorology was an emerging science and the National Weather Bureau was trying to establish credibility with a skeptical public.
• Generally, people believed that no storm could be greater than the worst of the past--a common human fallacy. Cline, a respected meteorologist, labeled those that suggested Galveston could be ravaged by a hurricane as suffering from "absurd delusions." "It would be impossible for any cyclone to create a storm wave which could materially injure the city."
• Related fact: A tsunami is a small hump of water travelling at great speeds--up to 500 mph--which explodes when it hits shores.
• So many Galveston citizens were washed away in the sea that many people would not eat fish, shrimp or crabs for several years.  Those corpses that remained were stacked and burned, the stench of the pyres carrying miles out to sea.
• The Galveston Flood exhibit was one of the most popular at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, where a machine launched an artificial tidal wave over a model of the city.
• In 1910 a seawall was constructed, rising 17 feet above the beach and behind a wall of 27-foot granite boulders, which was referred to as "one of the greatest engineering works of modern times."  In addition, the entire city was elevated; using manual screw jacks to raise 2000 buildings, which were supported by 11 million pounds of fill.
• Galveston's Relief Committee was a new form of government, with a strong mayor overseeing commissioners for various functions.  This was hailed as a new dawn, supplanting Tammany style city organizations.

For 2017, I am revisiting 50 books I've enjoyed in the past few years and sharing a few interesting  facts and findings I discovered in them.