On 2 August 1708 Captain Woodes Rogers set sail from Bristol with two ships, the Duke and Duchess, on an epic voyage of circumnavigation that was to make him famous. His mission was to attack, plunder and pillage Spanish ships wherever he could. And, as Graham Thomas shows in this tense and exciting narrative, after a series of pursuits and sea battles he returned laden with booty and with a reputation as one of the most audacious and shrewd fighting captains of the age. He was then appointed governor of the Bahamas by George I with the task of suppressing the pirates who roamed this corner of the Caribbean and preyed on its shipping. He was equally successful as a privateer and pirate-hunter in an age when brutality and ruthlessness were the law of the sea. AUTHOR: Graham Thomas is a British army information officer providing stories about the army for radio, television, the press and the web. Formerly he was chief reporter for the Ministry of Defence's magazine Focus. He has made a particular study of aerial warfare in the Second World War and Korea, and he has also reported on the army's role in modern Iraq. His publications include Firestorm: Typhoons Over Caen 1944, Operation Big Ben: Spitfires Dive-Bombing V2 Sites, Furies and Fireflies Over Korea and The Fight For Iraq. SELLING POINTS: First full-length biography of the famous privateer and pirate hunter. Vivid picture of the fight against piracy in the Caribbean. Insight into eighteenth-century seamanship and naval warfare. Describes the rescue of Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe. Graphic account of the hunting down of Blackbeard. 20 illustrations + 8 pages of plates.
