Audiobook8 hours
Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
Written by Eric Jay Dolin
Narrated by Eric Jason Martin
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The heroic story of the founding of the US Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America's first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation's character-above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos.
In Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships.
Some Americans viewed these men as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot. Yet Dolin shows that privateersmen were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and moreover that they greatly contributed to the war's success: diverting critical British resources to protecting their shipping, providing much-needed supplies at home, and bolstering the new nation's confidence that it might actually defeat the most powerful military force in the world.
In Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships.
Some Americans viewed these men as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot. Yet Dolin shows that privateersmen were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and moreover that they greatly contributed to the war's success: diverting critical British resources to protecting their shipping, providing much-needed supplies at home, and bolstering the new nation's confidence that it might actually defeat the most powerful military force in the world.
More audiobooks from Eric Jay Dolin
Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Rebels at Sea
Related audiobooks
The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pirate World: A History of the Most Notorious Sea Robbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deadly Deep: The Definitive History of Submarine Warfare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War of Jenkins' Ear: The Forgotten Struggle for North and South America: 1739-1742 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marooned: Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America's Origin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Changed the Modern World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barons of the Sea: And their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution and the Fate of the Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter that Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
United States History For You
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Rebels at Sea
Rating: 4.142857142857143 out of 5 stars
4/5
7 ratings0 reviews