The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd

by Richard Zacks

Captain Kidd, ruthless American pirate or unjustly condemned privateer? This is the question that Richard Zacks seeks to answer in Pirate Hunter. His conclusion? That Kidd was the victim of a combination of his own hubris, several misunderstandings, the flaws inherent in the seventeenth century rumor mill, and a government smear job.

Kidd set out with a grossly underpaid crew with a checkered past with a secret commission to hunt down pirates. Misfortune led to mutiny and Kidd found himself branded a pirate despite his best efforts to sail the straight and narrow. In the end, Kidd died a pirate's death at the hands of the government that had commissioned him. Ironically, his arch nemesis: Robert Culliford; a man who was a legitimate pirate and who had been captured and imprisoned at roughly the same time, would receive a full pardon.

This is a fascinating book. It appears to be well researched and the story that Zacks tells has the ring of truth at every turn. Best of all, it gives a detailed and riveting glimpse of what it meant to be a seafaring man in the seventeenth century.