Sea Raiders of the American Revolution PDF Download

Author: E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780945274490
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Author: E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781410218773
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
The Navy of the United States, like the nation itself, was born in the midst of the bloody conflict for independence known as the American Revolution. The Continental Navy, as it was called then, shaped and was shaped by this difficult struggle for freedom that lasted from 1775 to 1783. During the war, the sailors of the young navy, seamen and officers alike, established the proud traditions of honor, courage, and commitment shared by today's servicemen in the United States Navy. It is important for the American people, especially those who wear the uniform, to understand the significant role that the Continental Navy played in the nation's beginnings. This book is about three captains of the Continental Navy: Lambert Wickes, Gustavus Conyngham, and John Paul Jones. In recounting the stories of their lives and examining the roles they played in the Navy's early years, it highlights the difficult circumstances that each man faced operating in seas dominated by the British Navy and emphasizes that the outcome of the American War for Independence was far from certain. The book also illustrates the humanity of these Revolutionary War heroes, revealing their weaknesses as well as their strengths. They exhibited frustration, pettiness, and egotism as well as courage, initiative, and sound judgment. Like naval leaders today, these Continental Navy officers faced tough choices and were forced to live with the consequences, for good or ill. Their lives and choices had an important influence on the course of the war and on the character of the naval service.

Author: John A. McManemin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Connecticut
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Author: John A. McManemin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Connecticut
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Author: John A. McManemin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pennsylvania
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Author: John A. McManemin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Connecticut
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description

Author: Eric Jay Dolin
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631498266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award A Massachusetts Center for the Book "Must-Read" Finalist for the New England Society Book Award Finalist for the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book Award The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. 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, best-selling historian 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, mostly refitted merchant ships, 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 all told, 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. Privateers came in all shapes and sizes, from twenty-five foot long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 feet long. Bristling with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes, they tormented their foes on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean. The men who owned the ships, as well as their captains and crew, would divide the profits of a successful cruise—and suffer all the more if their ship was captured or sunk, with privateersmen facing hellish conditions on British prison hulks, where they were treated not as enemy combatants but as pirates. Some Americans viewed them similarly, 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, playing a key role in bringing France into the war on the side of the United States, 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. Creating an entirely new pantheon of Revolutionary heroes, Dolin reclaims such forgotten privateersmen as Captain Jonathan Haraden and Offin Boardman, putting their exploits, and sacrifices, at the very center of the conflict. Abounding in tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents this nation’s first war as we have rarely seen it before.

Author: Kylie A. Hulbert
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820368466
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Efforts upon the waves played a critical role in European and Anglo-American conflicts throughout the eighteenth century. Yet the oft-told narrative of the American Revolution tends to focus on battles on American soil or the debates and decisions of the Continental Congress. The Untold War at Sea is the first book to place American privateers and their experiences during the War for Independence front and center. Kylie A. Hulbert tells the story of privateers at home and abroad while chronicling their experiences, engagements, cruises, and court cases. This study forces a reconsideration of the role privateers played in the conflict and challenges their place in the accepted popular narrative of the Revolution. Despite their controversial tactics, Hulbert illustrates that privateers merit a place alongside minutemen, Continental soldiers, and the sailors of the fledgling American navy. This book offers a redefinition of who fought in the war and how their contributions were measured. The process of revolution and winning independence was global in nature, and privateers operated at its core.

Author: Robert H. Patton
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307390551
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In this lively narrative history, Robert H. Patton, grandson of the World War II battlefield legend, tells a sweeping tale of courage, capitalism, naval warfare, and international political intrigue set on the high seas during the American Revolution. Patriot Pirates highlights the obscure but pivotal role played by colonial privateers in defeating Britain in the American Revolution. American privateering-essentially legalized piracy-began with a ragtag squadron of New England schooners in 1775. It quickly erupted into a massive seaborne insurgency involving thousands of money-mad patriots plundering Britain's maritime trade throughout Atlantic. Patton's extensive research brings to life the extraordinary adventures of privateers as they hammered the British economy, infuriated the Royal Navy, and humiliated the crown.

Author: Terry M. Mays
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810875039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 653

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Book Description
This greatly expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution covers more battles, skirmishes, and raids of the American Revolution than any other printed source. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, maps and photos, a bibliography, and over 1000 cross-referenced dictionary entries.