Buccaneers Books

Jemmy Dawes was set in his ways in his mid-twenties, looking after his crippled mother, working hard and with no other interests. Then his mother died and the rental of the little house went with her and he was left alone in the streets of Charles I’s Southampton. The Bench wanted no vagabonds and sent him off to sea, out of the way. Within months he had fought Dunkirk pirates aboard a sloop and had been set aboard a larger ship bound for the Caribbean where he discovered that whatever peace reigned between the countries of Europe, there was always unacknowledged warfare in the West Indies. Set ashore to help create and man the defences of Barbados, Jemmy soon found himself roving in small craft, hunting for Spaniards or French or Dutch or Danes, all of whom were preying on the English and each other. National ships, privateers, outright pirates, all fought in the tangled waters of the Caribbean.

Captain Dawes of the Brethren of the Coast does not consider himself to be a pirate and finds himself at odds with the piratical ways of his crew. He discovers as well that he is captain only by sufferance – a buccaneer captain is only as good as his last success. He needs money if he is to set up on land, with a wife and a respectable plantation, and there is only one way to get it. He must take it from the Spanish – or the French or Dutch, if available, but only from the English as a last resort. The Civil War in Britain is ending and there will soon be national ships back in the Caribbean, possibly bringing law and peace to the troubled waters. He must make his fortune in a hurry and then find a respectable future. The trouble is, he enjoys roving the seas and respectability promises to be boring.