Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution - Hardcover

by Eric Jay Dolin (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

"Yet another maritime masterpiece by one of the top historians of the oceans! Rebels at Sea is a brilliant exposition of a little-understood and underappreciated part of the American Revolution under way. Like his earlier works, it is full of fresh thinking and sharply observed anecdotes that both inform and delight. Eric Jay Dolin's books deserve a prominent place on every sailor's bookshelf.
--Admiral James Stavridis, 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, and author of The Sailor's Bookshelf: Fifty Books to Know the Sea

"Richly detailed, impressively documented, and beautifully written, Rebels at Sea hugely expands our understanding of the American Revolution through a stirring narrative of an essential part that has long been neglected."
--George Daughan, author of Revolution on the Hudson and Lexington and Concord

"While the infant American navy fought gallantly, privateers presented the Royal Navy with its greatest challenge. Eric Jay Dolin's Rebels at Sea is an excellent book about those overlooked patriots who brought the war at sea home to the British. It is welcome addition to the history of the American Revolution, and it deserves the highest praise."
--William M. Fowler, author of Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy 1783-1815

"With Rebels at Sea, Eric Jay Dolin combines his meticulous research with his consummate skills as a story teller. The American privateers who sailed and fought in our Revolution have been unjustly forgotten by our history books. Their victories at sea heartened citizens, proved their worth to the Continental Congress, and drove George III and Lord North nuts. This is a terrific read!"
--Tim McGrath, author of Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea

"The war at sea during the Revolutionary War is less known than the famous land battles fought at places such as Lexington and Trenton. But privateers played a crucial role by elevating the cost of war to the Crown and providing vital supplies and gunpowder to the nascent United States among other actions. Eric Jay Dolin brings the war at sea to life with vibrant prose and solid research. After reading Rebels at Sea, readers will come away with a new perspective on how America gained independence."
--Patrick K. O'Donnell, author of The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware

"The most under-appreciated and under-chronicled contribution to American victory in the War of Independence was the massive impact of the capture and sale by Yankee privateers of numerous British merchant ships. At last we have an authoritative history of those patriots and their exploits by a disciplined scholar and a master teller of sea stories. Rebels at Sea, is that rare volume, a well-researched scholarly maritime history that is also a gripping saga of adventure on the high seas."
--John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy and author of Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea

"An often-overlooked factor in America's victory in the War of Independence was the role of privateering - sailors who captured British ships or merchants who at considerable risk acquired essential goods for the army and home front. Eric Jay Dolin's wonderful Rebels at Sea demonstrates that privateering was more than a sideshow. It caused Great Britain enormous problems that contributed to its failure to crush the American rebellion. This book is must reading for all who wish to learn more about the Revolutionary War."
--John Ferling, author of Winning Independence: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, 1778-1781