The cover for Piracy on the Great Lakes, available soon.

Coming Soon! Piracy on the Great Lakes, True Tales of Freshwater Pirates

My newest book project is on the horizon and you probably should beware, it’s pirates! Lock up your ladies and hide your valuables. These pirates will loot anything that isn’t tied down and some that is. Piracy on the Great Lakes was quite prevalent. Though most think of Pirates in the Carribean, pirates also sailed the Great Lakes. William Johnson, James Strang, and Dan Seavey were all well documented freshwater pirates. Their exploits are well documented and often stranger than fiction. This is a book I really enjoyed putting together and I’m hoping others will enjoy reading. Publishing soon through Modern History Press, this is a must have for history fans.

An Excerpt from the Book

“Piracy is something that has always been with us. In the Great Lakes, piracy was different than the glorified, Hollywood, Pirates of the Caribbean. There was no Aztec gold heading back to Spain on armadas. But there were pirates just the same.

Instead of chasing down ships laden with gold, the Great Lakes pirates were after commodities. There were fur pirates, timber pirates, religious pirates and inept pirates. Just about anything that could be sold, fell prey to pirates. Though there was no Spanish gold, there was loot to be had. Payrolls were shipped and moneys for banks and treasuries were consigned. Cargos could be stolen and then sold at the next port.

Waiting in the night, hidden behind a remote island, no lights showing, pirates would lure unsuspecting ships into unknown waters. Then silently slide up to them and board the ship. The crew would be killed and the bodies thrown over the side, weighted down with chains. The pirates would take the cargo, sink or burn the ship, and then just as quietly, sail away into the night. Dead men tell no tales, nor do they testify in court.

Ships and crews disappeared into oblivion on the Great Lakes. Much of it was attributed to storms but pirates also roamed these waters and many of the ships were lost due to pirate raids. These weren’t the swashbucklers of film, but men who used guns, knives and were brawlers and drinkers roaming the fresh waters of a lawless frontier. Though specific incidents and stories are lost to time, others are not as is presented here. This is but the surface of a much larger world of piracy that lived throughout the Great Lakes.”