We started this year (2023) with a series of excepts from a captivity narrative written by a Portuguese soldier named[…]
Read moreAuthor: Adam Nichols
PRIVATEERING — THE BUSINESS OF PIRACY: PART 2
(This post is a continuation of Privateering — The Business of Piracy: Part 1. If you haven’t done so already,[…]
Read morePRIVATEERING — THE BUSINESS OF PIRACY: PART 1
The early seventeenth century was a wild, violent time. The discovery of the New World a century before—and the riches[…]
Read morePIRATES, PRIVATEERS, AND CORSAIRS
In this post, we get back to basics. Barbary corsairs are also often called Barbary pirates, but they were not[…]
Read moreBARBARY CORSAIR SHIPS: SQUARE-RIGGED VESSELS – PART 2
(This post is a continuation of Corsair Ships: Square-Rigged Vessels – Part 1. If you haven’t done so already, it’s[…]
Read moreBARBARY CORSAIR SHIPS: SQUARE-RIGGED VESSELS – PART 1
By the early decades of the seventeenth century, Barbary corsairs were employing two very different types of ships: oared galleys[…]
Read moreTYRKJARANS-SAGA: EINAR LOPTSSON’S EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE IN ALGIERS – PART 2
This week continues with the excerpt from Tyrkjarans-Saga describing the experiences of Einar Loptsson, an Icelander enslaved in Algiers in[…]
Read moreTYRKJARANS-SAGA: EINAR LOPTSSON’S EXPERIENCE AS A SLAVE IN ALGIERS – PART 1
In the summer of 1627, two sets of Barbary corsairs—one from Salé, one from Algiers—raided Iceland. The Salé corsairs pillaged[…]
Read moreDEFINITELY A COMPLICATED ALLIANCE
When people think about the relationship between North African Barbary corsairs and the European states in the seventeenth century, they[…]
Read moreNAVAL TACTICS
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of violent conflict, both on land and at sea. They were also[…]
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