Which famous American University was founded with pirate treasure?

Who was the “pirate with the gold toothpick”?

Pirates on the Chesapeake answers questions the reader never knew he had.

But this is no trivia book.

Pirates on the Chesapeake is a solid masterpiece. Author Donald G. Shomette skillfully weaves scholarship and storytelling in this 300 page narrative of Chesapeake Bay’s stormy heritage.

Since the early days of European exploration in the 16th century, the Chesapeake Bay region, with countless islands, inlets and rivers, has been a perfect haven for privateers and pirates. As Shomette points out, 16th-17th century Spain was convinced Britain intended to settle this region for the sole purpose of interdicting treasure convoys from Latin America to Iberia.

Actually London exerted much effort to suppress piracy in the region, but to little avail. Local residents and “even” governors between the Carolinas and Maryland actively collaborated with pirates to enrich themselves. Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, William Kidd, Joseph Wheland, and scores of lesser known but no less insidious pirates plied these waters for two centuries with more-or-less impunity – sometimes preying on local shipping, sometimes merely using Chesapeake Bay as a staging ground for ventures into the Caribbean or as far away as East Asia. Not until the early days of the US Navy, leading up to the War of 1812, would piracy be effectively contained on this coastline.

Despite the cruelty and bloodshed inherent in the piracy, the book reveals nearly comical elements, such as the four-year-long legal suit pressed by three “former” pirates against the Virginia legislature over rightful possession of their confiscated booty. The suit was resolved in Solomonic fashion in 1693: the pirates received a gracious royal pardon, in recognition of their equally gracious donation of said treasure to fund the new College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

Fast-paced and reader-friendly, Shomette paints a vivid picture of the wild and dangerous life on the wet frontier. A novelist as well as a scholar, he brings characters to life. “James Jones was an ugly, imposing man, severely disfigured by smallpox. He was of middle height, square shouldered, large jointed, with a blemish in his left eye that gave him a squinty, sinister visage. His speech was broad and thick. His demeanor toward prisoners was calculating and cool. He had a bold ego, as the more successful pirates tended to have, and he occasionally compared himself to the infamous Captain William Kidd.” So Shomettes’s three-dimensional introduction of John James, star of chapter IX: “The Pirate with the Gold Toothpick.”

But the book is solidly researched and well documented, including 20 pages of end-notes, many referring to original sources. Shomette weaves original text into his own to simultaneously ensure atmosphere and veracity: “‘I observed,’” he later recalled, ‘ye Company and Captain Him self to have gold chains about their necks,’” Shomette quotes Captain Nicholas Thomas Jones, master of the sloop Roanoke Merchant, which was brought up by John James off the Virginia Capes on July 27, 1699. Jones’ deposition, duly cited from Colonial Office records dated August 4, 1699, continues: “Ye Captain had a gold tooth picker hanging at it.”

Retired from the Library of Congress, and holding an honorary doctorate in humane letters, Shomette is an accomplished historian by any measure. Author of thirteen books and an active underwater archaeologist, he combines scholarly depth with an entertaining style. This book is excellent reading for the professional or enthusiast interested in maritime history or the North Carolina-Virginia-Maryland region.

Donald G. Shomette

Pirates on the Chesapeake: Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay, 1610-1807

Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, MD, 1985