Review of David Lester's & Marchs Rediker's Under the Banner of King Death

Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic by David Lester

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A crowd gathers in Boston in 1720. An unrepentant pirate is to hang. His last words are to shipmasters, warning them to treat sailors honestly and decently. After the execution, John Gwin and Ruben Dekker go to an inn where they are joined by a stranger who buys them drinks. Some time later, they awaken from a drugged sleep aboard a ship of the Royal African Company bound for Sierra Leone.

Forced to work under a tyrannical captain who favors the lash, John is soon punished. Later, others reveal similar scars and talk about the only remedy – rum. That stirs memories of his own journey from Africa to the Caribbean aboard a slave ship. He tells Ruben that he later escaped his bonds and sailed with the pirate Stede Bonnet.

Once their ship disembarks their cargo in Port Royal, the crew celebrates in a tavern. Talk of becoming pirates plants the seeds of mutiny. Another unjust and brutal punishment on the way to New York causes the sailors and some Africans to rise up against Captain Skinner. They elect John as their captain, a sailor named Mark Read as their quartermaster, and go on the account. John asks the Africans where they would like to go and the decision is made to sail back to Sierra Leone to attack the RAC fort there.

The more successful they are in their piratical endeavors, the more incensed those back in London become. They finally decide that the pirates must be brought to justice. They hire pirate hunter William Snelgrave. He may be an experienced sea captain, but he may not be as adept at pirate hunting as he thinks, for he soon finds himself a prisoner of the very pirates he seeks.

Under the Banner of King Death is a graphic novel based on Marcus Rediker’s nonfiction pirate study entitled Villains of All Nations. In the foreword, Redicker explains “Why We Need Pirates,” and shows how the myths surrounding pirates are based on truth that is far more compelling than Hollywood’s depictions of pirates. Paul Buhle pens the afterword, “Pirates We Have Seen: Footnotes from Popular Cultural History” that discusses the current reinterpretation of pirate history and how pirates have been depicted in comics.

The book includes a historical timeline of the Golden Age of Piracy and a glossary of eighteenth-century vulgar speech found within the book. There is even a cameo appearance by Bartholomew Roberts.

Since this is fiction, it’s permissible for the authors to take liberties with some persons from history. Some readers, however, may find this disconcerting since the book is supposed to be a realistic portrayal of pirates. Snelgrave (a pirate captive, but not a pirate hunter) and Read (whose history and demise are well-known) could easily have been given fictional names to make them more believable characters. Equally curious are the use of occasional terms that do not fit the time period (“paramilitary” for example); having a native of the Cayman Islands be familiar with Robin Hood; and interrupting the story to show pictures of weapons, medical and sailing implements, and food.

The most compelling part of this novel is the stark and concrete black-and-white artwork. They depict the grim reality rather than an idealized version of pirates. The story is also realistic in depicting how sailors were treated, what drove them to turn pirate, and why they were willing to die to live a short, but merry, life.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/adult-hist...)



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