Hunting Pirate Heaven

by Kevin Rushby

A chance meeting on the muddy foreshore of the Thames River launched Kevin Rushby on a voyage to rediscover the lost pirate settlements that once dotted the islands and atolls of the Indian Ocean. Hitching rides on a motley assortment of freighters, dhows, yachts, and fishing smacks, Rushby sailed up the east coast of Africa, then turned east to the islands of Comoros and Madagascar, his ultimate objective being to locate the descendants of the infamous sixteenth-century pirates - such as Captain Misson, the legendary French pirate who may have been dreamed up by Daniel Defoe; English sailor-turned-buccaneer Thomas White; and Rhode Islander Thomas Tew - who carved kingdoms for themselves in the remote jungles of northeast Madagascar. As he traveled, Rushby met up with the crackpot dreamers, the tough settlers, the fighters and the failures, who live on the coasts and islands now. His is a romantic story in the old-fashioned sense of the word, full of adventure and colorful voyages to islands where forgotten Portuguese forts lie covered in jungle, where some have tried to shoot their way to paradise, and where the ocean can destroy lives and dreams as quickly as men and women create them.

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction, Africa, Pirates, Adventure

294 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

After I finished University (Newcastle) in 1982 I bought a one-way ticket to Cairo and set off travelling. Never having been abroad before I was understandably shocked on arrival in Cairo. Walking out the airport at 2 a.m. looking for a bus (no money for a taxi) I saw a line of people sleeping under their white sheets and joined them. Having built up a bit more courage later I ended up travelling through Egypt, Sudan, Central African Republic, Uganda and Kenya. Several months later I was back in Sudan as an English teacher, first in Darfur, later in the south. The latter was a particularly intense experience. Yambio, the small town in Western Equatoria, was cut off by the civil war for much of the time and I was alone, the only foreigner most of the time. I did vast bicycle rides, journeying deep into Zaire, visiting only remote areas as I had no paperwork or visa. There was no electricity, no running water, no post, no telephone. When I came to write Paradise (published May 2006) I often thought of that time - it seemed like an experiment in living even then. To jump out of one's own world into another, one that offered the most extreme version of the rural retreat ever.

Eventually the isolation was too much. I went to Kenya, then back to England to study education for a year (and in Madrid for some months), then to Yemen and Malaysia. It was in Kuala Lumpur that I started writing professionally, working for newspapers and magazines all across the Far East and South East Asia. Eventually, I went back to Yemen but the country fell apart in the Civil War of 1994 and I was back living in England for the first time in 12 years. Since then I've written books and articles, done some television, rather more radio. (Articles for the Guardian can be found on their website.) I'm now working on some book ideas to follow up Paradise.

- http://www.kevinrushby.com/biography.php

Reviews

[M. M. J. Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente bitácora de viaje. Una crónica bien contada que gira alrededor de la inquietud de Kevin Rushby por encontrar los antiguos enclaves piratas desde la costa africana hasta Madagascar. Anécdotas entretenidas, bastante documentación y un hilo conductor bien forjado. Más que un cuento sobre piratas, es una semblanza sobre el pasado y cómo este se encuentra con los surcos de nuestro presente.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some people might like this—it’s getting a low rating from me because it wasn’t really what I was hoping for and it’s not the kind of reading I usually enjoy. It’s travel writing, which is fine, but I was hoping for more pirate history. I do love the Indian Ocean though, and this made me want to visit it more—what a lovely mash up of cultures. Sea travel remains fraught and so many of these stories have echoes of what the 17th and 18th century pirates would have had to face. It’s also clear how much colonialism both created the pirate problem and contributed to the continuing problems in that area. If you like a good travel yarn, this could be entertaining.

[Sirkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teose autor on endale loonud ülimalt romantilise ettekujutuse piraatidest ja nende kunagisest elukorraldusest. Ta on teinud tohutu eeltöö, lugenud erinevaid autoreid ja ajalooürikutes tuhninud, et siis kõike ka ise oma silmaga näha ja tunnetada seda õhustikku, mis kunagi minevikus pidi seal piirkonnas olema. Ja ta jagab oma teadmisi lahkelt ka lugejaga.

Minu jaok oli palju ajalugu, ei mingit põnevust ja kõik oli kirja pandud küll ladusalt, aga huumorivaeselt.

Huvitavam pool oli lugeda, kuidas tänapäeval on veel on võimalik end kaubalavale "hääletada", millised on Aafrikas elavad inimesed ja kuivõrd teistmoodi loodus ja ilmastikuolud.

[David R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one picks up this title hoping for emphasis on the places the most notorious Indian Ocean pirates haunted (in Mozambique, Madagascar and the Comoros) one will be disappointed. Rushby doesn't spend very much time at all on this material. The book is better read as a travel yarn focused on the author's improbable trek through beastly backwaters, seedy towns, and dangerous back alleys, and in the company of a very unusual group of residents and travellers. These are not the places most sensible people would wish to visit! It's an interesting crawl, but not at all the one I expected or sought.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read other books by Mr. Rushby and liked them and I did enjoy this book but, yes isn't there always a but, there really isn't much about pirates and he certainly doesn't visit any pirate havens, lost or otherwise. He does have a great travel experience and met many bizarre people in some very unattractive places. It is an amusing travel book. It just doesn't have much to say about pirates which isn't so surprising as, from the little I have read, most of stories about the pirates we know have about as much basis in fact as the cowboy and Indian tales produced in the late 19th century. There were pirates, just like there was a Trojan war, but the reality was about as disappointing as the remains of the Troy dug up archaeologists.

So travel book fine. Pirates absolutely nothing and nowhere.

[Turi Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a little more humor in Hunting Pirate Heaven - there was some there, but I had pictured a Bryson-esque travelogue. (Hmmm, mentioned Bill Bryson again. Wonder if he's writing anything.) Anyway, Kevin Rushby travels the east coast of Africa and Madagascar searching for remnants of pirate havens. He does find a few, but this is mostly the story of his trip and some of the people he met along the way. Enjoyable book, but not quite what I expected.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pirate theme is sort of an afterthought, but the travel diary in southeastern Africa is adventurous, beautiful, messy, and inspirational. Seems a little too cool, the characters a little too scripted and formulaic (verging into stock: like the captain who semi-threatened to kill them and dump them over the side, or the laconic and angry German hotel owners), but a compelling and old-schooly travel read.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pirate theme is a minor note in this excellent travel saga. Rusty cargo ships, pickup trucks repaired with bundles of dried grass, AIDS-riddled hookers, and decaying colonial plantations are what it's really all about.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good travelogue of Rushby's trip -- mostly by boat -- up the coast of Mozambique, and across to the Comoros and then Madagascar. However, the history of "pirates utopias" in these areas that he has added seems artificially jammed in. I felt a bit tricked by the title.

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with the Indian Ocean and pirates these days. What a fun book to read while lazing on a beach with my feet in... the Indian Ocean!

[Danie Jansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny travelogue of Kevin Rushby visiting Mozambique, Comores and Madagascar. Perfect to read during a holiday.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a travelogue than anything to do with pirates, this is still an intrepid, insightful read.