Angus Konstam

Mutiny on the Spanish Main tells the dramatic story of HMS Hermione, a British frigate which, in 1797, was the site of the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history, which saw the death of her captain and many of her officers. Though her crew handed her over to the Spanish, Hermione was subsequently recaptured in a daring raid on a Caribbean port two years later. Drawing on letters, reports, ship's logs and memoirs of the period, as well as previously unpublished Spanish sources, Angus Konstam intertwines extensive research with a fast-paced but balanced account of the mutiny and its consequences. Illustrated with maps and diagrams tracing the events as they unfolded, and supported by informative inserts on the technical and tactical nuances of seamanship and naval warfare in the period, this book is both a fascinating narrative retelling and an informative guide to one of the most notorious events in the history of the Royal Navy.

Often romanticized in print and on the silver screen, real-life pirates were a brutal menace that plagued the high seas. In this book, Angus Konstam separates myth from reality, tracing the history of piracy through the centuries, from the pirates who plagued the Ancient Egyptians to the Viking raids and on to the era of privateers. He discusses the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy" and colorful characters such as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, before examining the West's initial encounters with Eastern pirates off the Chinese coast and the phenomenon of the modern pirate. Highly illustrated with color images and specially commissioned maps throughout, this is a unique exploration of the pirate world.

Hunt the Bismarck tells the story of Operation Rheinübung, the Atlantic sortie of the Nazi Germany's largest battleship in May 1941. Bismarck entered service in the summer of 1940. She was well-armed, with eight 15-inch guns as well as a powerful array of lighter weapons, while her armored protection earned her the reputation of being unsinkable. This claim was finally put to the test in May 1941, when she sortied into the Atlantic and fought the legendary battle of the Denmark Strait, destroying HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy. Bismarck was now loose in the North Atlantic. However, damage sustained in the battle limited her ability to roam at will, while the Royal Navy deployed the Home Fleet to revenge the Hood. The stage was set for the greatest chase story in the history of naval warfare. Drawing on a wealth of first-hand accounts, and intertwining extensive research into a fast-paced narrative, this is the most readable and accurate account of Bismarck's epic voyage ever produced.

This new account explores the most notorious pirates in history and how their rise and fall can be traced back to a single pirate haven , Nassau . Angus Konstam, one of the world's leading pirate experts, has brought his 30 years of research to create the definitive book on the short-lived Golden Age of Piracy. Following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), many of the privateers the British had used to prey on French and Spanish shipping turned to piracy leading to a major surge in attacks in the Caribbean and along North America's Atlantic seaboard. The fragile maritime economy of the Americas was threatened with collapse and, when major ports were threatened and trade brought to a standstill, the British government finally declared war on the pirates. Most of the ships captured by pirates carried cargoes which were worthless unless they could be 'fenced'. As all legal ports were closed to them, the pirates took over Nassau on the Bahamian island of New Providence and turned it into their own pirate haven, where shady merchants were happy to buy their plunder. Some of the pirates based there ranged as far afield as Newfoundland, West Africa and the Indian Ocean, and Nassau became the hub of a pirate network that included some of the most notorious pirates in Blackbeard, “Calico Jack” Rackam, Charles Vane and Bartholomew Roberts. The Pirate Menace draws on extensive research, as well as a wide range of first-hand accounts, to produce a new history of the heyday of historical piracy.