Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
by Eric Jay Dolin
Winner of the 2023 RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, Eric Jay Dolin was acknowledged by the New York Commandery in New York City in November.
This distinguished writing prize is presented to an American author “who by his published writings has made a substantial contribution to the preservation of the history, heritage and traditions of the United States Sea Services – the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and U.S. Flag Merchant Marine.”
Overview
The best-selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to winning the Revolutionary War. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told before, yet missing from most maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels, from 20-foot whaleboats to 40-cannon men-of-war, that truly revealed the new nation’s character―above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. In Rebels at Sea, best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, though often seen as profiteers at best and pirates at worst, were in fact critical to the Revolution’s outcome. Armed with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes―as well as government documents granting them the right to seize enemy ships―thousands of privateers tormented the British on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean. Abounding with tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents the American Revolution as we have rarely seen it before.
Author
ERIC JAY DOLIN is the author of fifteen books, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, won the 2007 John Lyman Award for U.S. Maritime History, and was an Editor’s Choice for the New York Times Book Review. His most recent book before Rebels at Sea is A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes, which was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Booklist, Library Journal, and the editors at Amazon. It was also selected as a "Must-Read" book by the Massachusetts Center for the Book for 2021, and an Editor’s Choice for the New York Times Book Review. Rebels at Sea was awarded the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award and was a finalist for both the New England Society Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Authors Club. Rebels was also selected as a “Must-Read” book for 2023. Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse was chosen by gCaptain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016 and was selected as a “Must-Read” book for 2017. One of Dolin’s most popular maritime books is Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates, published in 2018. His next book, due out in May 2024, is Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World, about men intentionally marooned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812. A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his PhD in environmental policy, Dolin lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his family. For more information, please see www.ericjaydolin.com
In addition to his book awards, he has also been the recipient of other honors, including the Switzer Environmental Fellowship, the Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, and the Starr Fellowship for Public Service from Brown University. He is a Nantucket Historical Society Research Fellow, a member of the Colonia Society of Massachusetts, and was awarded a special commendation from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for "Contributing to the Award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC."
Ordering info: Amazon