The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, The First Marines, And The Secret Mission Of 1805 [UNABRIDGED]

Richard Zacks

ISBN 10: 0786179775 ISBN 13: 9780786179770

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2005

Synopsis

In the first U.S. covert mission to overthrow a foreign nation, President Jefferson dispatched an unlikely diplomat, forty-year-old William Eaton, to Tripoli to free three hundred American hostages. Eaton achieved a remarkable victory on “the shores of Tripoli,” but for him, the aftermath was not so sweet.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Zacks specializes in offbeat history. He is the author of the bestselling History Laid Bare and The Pirate Hunter, chosen by Time as one of the five best nonfiction books of 2002.

From Publishers Weekly

The author of The Pirate Hunter,which made Captain Kidd come to life, focuses here more broadly on a piracy hot spot. Resolved to stop the enslavement of American merchant sailors by North African nations, Jefferson deployed most of the infant U.S. Navy to the Mediterranean and sent a column of troops overland from Egypt to place the pasha of Tripoli's brother Hamet on the throne in 1801. The leader of that motley array of mercenaries, Muslim tribesmen, Hamet's retainers and a handful of U.S. Marines was the colorful and combative William Eaton, who led them more than 500 miles across the desert to "the shores of Tripoli." By the time he arrived, peace negotiations were underway, in the hands of one Tobias Deane, who was neither honest nor competent. Eaton had to abandon Hamet and was in turn virtually abandoned by the Jefferson administration, leaving him with a mountain of debt and a drinking problem that eventually killed him at 47. There has been a dearth of good material on the Barbary War and particularly on Eaton's trek; Zacks has researched thoroughly, writes entertainingly and shows a knack for sea stories and characterization. This is the book that Captain Eaton has long deserved. (June)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786179775
• ISBN 13: 9780786179770
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English