Benerson Little

Notes on content, based on research and discovery subsequent to publication, are provided below. Critical typos are also noted. These and many other notes, comments, and errata, with citations and in much greater detail, may be downloaded via the Notes & Errata pdf file on the Buccaneer's Realm page.

Page 4, last paragraph, typo, "Peter Drake" should be "Francis Drake." The reference is correct in the index.

Page 63, second and third paragraphs. Multiple shot is confirmed by John Cox's late seventeenth buccaneer journal, and other sources as well. Cox describes "cartridge shot" as a paper cartridge containing powder, one musket ball, and seven or eight "swan shot." See The Buccaneer's Realm.

Page 65, second paragraphs, powder loads. Revise to read, “500 to 650, or even more, depending on powder quality and musket caliber” as opposed to “1000 to 1300”; and “one and half to two shots” as opposed to “three shots.” (For some reason I calculated from 40 pounds instead of 20.)

Page 69, last paragraph. Although Spanish and Portuguese soldiers and sailors had an affinity for the rapier, Spanish seamen, including sea rovers, are also noted in primary sources as using cutlasses as well. See The Buccaneer's Realm.

Page 154, third paragraph. At least in the latter days of the age of sail, grappling hooks were not thrown by hand from the ends of yardarms, but were suspended from them via several feet of chain attached to a line, with the line belayed on deck where seamen could ease it or haul on it, as required. It is possible that light grappling hooks could have been thrown from the yard ends. Most often, however, grappling hooks were thrown from deck. (The description of suspended grappling hooks is from J. Lafay, Aide-mémoire d’artillerie navale, Paris: 1850)

Page 248, Black Strap beer. The Sieur de Dièreville, a traveler to Acadia in the late 17th century, describes this beer as a "decoction" of the tips of fir trees, yeast, and molasses fermented for two or three days. The heavier ingredients settle, and the "light coloured Liquor" at the top is drunk.

"As colorful as a Howard Pyle illustration and as compelling as an Errol Flynn film, The Sea Rover’s Practice belongs on anyone’s short list of useful scholarship on the great age of piracy. Based largely on first-person accounts, the book provides a trustworthy description of how pirates, filibusters, buccaneers, and privateers went about their business, from planning and recruiting, through chasing, engaging, and boarding, to dividing the spoils. The reader, entertained as well as informed, is likely to have nearly as much fun reading this book as the author appears to have had in writing it."

Benerson Little brings a unique and powerful perspective—that of a scholarly former U.S. Navy SEAL—to a fascinating subject. The result is a remarkable book that casts much new light on the sea rovers of the Age of Sail."

"A remarkably complete analysis of methods used in piracy, especially in Europe and America, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book is based on solid research and is especially valuable for understanding the language and literature of the subject. It includes useful notes and bibliographies and is a highly recommended reference work for both general and specialized libraries."

"The Sea Rover’s Practice fills a long-standing void in the literature of piracy. With the trained eye and experienced hand of a sailor and maritime combatant, Benerson Little reconstructs a century of tactics and stratagems developed by pirates during the height of their operations in Spanish America and beyond. Through engaging prose and careful scholarship, Little uncovers the fascinating secrets of the ‘sweet trade.’"

"This book on Golden Age piracy is as lively as its subject matter...With considerable gusto and an impressive understanding of the strategies of violence at sea, the author explores the material practices of piracy from the beginning to the end of a voyage. Little’s book is particularly strong in its description of the armaments and tactics of warfare at sea...The scholarship is also strong...Little’s achievement in The Sea Rover’s Practice is a considerable one; this well-priced and absorbing book allows the reader to appreciate the terms of engagement, and the stakes, in the much romanticized but little understood phenomena of early modern piracy."


". . . .rich in colourful detail, and displays impressive knowledge of sailing and fighting skills."


"Be prepared—after reading only a few pages—to feel the wind in your face and taste the salt air."


"For the student of fan of early pirating days who will readily appreciate Navy SEAL officer Benerson Little's focus on the realities and -- dare we say -- business practices of early sea rovers. The Sea Rover’s Practice is the only book to describe in detail their tactics, and the scholarly reader in particular will find the research solid."

"[Little's] unique insight gives us a truly practical guide on the strategies and techniques used by the successful pirate or privateer... If I were headed out a-rovin' and were allowed only one book in my sea bag, this would be the one I'd bring."


"No self-respecting sea rover should be without this manual! Reenactors and writers will find The Sea Rover’s Practice invaluable, but anyone who wishes a more in-depth look into the tactics of pirates and privateers will not be disappointed."

"A scholarly, informative, thought-provoking work, a book that would be a welcome addition to any maritime historian's library. Considering all the titles that have been published in the last decade on piracy, this book is an excellent resource on its true nature."

"Former US Navy SEAL Little has delved into the first hand narratives of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and America in order to reconstruct their tactics of buccaneers, freebooters, corsairs, and privateers."

"The Sea Rover's Practice is delightful and frightful and scholarly all at the same time . . . . The reader is enthralled with the detail of it all . . . ."


"THE SEA ROVER'S PRACTICE is an excellent review of every aspect of pirating and privateering . . . a great resource. . . ."

"THE SEA ROVER'S PRACTICE by Benerson Little, a former Navy SEAL officer, examines the tactics and stratagems deployed by privateers and pirates to 'take wealth by force of arms at sea' in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. It is precisesly the sort of book that some of my students crave."

"[An] author of truly heroic status. Benerson Little has written a book without precedent--a small tome of combat knowledge as it applies to our pirate forebears. . . . It's one thing for a historian to write about old naval tactics. It's quite another when that historian is a former Navy SEAL. . . . A truly exceptional book."

"Excellent . . . This is a great backgrounder on what really was behind the privateers, buccaneers/boucaniers, filibusters/flibustiers, and pirates. . . . This is not a book that only looks at the past but has a surprising applicability to modernity."

To read of sea roving's various incarnations -- piracy, privateering, buccaneering, la flibuste, la course -- is to bring forth romantic, and often violent, imagery. Indeed, much of this imagery has become a literary and cinematic cliché. And what an image it is!

But its truth is by halves, and paradoxically it is the picaresque imagery of Pyle, Wyeth, Sabatini, and Hollywood that is often closer to the reality, while the historical details of arms, tactics, and language are often inaccurate or entirely anachronistic.

Successful sea rovers were careful practitioners of a complex profession that sought wealth by stratagem and force of arms. Drawn from the European tradition, yet of various races and nationalities, they raided both ship and town throughout much of the world from roughly 1630 until 1730. Using a variety of innovative tactics and often armed with little more than musket and grenade, many of these self-described "soldiers and privateers" successfully assaulted fortifications, attacked shipping from small craft, crossed the mountains and jungles of Panama, and even circumnavigated the globe. Successful sea rovers were often supreme seamen, soldiers, and above all, tacticians. It can be argued that their influence on certain naval tactics is felt even today.

The Sea Rover's Practice is the only book that describes in exceptional detail the tactics of sea rovers of the period -- how they actually sought out and attacked vessels and towns. Accessible to both the general and the more scholarly reader, it will appeal not only to those with an interest in piracy and in maritime, naval, and military history, but also to mariners in general, tall-ship and ship-modeling enthusiasts, tacticians and military analysts, readers of historical fiction, writers, and the adventurer in all of us.