A dazzling array of swashbuckling pirates, picaroons, and sea rovers are pitted against the often feckless representatives of an outpost government authority in the Chesapeake Bay region. It is an exciting and dramatic two hundred-year history that begins grimly with the "starving time" in the Virginia colony in 1609, and ends with the peaceful resolution of the Othello affair with the French in 1807. In between lies a full panoply of violent and bizarre buccaneering incidents that one is hard pressed to imagine from the vantage point of the twenty-first century. Documented by impressive research in articles of the Netherlands, England, and the United States, Shomette skillfully reconstructs these episodes and many others, including the intensive anti-pirate cruise to capture-dead or alive-the notorious Blackbeard. The anti-pirate cruises led to the roundup of dozens of pirates and some showy executions but did little to curb the continued terrorist activities of bandits like Roger Makeele, Stede Bonnet, and Joseph Wheland.

In this archaeological trilogy, Donald G. Shomette provides a tour of the treasures beneath the Chesapeake Bay. Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay, a companion volume to Tidewater Time Capsule, continues the author's quest to uncover the Bay's hidden history. New Jersey, a steamship that sank in the waters of the Chesapeake in 1870, is the subject of the first part of this absorbing narrative. The wreck became the scene of large-scale relic hunting, but also of cutting-edge technology. Events surrounding the exploration of the wreck were instrumental in the creation of the first state-sponsored underwater archaeology agency in Maryland. In part two Shomette describes the history and archaeological investigation of Kent Island, where the remains and relics of the earliest permanent European settlement in Maryland were excavated. Part three chronicles a fascinating yet little-known chapter in American history. During World War I, the U.S. government created an emergency program to build hundreds of wooden steamships to replace merchant vessels being destroyed in Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. Most of these ships never saw the European Theater and now lie beneath Mallows Bay off the Potomac. The bay also holds the remnants of countless other vessels, making it the largest ship graveyard in the United States - and perhaps the world.

For many, the Chesapeake Bay has an aura of historical romance and high adventure. Like the great Atlantic Ocean of which it is an extension, the bay also has its dark and treacherous aspect. Marine archaeologist Donald Shomette shares his great interest in the tragedies and disasters that occurred in the bay and its tidewater region over a 370-year period. He lists more than 1,800 of these events between 1608 and 1978, but elaborates on a few of the more significant catastrophes and military losses. Some stand out for their effect upon the course of human events, while others are notable for their immense toll on life and property. Included are tales of incredible bravery, courage, and fortitude, and stories of cowardice, stupidity, and ineptitude. The text is liberally illustrated, and there is an extensive detailed chronology of all known disasters on the bay.

Years ago, few people understood the value of the submerged cultural resources beneath the waters of the Chesapeake region. Recently, the search for the region's underwater heritage has been validated and initiated an intensified attempt to study and preserve the priceless resources in the waters of the bay and its tributaries. Tidewater Time Capsule presents a fascinating account of one underwater archaeological endeavor in which Donald G. Shomette was intimately involved: the underwater survey of the Patuxent River, and, in particular, the search for Commodore Joshua Barney's Chesapeake Flotilla, which was lost beneath the river's waters following a battle with the British during the War of 1812. The author skillfully sets the historical scene, and then proceeds to a first-person, on-the-site narrative of the investigative events as they happened. The Patuxent Project was the first underwater archaeological survey of an entire river system. In this multiphase investigation, archaeologists sought such diverse resources as inundated aboriginal and historic sites, harbor facilities, military establishments, battle sites, shipwrecks, and, in particular, the final resting place of Joshua Barney's famed Chesapeake Flotilla from the War of 1812.

In 1672, England formally declared war on its commercial archrival, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, marking the beginning of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In response, the Evertsen Expedition, under the command of Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of Zeeland, launched a surprise attack against the English East India Company fleet, to be followed by raids on major English and French colonial establishments in the Western Hemisphere. "The battle against England had marked Holland's zenith as a world maritime power. The Dutch warriors who had followed the flag to sea had miraculously held the overwhelming forces of both England and France at bay in home waters and had subdued, through force of arms and pure bravado, a vast colonial frontier empire in America." Dutch and English records, journals, secret minutes and narratives are used to reconstruct Evertsen's campaign that included the naval invasion of the Chesapeake Bay, the capture or destruction of hundreds of English and French vessels, and the re-conquest of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. Ironically, their victory marked the end of the golden age of the Dutch Republic, as they could not sustain "such an empire." Donald Shomette is director of Cultural Resource Management, a historical consultant for the U.S. Navy and the National Geographic Society, and a former staff member for the Library of Congress. Robert Haslach has published several works on Netherlands history, and was responsible for translating and writing the chapters based on the original seventeenth century Dutch logbooks for this work.

Nor'easters, blizzards, and hurricanes. Spanish galleons, German U-boats, and presidential yachts. Pirates and privateers. The ephemeral and deadly nature of islands, dunes, inlets, and shoals. The history of the Delmarva Peninsula's Atlantic coast is rich with tales of fantasy and adventure, heroism and tragedy, greed and charity. Claiming more than 2,300 vessels since 1632, it rivals North Carolina's Outer Banks for the infamous title "The Graveyard of the Atlantic."

Maritime historian Donald G. Shomette brings these stories to life. Featuring the accounts of twenty-five ill-starred vessels -- some notorious and some forgotten until now -- this anthology provides a fascinating history of a local maritime culture and charts how the catastrophic events along this shore significantly affected U.S. merchant shipping as a whole. Shomette weaves together history, folklore, and legend in accounts of the tragic loss of the 1750 Spanish treasure fleet, the British blockade of the Delaware in the American Revolution, the depredations of Confederate commerce raiders during the Civil War, the Billy Mitchell affair, the Hurricane of 1933, and the Nazi U-boat offensive of World War II. His appendix provides a complete catalog of all 2,300 recorded wrecks, including coordinates and location descriptions where available.

A vivid montage of seafaring adventures and pivotal events in American history, this volume makes an essential contribution to the library of the history buff, wreck diver, and local adventurer.

With the Royal Navy's offensives in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812 came devastating raids that wreaked havoc on the small villages along its shores and the very economy of the region. American naval forces were incapable of wresting control of the Tidewater from the superior enemy forces. Then in 1814 Captain Joshua Barney, a rare American hero during the struggle, intrepidly led his Chesapeake Flotilla against the invaders, determined to contest their advance on the nation's capital and drive them from the region.

Donald G. Shomette, director of the archaeological excavation of the flotilla's flagship, substantially revises the first edition of this captivating history with new information about Barney, his crew, and the mosquito fleet of gunboats and war barges that so valiantly fought the British. He sheds new light on the efforts of the U.S. Flotilla Service to build a viable coastal defense force. Shomette details the construction and manning of the famed Chesapeake Flotilla and recounts the terrifying details of British attacks on the towns, plantations, and farms throughout the bay region.

Doomed from its conception by sparse funds and the natural limitations of the bay's coastline, the flotilla ultimately suffered defeat. Yet its efforts were not completely in vain. Turning back wave after wave of British attacks, the fleet earned an improbable victory at St. Leonard's Creek and its men went on to make heroic stands at the battles of Bladensburg and Fort McHenry in 1814.

The thoroughly updated and enlarged edition of "Flotilla" is the result of impressive research on a forgotten chapter in the development of the young nation's naval and maritime tradition.