Barry Clifford

Alternating chapters tell the 17th century history of Captain William Kidd, pirate, and the 21st century search for his sunken ship off the Madagascar island of Sainte-Marie, which was a well-documented haven of pirates of all nations.
The history is interesting, and Clifford does a fairly good job of eking out Kidd's personality and psychological state of mind (so far as one can tell, of course).
The details of how an archaeological expedition is funded and operated are interesting, but sometimes overly detailed, especially the chapters where they just sit around stewing because of the delay in getting permits to work, although that may be interesting to students of government.

As it happened, the delay was instigated by another archaeologist on the island, in search of a different wreck, who had a long-standing grudge against Clifford (of which he claimed to be unaware), indicating that some of the "Indiana Jones" plotlines are not too far out of line.

The ultimate result of the excavating is somewhat disappointing, even though they do find the wreck that most likely is Kidd's.
One odd note: Kidd is sometimes referred to in histories and other sources as "Robert" Kidd, for some reason.

Research was funded by The Discovery Channel for a TV episode.… (mer)

Make up your mind.

That was the heart of my response to this book. Part of the book was about glamor archaeology -- the search for the sunken hull of the Adventure Galley, Captain Kidd's ship. The other part was about Kidd himself.

The two really don't fit together. It's too easy to get lost. This certainly detracts from the story of Kidd, and I suspect it detracts from the archaeology too. Which could use help, because these "let's find the Titanic" sorts of stories almost always end up being far too much about the searchers and far too little about legitimate history and science.

The tale of Captain William Kidd, his privateering voyage, and his execution on what he considered trumped-up charges is fascinating. And it is not very well-documented, simply because so few records were kept. Good archaeology might have filled in at least a few useful details. Sadly, they aren't to be found here. It makes me wonder why Barry Clifford signed on a second writer. He certainly didn't do much for the book. It's really too bad they couldn't start over and do this right.… (mer)