Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

Joseph Bannister lived a life of comfort and respectability as an English merchant captain in the late 1600s. His ship, The Golden Fleece, plied the profitable transatlantic route between London and British-controlled Jamaica. But in 1684, for unknown reasons, Bannister turned pirate. He was captured and tried, though not convicted, and, on the eve of his re-trial, he staged a daring escape with The Golden Fleece. Two Royal Navy ships chased him to what is now the Dominican Republic, where they caught The Golden Fleece careened (set on its side to clean and repair the hull). Bannister set up cannon batteries on land and fought for two days until the navy warships, ammunition nearly spent, retreated. This victory was short-lived: Bannister's ship was destroyed in the fighting and he was hanged not long after being recaptured. The location of The Golden Fleece's wreck was lost to history.

Enter veteran divers John Chatterton and John Mattera. Chatterton (one of the subjects of Robert Kurson's book Shadow Divers, about identifying a U-Boat wreck off the coast of New Jersey) and Mattera had planned to search for a Spanish galleon, but another wreck hunter offered an even rarer prize: the potential location of a renegade ship from the golden age of piracy (about 1650-1720). In Pirate Hunters, Kurson chronicles Chatterton and Mattera's hunt with the addictive pacing of a thriller and a masterful eye for detail. The result is an extraordinary adventure, as Chatterton and Mattera contend with rival treasure hunters, local criminals, a looming government crackdown on ship salvaging and the mystery of The Golden Fleece's final resting place. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

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