In this season's first full episode Nic interviews Dr. Rebecca Simon on her new book Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Dr. Simon talks about Bonny and Read's fascinating lives prior to piracy as well as their legacies as two of the most important pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy. We also have a fun lightning round where Dr. Simon rates pirate-related art, literature, and film for accuracy and entertainment while Nic explains the drama behind Cap'n Crunch's nemesis, the pirate Jean Lafoote. 

A Barque, a Brig, and a Schooner Shape History is back! With the 250th anniversary of the HMS Gaspee burning right around the corner, Nic's digging into some of the history he's covered on our sister podcast in years past to debunk the Gaspee Affair's alleged place as the first shot fired in the American Revolution. Sit back and relax while Nic regales you with Rhode Islanders' proclivity for burning boats when they get mad. He'll also talk about some of the great topics we have in line for season 2!

Ships Mentioned: HMS Gaspee, HMS St, John, HMS Squirrel, HMS Maidstone, Osprey, Liberty/HMS Liberty.

In this episode Nic interviews Brooke Grasberger about the spiritual lives of sailors (including religion, luck, and superstition) as Brooke seeks to answer the question “What does the sea do to people, and what do people see in it?” From departing on a Friday to whistling up a storm we cover a lot of ground in this episode.

Brooke Grasberger is a PhD candidate in history at Brown University, where she is currently at work on her dissertation on the oceanic faith of sailors throughout the nineteenth century. Besides this current project, which takes up much of her time, she is also interested in writing fiction and creating art both relating to her academic work and distant from it, and is an avid player of tabletop games.

"In this episode, Nic interviews Dr. Mirelle Luecke about the maritime Underground Railroad, and how New York served as a key hub on these secret routes. Dr. Luecke also talks about her work curating Mystic Seaport Museum's “Sailor Made: Folk Art of the Sea” and “Figureheads and Shipcarvings” exhibitions. You can read Dr. Luecke’s fascinating article in Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad. (https://www.umasspress.com/9781625345929/sailing-to-freedom/)

While we work on our upcoming episode on the maritime Underground Railroad, take a listen to Nic interviewing Seán Dagher and Bénédicte Ouimet earlier this year (featured on our other Tall Ships America podcast, A Barque, a Brig, and a Schooner... Walk into a Bar). Seán is a singer known for his masterful renditions of folk songs and shanties, for his iconic shanty and tavern performances in the Assassin’s Creed video game series, and his Shanty of the Week YouTube series, which has amassed over 300,000 views. Bénédicte is the accomplished music supervisor for Ubisoft Montreal and she was critical to the inclusion and recording of shanties in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, which have sold over 25 million copies and spawned multiple shanty-specific soundtracks. This episode is closed out with Seán’s brilliant version of “Roll, Boys, Roll.” 

Seán can be found at:
https://seandagher.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/SeanDagher

Many of us were taught in school that Indigenous Americans lived land-based lives, or at most navigated inland waterways. In reality, numerous Indigenous cultures were heavily connected to the maritime world, and depended on the ocean for food, materials, and trade opportunities. In this episode we take a look at the Wabanaki sailors that thrived on colonial America and Canada’s north Atlantic coasts, and we learn about the Wabanaki navies that resisted Britain’s imperial intentions. 

Join Nic Hardisty of Tall Ships America as he uncovers the ships, people, and events that have shaped history. We’ll explore America’s robust maritime heritage from the days of indigenous sailors expertly navigating coastal waters in their umiaks to some of the tall ships that still sail today. You’ll hear compelling stories from a variety of historians and researchers, and you’ll see how these stories shape and impact our modern world.