Empire of Blue Water cover art

Empire of Blue Water

Henry Morgan and the Pirates Who Ruled the Carribean Waves

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 31 July, 2025 23:59 BST.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Empire of Blue Water

By: Stephan Talty
Narrated by: David Bauckham
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July, 2025 23:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £26.99

Buy Now for £26.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

He challenged the greatest empires on earth with a ragtag bunch of renegades - and brought it to its knees. Henry Morgan crossed the Atlantic in 1655, hell-bent on making his fortune.

Awash with bloody battles, political intrigues, and natural disasters, Empire of Blue Water brilliantly re-creates the passion and the violence of the age of exploration and empire.

©2009 Stephan Talty (P)2009 Oakhill Publishing Europe

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Blackbeard cover art
Villains of All Nations cover art
Enemy of All Mankind cover art
Admiral Collingwood: Nelson's Own Hero cover art
Inca Apocalypse cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
Fifth Sun cover art
Six Days of War cover art
Black Flags, Blue Waters cover art
In Search of a Kingdom cover art
Over the Edge of the World cover art
Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind cover art
Gibraltar cover art
Ring of Fire I cover art
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
The Pirate Hunter cover art

Critic reviews

"Fresh insight into pirates' dens of old ...Well-researched non fiction that reads like a novel." ( Washington Times)
" Talty strips away the legend to recreate a pivotal era in this accesible portrait of the pirates of the Caribbean." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
Great insight into a man and time I knew almost nothing about. Hard to believe some of these things actually happened. Such a different time.
Followed it up with a Wilbur Smith fictional book set not long after, this set the scene brilliantly.

Great Insight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A classic example of the truth being more fascinating than any fiction. The story of the real Henry Morgan is an amazing, complex saga that leaves any 'squash buckling' pirates way behind and transports the listener into the murky world of the seventeenth century.

Empire of Blue Water

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it. Spain, Jamaica, captain Morgan, and the history of Spain and England in the Caribbean

captain Morgan

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lots to appreciate in the history of these amazing times. Tsunami and earth quakes remain best avoided

Recommend listening for visiting the Caribbean and surroundings

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A thoroughly enjoyable and informative book. It details the life of Morgan, and puts it in the context of the geopolitical climate of the time. The author has a very informal and narrative style that makes it an easy but enthralling listen, and the narrator does an excellent job of bringing it all to life. For anyone interested in the brutal days of the Pirates, Buccaneers and Privateers in the Caribbean, then I would highly recommend this book.

Excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very accomplished production in all respects, the audio is about as good as it gets on Audible - near perfect. The original content is engageing from beginning to end. An extraordinary story of a legendary figure brought to life.

An excellent history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Although this book is subtitled "Pirates who ruled the Caribbean waves", it is mostly the life story of Henry Morgan. Not that I'm complaining. Morgan was certainly a very colourful character who had more adventure in his life than most of us will ever read of. How he went from shabby buccaneer to Governor of Jamaica is a remarkable story filled with tremendous triumph and incredible hardship, and this book tells it beautifully. The ordinary pirate/buccaneer is not neglected, for the book also refers to a fictional character who is a composite of the typical pirate of the day, which adds greatly to the story of the increasingly high-flying Morgan. The result is an excellent study of Morgan and his actions, seen both through his eyes, those of his Spanish enemies and those of his followers.

What the book is not is a general history of piracy in the Caribbean. Many famous pirates get only brief mentions or no mention at all, but the picture of piracy in general and how it operated, flourished and eventually withered is brightly painted by the author. In particular the grubby truth behind the actions of so many characters gives a great feeling of realism which some histories can gloss over, making this book one of the better ones at depicting all the characters as flawed if sometimes great personalities.

The reading is very well done, and since I can fault neither the book nor how it was produced it only remains to say this is well worthy of its five stars and a little of your time.

Swashbuckling in the real world

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I very much enjoyed this book which gave me a lot of information in a great narrative and lots of investigation afterwards

interesting and insightful story, well read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loving it so far. Very interesting and narration is good. Morgan is a fascinating character.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant narrating and a highly gripping account make for an audioboook not to be missed!!! Definitely recommended. 😁

Fantastic!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews