Pirate Latitudes by Micheal Crichton, published a year after his death, is a romp. It is full of swashbuckling action and completely familiar characters. There is a bold captain, who is either a privateer or a pirate; several fair and comely maidens of high birth and low; and a band of adventurers each with special skills and powers.
The rough and tumble hero, Captain Charles Hunter, sets off to capture a Spanish galleon laden with treasure, at anchor under the guns of an impregnable fortress.
He recruits for the mission a French assassin, named appropriately Sanson; a huge mute black man named Bassa but called the Moor; a powder and explosives expert, Don Diego, known either as Black Eye, or the Jew; and a woman, Lazue, who lives and dresses as a man and who happens to have uniquely keen eyesight as well as built in advantage in a knife fight when she flashes her womanly breasts to confuse her opponent. Then there is Enders, a barber/surgeon who is also a skilled helmsman. Crichton insists on calling Enders “the sea artist” repeatedly, referring to his abilities at the helm which border apparently on the magical.
They will do battle with the horribly villainous Captain Cazalla, the Spanish commander of the fortress and an accompanying warship. Along the way the group picks up Lady Sarah Almont, the niece of the English Governor of Jamaica, who Cazalla has previously captured and ravished. Lady Sarah also happens to be a vegetarian and a witch. And just so that every base is covered Crichton even includes a Kraken, the mythological sea beast which made an appearance in the last two Disney Pirates of the Caribbean movies and will soon be making an encore in the upcoming movie, Clash of the Titans.
Crichton uses every trick and ploy to keep the plot moving. The band of privateers is captured, then escapes, succeeds in capturing the galleon and rescuing the Governor’s niece, only to be chased by a Spanish warship. There is a sea battle, a hurricane, brushes with cannibals and the Kraken, as well as betrayals, murder, lusty wenches and some sex.
Admirers of nautical fiction will either be amused or irritated by Crichton’s descriptions of ships and sailing. He is often merely vague, which is a safe approach. Otherwise he confuses reefing with furling. The treasure ship starts out as a nao and becomes a galleon. While described as tubby and slow, the galleon travels at speeds that would not displease a clipper ship captain. At one key point in the plot Captain Hunter has all the guns on the galleon moved to the same side so he can fire them all at once. How this would work without corresponding gun ports is not clear. But then really who cares about accuracy when you have a Kraken?
What sort of novel is Pirate Latitudes? It is a pot boiler, pulp fiction, and a fine book for the beach. The characters are all from central casting and the plot is reminiscent of many other books and movies. When the villain rasps “my mistress shall dine on your testicles,” I wasn’t sure whether to laugh, groan or just put the book down and walk away. But I kept reading.
Pirate Latitudes is not a good book, nor is it a terribly bad book, nor is it so bad that it is good. It is the sort of book that you pick at the airport, read quickly while on a long flight and don’t care if you accidentally leave it on the plane.
A movie of the novel, to be directed by Steven Spielberg, is under development. Of course.