`The Pirate Ship, 1660 - 1730':

This book's strong points are the full color illustrations, and its strait to the point nature. For a book with 45 pages of content, this book does a fine job of detailing the often obscure nature of the pirate vessel, and includes anecdotes about the various captains who commandeered them. Of primary interest (as with 'Osprey' titles in general) are the original full color plates - here are the flagships of five famous pirates of the golden era, including a 2-page cut-away illustration of 'Queen Anne's Revenge', Blackbeards 40-gun man-o-war.

Other books are longer and go into much greater detail on the pirates themselves; this book focuses on their ships. It is well worth the $10-12 cost for the 7 original illustrations alone.

I would give it 5 stars if it included more of Tony Bryan's excellent artwork.

I found the book to be a solid resource in coming to understand the complex and sometimes contradictory world of marine architecture. The color illistrations were excellent even when the period reproductions were unclear. It was clearly written and easily understandable.

Overall the Pirate ship was excellent and my grandson loves it.

However, in assembly, although relatively easy, the directions were vague. There were mostly pictures and arrows. The installation of the "collapsing mast" caused the most problems. It was unclear how the mast was to fit on the release lever. It turns out that there is a slot that the mast fits into but this is not clearly depicted.

THE PIRATE SHIP 1660-1730 by Angus Konstam is an interesting little book (48 pages total), which has some very nice illustrations of 16th/17th century pirate ships, including a cross-section of the inside of a ship.

What you should expect to find in this book ... Topics include the design, origins, and conversion of pirate ships; small vessels and pirate flagships; and the pirate ship in action. The narration is easy to read and nicely detailed, and of course the main subject of the book is the pirate ship itself. One of my favorite passages was the real-life entry of a pirate-attack survivor, who talked about how his merchant ship engaged in bloody combat with pirates while (shockingly) two other merchant ships looked on, doing nothing to help.

What you won't find in this book ... I knew this book wasn't about the pirates themselves, as there are other books in this series written by this author that exclusively discuss pirates (or buccaneers). What I HAD hoped for, and didn't find, was a discussion about what living in a pirate ship was like (where did they eat, sleep, use the restroom, etc.?). As a side note, the closest I've ever come to seeing what life aboard a pirate ship might have been like was visiting the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, which has a restored 17th century warship and includes a display on life inside the ship. It's a neat museum.

Anyway, this was a good little book for those interested in pirate ships. A recent pirate book I read and highly recommend is UNDER THE BLACK FLAG, which was rather entertaining for non-fiction.

Hardly worth obtaining. Most of the information in here can be found elsewhere. But makes a good companion for the author's book on pirates by the same publisher.