“Pirates, Privateers, and the U.S. Navy” by Dr. Mark Hopkins is now available for purchase

“I have had three great loves in my life. Two were my wonderful wives, Keziah and Aimee, who gave me five children to love. The third was the love affair I have had with the sea since I ventured onto the deck of the British ship Friendship when I was only thirteen years of age.”
– an excerpt from the book
Author Reputation Press is honored to publish “Pirates, Privateers, and the U.S. Navy” by Dr. Mark Hopkins. The author has written other books such as Journey to Gettysburg, The Wounds of War, Talon’s Ridge, Chicago’s 9/11, The World as It Was When Jesus Came, On the Road with Paul the Apostle, and Facts & Opinions of the Issues of Our Time, Books I, II, & III.
This is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARP website.
The author, born in Missouri and a long-time resident of South Carolina, Dr. Mark L. Hopkins, is a midwesterner by birth and a Southerner by choice. He holds three degrees from Missouri universities. He taught history for several years and is past president of four colleges, one each in the states of Iowa, Illinois, South Carolina, and California. Dr. Hopkins writes a weekly column that is syndicated by GateHouse Media and is regularly published across thirty-seven states and in more than five hundred newspapers. Dr. Hopkins’s wife, Ruth, is a professional artist. They have three grown children and six grandchildren.
Writing this book was a labor of love for Dr. Hopkins. As one can tell from the history of the birth of the U.S. Navy, the Hopkins family played a role almost from the beginning, with Stephen Hopkins chairing the first Navy Committee of the Continental Congress and Esek Hopkins being the first commodore of the naval forces. The 20th and 21st-century Hopkins family also contributed to U.S. Naval history, with an uncle, a brother, and a nephew all serving during both war and peacetime.
Dr. Hopkins is semi-retired in South Carolina. He continues to write on a daily basis and often speaks to civic clubs and seniors’ groups. Dr. Hopkins can be reached by email at Marklhopkins@yahoo.com.
“Pirates, Privateers, and the U.S. Navy” has two elements. First, how events in history shape lives just as individuals often shape history. Second, relationships with others are what provide the supreme pleasure in life. Life doesn’t revolve around money, accomplishments, or things. People we love and who love us make the world go around.
The primary problem for the American Colonies in their quest to win independence from Great Britain was not the British Army, though it was formidable. Instead, it was about how to deal with the overwhelming might of the British Navy.
The Continental Congress had no ships and no taxing authority to fund the creation of a navy in 1775. The first U.S. Navy was a combination of the few merchant ships Congress was able to acquire and a large number of privateers who joined the cause of independence.
The privateers were privately owned and operated by individuals and businesses. By the end of the war, there were more than 2000 of them. The British called them pirates. From the Boston Tea Party to the battle of the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard with the British man-of-war, the H.M.S. Serapis, this is their story.
“Pirates, Privateers, and the U.S. Navy” by Dr. Mark Hopkins is now available for purchase via ARP Bookstore: https://authorreputationpress.com/products/pirates-privateers-and-the-u-s-navy.