So many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this new work. This brilliant new piece of history should not be missed. This is the amazing story of James Cathcart. I had not previously heard of this story. This is an important tale. It is a wonderfully written and incredibly informative. There is so much history packed into this book. If this was fiction, it would hard to believe. Many thanks to the author for bringing this story to us now. This was my first by Mr. Ekin, surely will not be my last. This is recommended highly for any history and naval enthusiasts.

Long before Alexander Hamilton created the Coast Guard James Lender Cathcart was is a merchant seaman for America. We were trying to create a solid international trading of products an 18-year-old James was helping do that but unfortunately he was kidnapped by pirates and made a slave in Algiers. He lived there for many years and despite being a slave made a good life for himself and he was like to buy mini. That’s why when the Pirates broke a peace treaty and started kidnapping semen again they allowed James to go back to America with a missive for the president. He sailed back on his own boat but the most miraculous thing is he went back to Algiers because he wasn’t a “free“ man yet. This book was so good I enjoyed James story and the other stories the author added to the book I felt so sorry for the American slave who was freed in New York became a merchant marine and was kidnapped and made a slave again MLG is talk about bad luck. I knew about this story but didn’t know the actual details and I’m so glad I got to read it this was such a great book and it reads more like fiction then I stale nonfiction read. I loved it and give it five stars in it deserves everyone of them. I received this book from NetGalley and a publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

If you thought your day job was bad, wait until you read about poor James Leander Cathcart. The Lionkeeper of Algiers by Des Ekin tells the story of Cathcart and his ship which are captured by Algerian pirates in 1785. It turns out, being from a brand new country with no navy means you are a prime target for pirates. The piracy part is actually the most pleasant part of the experience.

Cathcart is an ideal person to follow in this story as he cleverly finds his way out of more and more dangerous situations. He even ends up owning multiple bars in Algiers somehow and rises to the highest post possible for a Christian in the country. Ekin also tells the story of all the American crews taken by pirates in this time period. It is probably evident not all of them fare as well as Cathcart.

This book is very good in a lot of ways. It is a look into a very neglected time period in U.S. history to say nothing of the fact that Mediterranean pirates are often only a footnote in history class. I learned a lot about the inner workings of these statelets and how they survived on the labor of prisoners. It was not a great place to be.

The narrative does wander a bit too much. I would have liked if the spotlight stayed on Cathcart more and dug in deeper. I understand there is only so much documentation, but the book both felt short but padded at times. It's still worth grabbing a copy as its an easy read and very informative.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield.)

A centuries-old grudge had settled into “politics of plunder” between Europe and the Barbary States as their corsairs seized European ships for spoils and hostages and Europe retaliated in kind. By the late 1700s, powerful European nations were reduced to paying tribute to the dey of Algiers in what Ekin calls an established protection racket. With its independence, America lost the protection Britain purchased annually with its tribute to Algiers, and in July 1785 the Boston schooner Maria was captured with twenty-one American citizens on board. America, a nation without a navy, so young its leaders were busy organizing and holding it together, responded with wonder that pirates from a tinpot state had targeted their ships.

Although Congress had earlier allocated funds for peace treaties with the Barbary States, Jefferson, Franklin, and John Adams could not agree on a strategy. Franklin, for one, didn’t think the freedom to trade in the Mediterranean was worth paying for. Jefferson proposed war, but as time passed, he hoped for a sale on the going price of ransom. These men and the bureaucracy that surrounded them would bungle one attempt after the other, and petitions to Congress and letters to the Ambassador brought only disappointment and hopelessness. The imprisoned and enslaved men were sentenced to lives so wretched and miserable it was beyond their expression “and your conception,” they pleaded in their letters.

These men slept in vermin-infested prisons, suffered through waves of plague, worked under grueling conditions in the blistering sun, their bodies damaged, their minds near broken from daily psychological torture. The delays and bureaucratic incompetence that kept these men in a living hell for over ten years might be excused of a nation newly forming if it were not such a familiar tale two hundred years later.

But there is hope in this story and his name is John Cathcart, a man who is almost forgotten to history. He is a heroic figure who played a pivotal role in keeping his American shipmates alive during this interminably long period of suffering and in helping negotiate their release. His intelligence, curiosity, and personal charm aided him as he worked his way up the ladder of the enslaved where one misstep, one turn of the dey’s mood, would cost him his life. Some will resent his luck, though he had engineered it by being observant, studious, and wily, refusing to compromise his values and his commitment to his country. This book will introduce readers to this bold and daring young man who is a model of perseverance and hope.

It is amazing how remarkable people fall through the cracks of history. This story flushes out an important section of not only American History, but World History. I find myself constantly in awe of what our ancestors went through. I will say that this is not a book to be read if you are interested in Lions or Lion keeping. There are no thrilling zoological events. The title is very misleading. Yes, he worked at the Palace Zoo, but briefly. In fact, if you take all the mentions of Lions in this book I doubt it will take up two whole pages. Cathcart working with Lions is a minor blip in the larger story and ultimately irrelevant beyond him having a cushier job than some of the other captives at first.