Based on a true story, The Pirate Rebel is a tale of adventure first and foremost with fascinating history well-integrated into the story.

We first meet Ned Jordan in Ireland in 1797 where he is training young men to fight in the planned rebellion against the English. He is captured and faces execution for treason, but is pardoned in exchange for providing information about other rebel agitators. Subsequently, Jordan and his wife Margaret leave Ireland and attempt to begin a new life in North America. They settle in Halifax and build a fishing schooner, Three Sisters, which he desperately hopes will provide him and his growing family with an income.
Interspersed with Jordan's story are several episodes in the life of John Stairs, the young Haligonian merchant captain who, in the summer of 1809, is hired by the Tremaines to sail Three Sisters to Gaspé to pick up a load of cod promised them as payment by Jordan.

Finding not enough fish to cover the debt, Stairs seizes the schooner in the name of Jordan's creditors, but on the return voyage to Halifax, a desperate Jordan shoots at Stairs, who is then forced to jump overboard. Miraculously, an unconscious Stairs is picked up by a passing American fishing schooner and brought to Boston where he alerts authorities that Jordan is at large. Three Sisters is found near Newfoundland and Jordan and his wife are arrested and brought to Halifax for trial. Jordan is found guilty of piracy and is hanged in November 1809, his body gibbeted and suspended at Black Rock Beach.

The Pirate Rebel is an exciting account of a nefarious pirate who sailed Nova Scotia's waters.

Depending on the season, Elizabeth Peirce is a writer, gardener, and English professor. She has worked in vegetable gardens since she was old enough to hold a watering can and is passionate about local food and food security issues. She is the author of several books, including Grow Organic: A Simple Guide to Nova Scotia Vegetable Gardening, and is the editor of In the Great Days of Sail. She lives in Halifax.

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