Gloucester author Shawn A. Lawson has written a new book, “Knight of the Black Flag,” about Blackbeard, the pirate who roamed the seas in the early days of the American colonies out of his home port in Bath County, North Carolina. He will launch the novel with a book signing from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at Gloucester Arts on Main.

Names and real events were pulled from Colonial American deed books of Bath County from 1702-1718 and blended with “a wildly entertaining tale that will leave the reader wanting more,” a release stated.

Merchant sea captain James Beard and his young son Edward are followed from the siege of St. Augustine to initial contact with Caribbean privateers under the notorious Captain Charles Vane, spurring their own decision to pursue a career in privateering aboard their ship, the Emmeline.

The book tells of a life on the high seas during Queen Anne’s War, followed by a search for a sunken Spanish treasure ship amidst an ocean f...