Although born in Aberdeen, Scotland, he was raised on the Orkney Islands. In 1978, at the age of 18 he left to join the Royal Navy. He received a scholarship to the Royal Navy College in Dartmouth, and went on to study history at Aberdeen University. After receiving a degree, he returned to the Royal Navy and spent a year at sea, during which, he visited many places that would later be written about in his naval books including the Caribbean. He also gained important knowledge of military service, customs, seamanship and navigation during this time. He then studied for a master's degree at the University of St. Andrews. During this time, he explored the new field of maritime archaeology and wrote his thesis on early naval artillery. Two decades later this formed the basis for Sovereigns of the Sea, his history of Renaissance warships.
Career
England
He left the navy in 1983, and the following year he began a Master of Letters in Maritime Studies at St. Andrews University, a course which combined history with maritime archaeology. After completing his Masters thesis on Renaissance Naval Artillery, he found a job in 1985 as a supervisor on an excavation in the River Thames near the Tower of London, paid for by the Royal Armouries. While he was working in the Royal Armouries, The Tower and the Kremlin decided to swap exhibits – a "Treasures of the Tower" being shown in Moscow while "Treasures of the Kremlin" came to London. At the same time the curators of both museums were encouraged to exchange information, and to examine each other's collections. This ended up with Konstam studying the 18th centuryRussian military. A mutual colleague introduced him to a historian working for Osprey Publishing, who turned out to want someone to write a book about Peter the Great's Army. The result was two small books which first appeared in 1993 – the first easily accessible account of the foundation of the Russian army to appear in English.
United States
Konstam moved to Key West, Florida in 1995 and became the Chief Curator in the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum. Mel Fisher was a treasure hunter who found the wreck of the Spanish treasure galleonNuestra Señora de Atocha off the Florida Keys. One of his jobs during this time was to create traveling exhibits which toured the United States. During the research for a pirate exhibition, he gained an increasing interest in the subject of 18th centurypiracy. He spent six years in Key West and wrote several more books, including The History of Pirates , which went on to sell over 70,000 copies. As he gained more information through his research, he produced Piracy: The Complete History, and then, to reach a wider audience, The World Atlas of Pirates .
Present
He returned to Britain in early 2001, and now resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. He continues to write about naval and general history subjects. His favorite subject is the historical period of the 16th and 17th centuries. He currently has over 70 books in print and is on the board of The Society of Authors in Scotland and board of Publishing Scotland. Konstam has also been a "talking head" on many cable TV shows.
