Pirates and
Privateers The History of Maritime Piracy
Cindy Vallar, Editor & Reviewer
P.O. Box 425, Keller, TX 76244-0425
Pirates and
Privateers Cindy Vallar, Editor & Reviewer
P.O. Box 425, Keller, TX 76244-0425
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Sea Yarns
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DessertsOne popular quotation long associated with Bartholomew Roberts is “a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto.” The more I learned about Stede Bonnet, the more I felt that he would disagree with this sentiment. Little about his three decades of life fell within the category of being “merry,” and with an average life expectancy of thirty-five in colonial America, his wasn’t destined to be short. Three other quotations seem more apropos. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. Common sense is not so common. We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature. These come from François-Marie Arouet, more commonly known as Voltaire. While individuals may be willing to forgive follies and foibles, the law isn’t always so amenable. Laws are enacted and enforced so that those deemed guilty get what they deserve, regardless of how repentant they may be. |
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Being a Pirate
The Crew of a Pirate Ship
Published 4 April 2005
Pirates required a ship to practice their trade. While they dispensed with many of the traditional seafaring hierarchies, they understood the need to have some members lead them in battle. They elected their officers, and certain pirates had a greater value than others because of their skills. Who were the officers aboard a pirate ship and what were their duties? Whose skills were most prized? What happened if pirates disagreed with the captain?
Friends and Enemies
Published 5 May 2005 and 9 July 2005
Pirates didn’t live or work in a vacuum. They required others to fence the stolen booty or to prey upon. The outrages they committed stirred merchants, ministers, and governments to see that justice was done. The pirates also visited safe havens where women and spirits awaited them. Informants shared their knowledge. Governors authorized hunting expeditions. Hunters tracked down their quarry. Victims testified at trials. Once caught, most pirates met a similar fate -- dancing the hempen jig. Come and meet the friends and enemies of the pirates.
Making Your Mark
Published 1 June 2000
Pirates were notorious for their lawlessness and brutality. Yet they adhered to the ideals of the French Revolution-liberty, equality, and brotherhood-a century before that country's monarchy fell. Their Articles of Agreement set them apart from other naval and governmental institutions of the time because they incorporated principles of democracy.
Medicine at Sea
Published 1 August - 1 October 2007
December 10th…. In the afternoon of this day our chief surgeon cut off the foot of a negro-boy, which was perished with cold…. December 12th…Yesterday died the negro-boy whose leg was cut off by our surgeon, as was mentioned the day before. This afternoon also died another negro, somewhat bigger than the former, named Chepillo. The boy’s name was Beafero. All this evening but small wind.Basil Ringrose penned these words in his journal in 1680. Mere notes in history, his entries provide a glimpse of the tenuous lives pirates lived. If they survived diseases (the principal cause of death for many), they might develop a “bursted belly” (hernia) from lifting and pulling, or break a finger or arm while loading cargo, or fall from a mast, or burn a hand while tarring ropes, or be washed overboard. An additional danger for pirates was the chance of being wounded or killed during battle. This was why one of the most esteemed members of any crew was the surgeon. But his work was rarely easy. This article examines medicine at sea during the Age of Sail.
A Most Unwelcome Death
Published 1 June 2001
Hollywood’s depiction of a castaway on a deserted island is a far cry from the reality of a pirate sentenced by his fellow mates to be marooned. In most cases it was a death sentence.Oh to be a Pirate
Published 1 July and 1 August 2001
Sand sifting through an hourglass symbolizes the swiftness with which time passes. For pirates, it meant life was fleeting so they played with the same ferocity as they preyed. Yet the dangers they faced were not so different from those of others who sailed during the Age of Sail. The beauty of the sea belied the danger it possessed, for in the blink of an eye a ship became a wreck or a storm swept the ablest of seamen from the deck. If by chance they survived those perils, they might fall victim to disease. If life at sea was so dangerous, why did men become pirates? Was it the lure of treasure or were there other reasons for making a choice that might lead to death by hanging if caught?
Pirate Conning
Published 17 May 2010 and 4 July 2010
Figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B isn’t a major concern for us today. After all, we have road maps, online maps with step-by-step instructions, cell phones, and GPS devices for when we’re lost. We have it easy compared to navigators of the past. Many didn’t even know there was a world beyond the horizon. Intrepid mariners discovered new lands and forged new passages, but navigating their vessels to go where they wished was a major feat. Various devices aided in latitudinal calculation, as did estimates regarding tides, currents, and ship’s speed and course. The inability to determine longitude meant many ships were not where their captains, or navigators, thought they were. It was common to miss an island or landfall by going too far or not far enough. Such an error could seriously endanger the ship and those on board.
A Pirate Lexicon
Published 10 May 2012
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a lexicon several ways, and the meaning that most pertains to this article is “the vocabulary of some department of knowledge or sphere of activity; the vocabulary or wordstock of a region, a particular speaker, etc. Also, a list of words or names.” (1589) Talking like a pirate has gained popularity ever since Ol’ Chumbucket (also known as John Baur) and Cap’n Slappy (also known as Mark Summers) christened September 19th as International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Pirate Lingo
Published 1 September 2005
Ten years ago, John Baur and Mark Summers created a new holiday. It didn’t amount to much until Dave Barry wrote a column in 2002 that introduced readers to International Talk Like a Pirate Day! To help pirates everywhere celebrate this special day, this article explores words associated with pirates.
Pirate Tactics
Published 1 August 2006
Planning, intelligence, the ability to adapt to any given situation, leadership, and teamwork are key to the success of any action. If any one of these is lacking, the action may be jeopardized and the consequences unpredictable. Pirates incorporated these elements into each attack or raid they made. This article examines the various strategies and tactics they employed to carry out successful missions.
Pirates and Death
Published 26 July - 20 December 2014
A perusal of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions for “death.” In its simplest form it is “the act or fact of dying; the end of life; the final and irreversible cessation of the vital functions of an animal or plant.” Yet death is more complicated than that, for one’s demise may be quiet and peaceful, or brutal and cruel. How one dies is far more telling, because it provides those still alive with clues to the final moments of how that person expired. Was it a simple exhalation of one’s last breath, or was the person assassinated, beheaded, crucified, hanged, massacred, shot, or slaughtered? Pirates encountered death in a variety of ways, but they also snuffed out the lives of others. They viewed death differently than most, because reality had shown them life was short and rarely sweet. This article explores pirates’ encounters with death, both as instigators and victims of the Grim Reaper.
Pirates and Music
Published 18 September 2013
Early ballads included songs about infamous pirates, such as John Ward and Blackbeard, and historical accounts mention musicians and their instruments. This article explores the connection between music and piracy.
Pirates and Sea Shanties
Published 19 August 2013
Sea shanties are often associated with pirates, but did they really sing these work songs aboard their pirate ships?
Pirates and Their Clothes
Published May-June 2008
One of the most frequently asked questions I hear is, “What did pirates wear?” It seems like a straightforward question, but it’s not. Clothes change as time passes. What’s in fashion one day may be out of fashion the next. The further back in time one looks, the more stringent the rules regarding clothes become. The basic outfit worn by all mariners didn’t change much over the centuries when wooden ships with billowing sails ventured farther and farther from their homelands. Pirate clothes, like the rogues themselves, broke societal boundaries and deviated from the norm.
A Pirates' Arsenal of Torture
Published 6 November 2010
Nestled among the books on my library shelves is John Swain’s The Pleasures of the Torture Chamber. It details a variety of ways to inflict pain on someone from “miscellaneous merriments of the olden times” to pain we inflict upon ourselves. Each of us may have a different viewpoint of what constitutes torture and what does not. For example, some former students likened my silent detentions to the most excruciating form of torture they ever endured. Many pirates experienced or witnessed various forms of torture at some point in their lives before going on the account, and just as law-abiding citizens tortured people, so did pirates.
'Polishing the King's Iron with Your Eyebrows'
Published 18 November 2017 - 20 April 2018
You might frown or scratch your head at reading this title, but if you lived two centuries ago and looked at the world from behind a window with iron grates, you understood. This gibberish was actually a "secret" language known to a select few. Becoming familiar with such cant (or jargon) meant you had literally and figuratively paid the cost of admission. How? By not paying your debts or by violating the law. Many pirates eluded justice; others did not. Pirate histories often mention such facts, but focus on their trials and executions. They skip over the interim between capture and death. Venture back in time, if you dare, and discover what you would have faced had you been incarcerated during the era of the buccaneers and the "golden age" of pirates.
Punishing Their Own and Hunting Prey
Published 1 May 2003
Although often seen as lawless, pirates sailed under agreements that included methods of punishment should they disregard the oaths they signed. They also inflicted various forms of punishment and torture on their victims. Some of these accounts appear brutal in the extreme, but people of the past lived in a harsh and violent world. Torturing and maiming people to extract information was a common practice, perhaps best illustrated by the Spanish Inquisition. Men and women who refused to enter a plea in English courts found themselves stretched on their backs in Newgate Prison’s Press Yard where the jailer placed weights on their chests until they acquiesced. If they didn’t, they were crushed to death. (WARNING: This article contains graphic accounts of violence.)
To Capture Prey and Plunder It
Published 1 October 2002
Once pirates had a ship, they sailed the High Seas in search of prey. How did they capture another ship? How did they defend themselves? What did they search for once they boarded that ship?
When is a Pirate not a Pirate?
Published 1 April 2000
How many different synonyms can you think of for pirate? Buccaneer, corsair, marooner, swashbuckler. These are just a few, but do they really mean the same thing as pirate?
Published 20 September 2009
Considered one of the oldest professions, piracy began soon after people first used water to carry trade goods from one place to another. Historians can’t pinpoint this to a precise period in time, but the earliest known records appeared in the fourteenth century BCE. This article explores these early pirates in general, then focuses on Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
Baltimore, Ireland 20 June 1630
Published 15 March - 20 May 2014
The influx of European pirates to the north coast of Africa in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries brought not only men to swell the ranks of Barbary pirates, but also “round ships”. The rounded hulls made these merchant vessels more seaworthy and better able to traverse great distances than the traditional galleys the Barbary pirates favored. These men soon adopted the round ships into their fleets, and the more daring of the Barbary reis (captains) ventured farther afield in their pursuit of plunder. This article recounts one such journey.
Between Two Piracies
Published 22 May - 19 July 2021
Too many variables led to England's failure to bring Henry Every to justice. Successfully prosecuting only twenty-four out of 170 pirates -- none of whom had the same stature as their captain -- failed to impress Emperor Aurangzeb or the East India Company. As far as the latter was concerned, pirates became their nemesis, and if swift action wasn't taken, their factories in India would be shuttered and they would become insolvent and no longer viable. The government, however, was unwilling to grant them special powers to arrest and try the pirates in Company admiralty courts. Instead, ships of the Royal Navy were sent to dissuade the scoundrels. Still, the marauding continued.Blackbeard's Pirates in Williamsburg by Guest Columnist Robert Jacob
Published 20 July 2024 - 19 August 2024
Blackbeard and eleven of his crew were killed during a fierce battle with two sloops of the British Royal Navy at Ocracoke on 22 November 1718. Afterward, fifteen suspected pirates were arrested and taken to Williamsburg to stand trial for piracy. The ultimate fate of those men has been incorrectly described in books and articles, and these inaccurate depictions continue to be recreated and retold at historical sites and museums. The commonly accepted belief is that all but two of those pirates were executed at Williamsburg. The only source for this version of the pirates’ fate is a book written in 1724. However, when examining the written records of the arresting naval officers and government officials such as Lieutenant Governor Spotswood and Anthony Cracherode, a completely different outcome emerges.
Buccaneers, Zeerovers, and West India Companies
Published 20 May - 20 July 2020
Commerce was always a facet of each trading company that Europeans established. Exploration and territorial expansion were other goals. The West India companies, especially the Dutch, possessed another objective that was an integral component of their entities -- privateering.Captives of the Barbary States
In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter Caetera, a papal bull that decreed a specific meridian designated the lands west of this line of longitude belonged to either Spain or Portugal. The Treaty of Tordesillas formalized this invisible demarcation the following year. The problem was that neither the pope nor the treaty gave any consideration to all the other European States that also wanted their fair share of these undiscovered lands known collectively as the "New World."
Spain and Portugal frowned upon intruders who wished to stake their own claims or to steal what belonged to these two realms. As a result, subsequent treaties pertained to peace among regions east and north of that line -- basically Europe. To the west of that line of longitude, all remained fair in love and war. Into this arena came West India companies, buccaneers (or privateers, if you prefer), and zeerovers, who preyed on Spanish and Portuguese settlements and ships. This meant a perpetual state of war existed in the Caribbean Sea and South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans -- conflict that was often substantiated as "No peace beyond the line."
Published 1 October 2004
While we abhor slavery, it was a common practice during the Middle Ages in Byzantium, Middle Eastern lands Crusaders held, Slavic and Balkan regions, and along the Mediterranean coasts of France, Italy, and Spain. The majority of accounts from former Barbary slaves come from men. Only a few are from women, and of those that survive none appear to be authentic.
Captured by Pirates
Published 21 October 2021
As the eighteenth century progressed, the East India Company continued its trade with India in spite of a decline in cotton products. Their product focus shifted to tea from China -- a trade that became irrevocably intertwined with opium and would precipitate two wars between England and China during the nineteenth century. Western pirates faded from eastern seas as the golden age came to an end around 1730. But others lurked in the wings to take their place, as a young Company officer learned to his chagrin soon after the turn of the century.
Cotton Mather, Preacher to the Pirates
Published 5 October - 5 November 2008 and 5 January - 5 February 2009
Several years ago, I read Marcus Rediker’s Villains of All Nations. Imagine my surprise when I came across the Reverend Cotton Mather’s name in the first paragraph. Not once in any history classes did my teachers mention pirates while speaking about this New England Puritan! What else had my instructors omitted about this man, who preached to and about pirates?
The Golden Age of Piracy
Published 1 March and 1 April 2003
For forty years from around 1690 until 1730, the most famous pirates sailed the High Seas. Writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson and J. M. Barrie, painters like Howard Pyle, and Hollywood in films like Captain Blood made these pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy immortal. They, themselves, were legends in their own time. While Blackbeard was perhaps the most notorious of the pirates of the Golden Age, he wasn’t the only pirate whose name has survived. Among those recorded in the annals of history are women and gentlemen who chose to follow a different calling than the one society deemed appropriate.
Henry Every and the East India Company
Published 21 March 2021
England's East India Company complained about pirate-infested Madagascar in 1706. According to his Review of the State of the British Nation, Daniel Defoe feared the pirates might "form a Nation, a State, at War with all the World" and urged the government to nip that possibility in the bud. Such fears weren't new. Two prior major incidents had already shown the EIC just how dangerous these sea marauders were to its future on the subcontinent of India. The first of these caused a media sensation and made one man a legend in his own time. His name was Henry Every.
í víking – Norse who went plundering and Q & A
Published 1 July and 1 August 2003
With names like Ivar the Boneless, Eric Bloodaxe, and Thorfinn Skullsplitter, the Norse raided far and wide, instilling fear in their victims and plundering lands where many eventually settled. Who were these pirates and what did it mean to go í víking? Why did the litany A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domini – From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord – sum up the terror their victims felt? The Q&A answers the following questions: What are the origins of the word "viking?" Why did the Norse plunder? What did they wear? What weapons did they favor? Are the written accounts of their raids accurate? How did they impact history? Did women become pirates?
In the Aftermath of Kidd
20 August and 18 September 2021
Although Kidd was dead, the East India Company wasn’t finished with him. His attack did offer a respite for some pirates if they were willing to give up their criminal pursuits. As the sands of time shifted, so did public opinion about pirates. But pirates continued to prowl for victims in the Indian Ocean as one Company man soon discovered.The Lure of Exotic Treasure: Piracy and the East India Companies
Published 20 January 2021
East and West were linked long before Marco Polo set out on his travels in the thirteenth century. Commodities from Asia traveled trade networks known as the Silk Road and the Spice Routes, winding their way over thousands of miles and changing hands multiple times. Each middleman added to the initial cost of the products until only wealthy and powerful Europeans could afford them. That changed in the fifteenth century when the Portuguese began exploring the world in ships. On 9 September 1499, Vasco da Gama and fifty-five of his original crew of 170 men returned home to Lisbon after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to the Malabar Coast in India and back again. Rather than depending on many middlemen, enterprising merchants in many different countries established chartered trading companies that possessed the sole right to buy and sell these luxuries. Such treasures, traveling by sea, tempted a new host of marauders. This is the story of the East India companies and their nemeses . . . pirates.The Jolly Roger and No Quarter Given
Published 1 May 2001
When asked about the flag most commonly associated with pirates, most people will describe a white skull and crossbones on a black field. The Jolly Roger wasn't the only flag pirates used, but the sight of it made seamen tremble. The most feared of the pirate flags, though, was the red flag, the jolie rouge, for it meant death to all.
Medieval Pirates
Published 6 January 2010
In CE 829 a Frankish monk named Ansgar set sail for Sweden, where he wished to introduce the Swedes to Christianity. His was a dangerous journey, in part because pirates attacked the vessel on which he sailed. After boarding the boat, they seized his precious books and religious artifacts before forcing Ansgar and his companions to abandon the vessel. This incident was but a single example of many such attacks that plagued medieval times.
Mother Nature, Pirates, & Dangers at Sea
Published 21 March 2016
“Shipwreck Day Setting Sail,” read the headline in a California newspaper in October 2015. A seemingly innocuous way to celebrate pirates . . . unless you’re a seaman or you know one. It’s upsetting to anyone whose life has been touched by a tragedy at sea, such as a shipwreck. One need only look to the stories about El Faro, which sank with all hands that same month. For myself, that day first came in 1967 when we learned of the explosion and fire aboard the USS Forrestal. My dad’s friend was a doctor on the aircraft carrier. While visiting my grandparents in 1986, tragedy struck again when a freak squall sank the Pride of Baltimore. I didn’t know Captain Elsaesser or the three members of the crew who lost their lives that day, but I lived in Baltimore at the time and was proud of our Goodwill Ambassador. Dangers are an inevitable risk for anyone who ventures onto the sea, including pirates.
The Nearly Forgotten Adventures of Sam Bellamy by Guest Columnist Laura Nelson
Published 22 August 2016
Sam Bellamy visits St. Croix and Virgin Gorda in 1717, where the pirates find destruction and create havoc.
Pirate Treasure
Published 1 March 2007
