Pirates
Pirates are extremely popular in literature and movies. Of course there’s the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but before that we had Errol Flynn, who swashbuckled his way into the hearts of an entire generation. He even made his way into Tom Smith’s song, “Talk Like a Pirate Day”—“And maybe we’ll never get closer than watching them on the big screen; so here’s to old Errol and Depp as Jack Sparrow and every damn one in between.”
Speaking of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we have an international holiday dedicated to speaking—and acting—like the pirates we all wish we could be. My college had three different pirate clubs while I was there. The pirate porn was at the time the highest budget and highest grossing porn ever made.
Pirates are in. They’re a timeless representation of a desire for freedom and equality. As Jack Sparrow said in the first PotC movie, “What a ship is—what the Black Pearl really is—is freedom.”
That kind of statement isn’t as historically inaccurate as one might assume. Pirate ships were some of the most democratic places of their time. Everything was voted upon, even who would be captain. The whole premise of PotC, that marooning Captain Jack Sparrow wasn’t right with the code, is flawed. On a real pirate ship, if enough of the crew were dissatisfied with their captain, they would simply vote him out of office and vote in a new captain. Then, to prevent power struggles, the former captain would be marooned along popular shipping lanes with enough additional shot and powder to hunt for food until another ship came by. The only time a captain had absolute power was during battle, at which time disobeying his orders was a capital offense; all other times the quartermaster actually held more power, because he was the one responsible for making sure everyone got paid. Crewmembers would come to the quartermaster to settle disputes.
Many pirate crews were too small to have a first mate, with the quartermaster filling that role. The boatswain, or bo’sun, would be in charge of relaying the orders of the captain and administering punishment where required. Other officer positions included doctor and gunner. Officers would get slightly more pay than non-officers, perhaps a share and a half rather than a single share of any prizes that were taken—a marked difference from most ships, where the crew were paid a pittance and the officers lived like kinds. From the codes of Edward Low and George Lowther: “The Captain is to have two full Shares; the Quartermaster is to have one Share and a Half; The Doctor, Mate, Gunner, and Boatswain, one Share and one Quarter.”
Additionally, not all pirates had the same code. Edward Low and George Lowther sailed together for a while, and likely copied off each other, or off a former code. But each ship had its own Articles of the Account. They typically shared common ideals—the sailors were not to interfere with “prudent women,” they had an equal say in the running of the ship, everyone got a share of the treasure—including the cabin boy and powder monkey (a child whose small size allowed him to maneuver through the ship during battle and deliver powder to the cannons), who often got half a share. There were provisions for payment in the case of injury, detailed down to which arm or hand was lost. Another common stipulation was that no fighting was allowed aboard ship. Any disputes would be taken to shore where they would be settled with pistol and sword. Like most duels, these were only to first blood, although they could prove fatal, especially if the wound got infected. Theft from a shipmate was a hanging offense; there was, indeed, honor among thieves, enforced at the end of a rope.
Pirate ships were diverse and egalitarian. Anne Bonny and Mary Read are the most famous female pirates from the Golden Age, but they were hardly the only ones. Many crewmembers were former slaves. When I was Teacher’s Assistant for an Early Caribbean History class in college, we watched The Curse of the Black Pearl for class, and the teacher remarked that one thing the movie got right was the diversity of the crew. Pirates didn’t care where you came from; they cared whether you did your share of the work.
Traditionally pirates had two flags—the black flag, from which we get “raise the black” and “under the black flag.” Early on these were simply black pieces of cloth; later each ship customized their own design, to strike fear into the hearts of their prey. They would nurture their reputation of brutality against those who crossed them in order to encourage ships to surrender without a fight. Blackbeard’s flag was a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand, the other hand holding a spear stabbing a heart. The skull and crossed swords from Pirates of the Caribbean belonged to Calico Jack Rackham, on whose ship also sailed Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The skull and crossbones was used by Black Sam Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor, and went on to become the most commonly used pirate flag during the 1720s. Most of these flags included skeletons and other fearsome images, but they didn’t have to. The point was to identify the attacking ship.
The second flag was red. Upon first getting in range of a ship, pirates would raise the black and fire a warning shot over the ship’s bow. The black flag indicated quarter would be given. If the captain decided to fight back, the pirates might lower the black and raise the red. The red flag meant no quarter. The entire crew would be slaughtered. This was a strategic move, to encourage other ships to surrender without a fight.
Upon taking over a ship, sometimes pirates would simply plunder it for its cargo—more often tea or silks that could be sold for a profit, rather than actual gold—and allow the captain and crew to go upon their way. Other times they would take the ship as well, and either add it to their fleet or use it as an upgrade from their previous accommodations. They would offer the crew of the captured ship the opportunity to sign on the account and become pirates themselves. If the crew included anyone with skills that the pirates needed, such as a doctor or navigator, they would threaten that individual with death if he refused to join their crew. That was how Black Bart Roberts became a pirate; he was on a ship that was attacked by pirates, and his skills as navigator were needed by the crew.
Pirates also had a form of gay marriage, known as matelotage. Matelots shared everything: property, prizes—even their bunk. Sometimes they would exchange rings. When one died, the other would get their share of the haul. Often they would share women as well, when they were in port and had access to prostitutes. Matelotage became such an issue in the seventeenth century that the French government shipped a bunch of prostitutes to Tortuga to try to combat it, only to have the matelots share the women with their partners rather than dissolve the union.
Another thing Pirates of the Caribbean got wrong was the presence of Port Royale in the film. The Black Pearl being the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean means the movie has to be set in the late 1720s at the earliest; corsets being the latest fashion in London indicates a time frame closer to the 1740s. Port Royale was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, after which the capital of Jamaica moved to Kingston. Before the earthquake, Port Royale was a haven for pirates, since the British government appreciated the way they preyed on the Spanish. Afterward, pirates moved their base of operation to Tortuga instead.
The Golden Age of Piracy can be roughly divided into three eras: the buccaneering period, c. 1650-1680; the pirate round, c. 1693-1700; and the post-Spanish succession period, c. 1716-1726.
The first buccaneers were French; they weren’t actually pirates, but rather hunters who would barbecue the meat on a grill called a boucan and sell it to passing ships. They later realized that simply stealing from the ships was more economical than trading from them. As the Spanish attempted to wipe out these boucaniers along with the prey animals they fed upon, they gradually shifted to full-time piracy. After capturing Jamaica in 1655, the English government granted letters of marque to these buccaneers to encourage them to prey upon Spanish ships.
After the earthquake that devastated Port Royale in 1692, pirates lost their main market for fenced goods. In addition much of the Spanish Main had been exhausted of plunder. Instead they turned their attention to India.
In 1713, the War of Spanish Succession was coming to an end, and a number of privateers were left without work. Rather than starve, many of them turned to piracy, the illegal version of what they had been legally doing for their government up until that point.
The excess of pirates encouraged governments to increase their navies. Many of the unemployed sailors who would have become pirates were now employed chasing them. With their safe havens closing down as the general population grew disillusioned with these adventurers of the seas, fewer and fewer people turned to piracy. Most of them headed for West Africa, seizing poorly defended slavers.
But that’s just Golden Age piracy. What about the Barbary pirates we fought at the beginning of the nineteenth century? Grace O’Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen? The pirates of ancient Greece and Rome?
I’m no expert on Barbary pirates; all I know about them is that they demanded protection money to keep from attacking ships from specific nations, and after the United States gained its independence from England our ships were no longer protected. Rather than pay the fee, we decided to attack the pirates directly, defeating them and ensuring our freedom of the seas. If you’re interested in writing about them, I encourage you to find books on the subject and do your research.
Grace O’Malley—or, more appropriately, Grania ní Mhaille—is my favorite historical character. She was the daughter of Black Oak O’Malley, Clan Chief of the O’Malleys, in the late sixteenth century. After her father’s death, the clan chieftainship passed to a distant cousin chosen by the English for his loyalty to the English throne. The clan basically fell apart, until Grania organized them as smugglers and pirates preying on the English. Queen Elizabeth was so impressed by Grania’s leadership that she invited her to tea.
Then there’s the Mediterranean. Piracy was quite common in ancient Greece. The country is a peninsula, which means that much of its trade comes through shipping, giving pirates ample opportunity to plunder ships. While studying ancient Greek novels, of which only five examples survive, my Classics professor remarked, “It’s a Greek novel, so it has to have a kidnap by pirates.” The Greeks had three different words for pirate: λειστης, (leistes) meaning bandit; πειρατης, (peirates) etymologically meaning one who attempts, from which we get the Latin pirata and thus the English pirate; and my favorite, καταποντιστης, (katapontistes) meaning one who throws people down into the sea.
Pirates were also a problem in Rome. Julius Caesar himself was once kidnapped and held for ransom. The pirates had their base in an island nestled amongst a number of identical islands, making it impossible to find. Caesar was offended by how low of a ransom the pirates were demanding for him and demanded they increase it. While waiting for the ransom to be paid, Caesar befriended the pirates, joking with them that once he was free, he would come back and crucify them all. They laughed, since there was no way he would be able to find them once he was released.
His servant returned with the ransom, and Caesar was freed. Shortly thereafter, he returned with several ships and arrested all the pirates. When they asked how he had found them, he replied that he had counted islands. The pirates were all crucified. All but the captain had their legs broken—a mercy, since it meant they would suffocate faster, and suffer less.
Hopefully this post helps give you a starting point for writing pirates in a historically accurate, or at least historically plausible, fashion. Below are some suggestions for further reading in order to broaden your knowledge on the subject.
Helpful references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_...
Morgan Llewellyn, She-King of the Irish Seas
David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag
George Choundas, The Pirate Primer
Jenifer Marx, Pirates and Privateers of the Caribbean
Speaking of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we have an international holiday dedicated to speaking—and acting—like the pirates we all wish we could be. My college had three different pirate clubs while I was there. The pirate porn was at the time the highest budget and highest grossing porn ever made.
Pirates are in. They’re a timeless representation of a desire for freedom and equality. As Jack Sparrow said in the first PotC movie, “What a ship is—what the Black Pearl really is—is freedom.”
That kind of statement isn’t as historically inaccurate as one might assume. Pirate ships were some of the most democratic places of their time. Everything was voted upon, even who would be captain. The whole premise of PotC, that marooning Captain Jack Sparrow wasn’t right with the code, is flawed. On a real pirate ship, if enough of the crew were dissatisfied with their captain, they would simply vote him out of office and vote in a new captain. Then, to prevent power struggles, the former captain would be marooned along popular shipping lanes with enough additional shot and powder to hunt for food until another ship came by. The only time a captain had absolute power was during battle, at which time disobeying his orders was a capital offense; all other times the quartermaster actually held more power, because he was the one responsible for making sure everyone got paid. Crewmembers would come to the quartermaster to settle disputes.
Many pirate crews were too small to have a first mate, with the quartermaster filling that role. The boatswain, or bo’sun, would be in charge of relaying the orders of the captain and administering punishment where required. Other officer positions included doctor and gunner. Officers would get slightly more pay than non-officers, perhaps a share and a half rather than a single share of any prizes that were taken—a marked difference from most ships, where the crew were paid a pittance and the officers lived like kinds. From the codes of Edward Low and George Lowther: “The Captain is to have two full Shares; the Quartermaster is to have one Share and a Half; The Doctor, Mate, Gunner, and Boatswain, one Share and one Quarter.”
Additionally, not all pirates had the same code. Edward Low and George Lowther sailed together for a while, and likely copied off each other, or off a former code. But each ship had its own Articles of the Account. They typically shared common ideals—the sailors were not to interfere with “prudent women,” they had an equal say in the running of the ship, everyone got a share of the treasure—including the cabin boy and powder monkey (a child whose small size allowed him to maneuver through the ship during battle and deliver powder to the cannons), who often got half a share. There were provisions for payment in the case of injury, detailed down to which arm or hand was lost. Another common stipulation was that no fighting was allowed aboard ship. Any disputes would be taken to shore where they would be settled with pistol and sword. Like most duels, these were only to first blood, although they could prove fatal, especially if the wound got infected. Theft from a shipmate was a hanging offense; there was, indeed, honor among thieves, enforced at the end of a rope.
Pirate ships were diverse and egalitarian. Anne Bonny and Mary Read are the most famous female pirates from the Golden Age, but they were hardly the only ones. Many crewmembers were former slaves. When I was Teacher’s Assistant for an Early Caribbean History class in college, we watched The Curse of the Black Pearl for class, and the teacher remarked that one thing the movie got right was the diversity of the crew. Pirates didn’t care where you came from; they cared whether you did your share of the work.
Traditionally pirates had two flags—the black flag, from which we get “raise the black” and “under the black flag.” Early on these were simply black pieces of cloth; later each ship customized their own design, to strike fear into the hearts of their prey. They would nurture their reputation of brutality against those who crossed them in order to encourage ships to surrender without a fight. Blackbeard’s flag was a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand, the other hand holding a spear stabbing a heart. The skull and crossed swords from Pirates of the Caribbean belonged to Calico Jack Rackham, on whose ship also sailed Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The skull and crossbones was used by Black Sam Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor, and went on to become the most commonly used pirate flag during the 1720s. Most of these flags included skeletons and other fearsome images, but they didn’t have to. The point was to identify the attacking ship.
The second flag was red. Upon first getting in range of a ship, pirates would raise the black and fire a warning shot over the ship’s bow. The black flag indicated quarter would be given. If the captain decided to fight back, the pirates might lower the black and raise the red. The red flag meant no quarter. The entire crew would be slaughtered. This was a strategic move, to encourage other ships to surrender without a fight.
Upon taking over a ship, sometimes pirates would simply plunder it for its cargo—more often tea or silks that could be sold for a profit, rather than actual gold—and allow the captain and crew to go upon their way. Other times they would take the ship as well, and either add it to their fleet or use it as an upgrade from their previous accommodations. They would offer the crew of the captured ship the opportunity to sign on the account and become pirates themselves. If the crew included anyone with skills that the pirates needed, such as a doctor or navigator, they would threaten that individual with death if he refused to join their crew. That was how Black Bart Roberts became a pirate; he was on a ship that was attacked by pirates, and his skills as navigator were needed by the crew.
Pirates also had a form of gay marriage, known as matelotage. Matelots shared everything: property, prizes—even their bunk. Sometimes they would exchange rings. When one died, the other would get their share of the haul. Often they would share women as well, when they were in port and had access to prostitutes. Matelotage became such an issue in the seventeenth century that the French government shipped a bunch of prostitutes to Tortuga to try to combat it, only to have the matelots share the women with their partners rather than dissolve the union.
Another thing Pirates of the Caribbean got wrong was the presence of Port Royale in the film. The Black Pearl being the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean means the movie has to be set in the late 1720s at the earliest; corsets being the latest fashion in London indicates a time frame closer to the 1740s. Port Royale was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, after which the capital of Jamaica moved to Kingston. Before the earthquake, Port Royale was a haven for pirates, since the British government appreciated the way they preyed on the Spanish. Afterward, pirates moved their base of operation to Tortuga instead.
The Golden Age of Piracy can be roughly divided into three eras: the buccaneering period, c. 1650-1680; the pirate round, c. 1693-1700; and the post-Spanish succession period, c. 1716-1726.
The first buccaneers were French; they weren’t actually pirates, but rather hunters who would barbecue the meat on a grill called a boucan and sell it to passing ships. They later realized that simply stealing from the ships was more economical than trading from them. As the Spanish attempted to wipe out these boucaniers along with the prey animals they fed upon, they gradually shifted to full-time piracy. After capturing Jamaica in 1655, the English government granted letters of marque to these buccaneers to encourage them to prey upon Spanish ships.
After the earthquake that devastated Port Royale in 1692, pirates lost their main market for fenced goods. In addition much of the Spanish Main had been exhausted of plunder. Instead they turned their attention to India.
In 1713, the War of Spanish Succession was coming to an end, and a number of privateers were left without work. Rather than starve, many of them turned to piracy, the illegal version of what they had been legally doing for their government up until that point.
The excess of pirates encouraged governments to increase their navies. Many of the unemployed sailors who would have become pirates were now employed chasing them. With their safe havens closing down as the general population grew disillusioned with these adventurers of the seas, fewer and fewer people turned to piracy. Most of them headed for West Africa, seizing poorly defended slavers.
But that’s just Golden Age piracy. What about the Barbary pirates we fought at the beginning of the nineteenth century? Grace O’Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen? The pirates of ancient Greece and Rome?
I’m no expert on Barbary pirates; all I know about them is that they demanded protection money to keep from attacking ships from specific nations, and after the United States gained its independence from England our ships were no longer protected. Rather than pay the fee, we decided to attack the pirates directly, defeating them and ensuring our freedom of the seas. If you’re interested in writing about them, I encourage you to find books on the subject and do your research.
Grace O’Malley—or, more appropriately, Grania ní Mhaille—is my favorite historical character. She was the daughter of Black Oak O’Malley, Clan Chief of the O’Malleys, in the late sixteenth century. After her father’s death, the clan chieftainship passed to a distant cousin chosen by the English for his loyalty to the English throne. The clan basically fell apart, until Grania organized them as smugglers and pirates preying on the English. Queen Elizabeth was so impressed by Grania’s leadership that she invited her to tea.
Then there’s the Mediterranean. Piracy was quite common in ancient Greece. The country is a peninsula, which means that much of its trade comes through shipping, giving pirates ample opportunity to plunder ships. While studying ancient Greek novels, of which only five examples survive, my Classics professor remarked, “It’s a Greek novel, so it has to have a kidnap by pirates.” The Greeks had three different words for pirate: λειστης, (leistes) meaning bandit; πειρατης, (peirates) etymologically meaning one who attempts, from which we get the Latin pirata and thus the English pirate; and my favorite, καταποντιστης, (katapontistes) meaning one who throws people down into the sea.
Pirates were also a problem in Rome. Julius Caesar himself was once kidnapped and held for ransom. The pirates had their base in an island nestled amongst a number of identical islands, making it impossible to find. Caesar was offended by how low of a ransom the pirates were demanding for him and demanded they increase it. While waiting for the ransom to be paid, Caesar befriended the pirates, joking with them that once he was free, he would come back and crucify them all. They laughed, since there was no way he would be able to find them once he was released.
His servant returned with the ransom, and Caesar was freed. Shortly thereafter, he returned with several ships and arrested all the pirates. When they asked how he had found them, he replied that he had counted islands. The pirates were all crucified. All but the captain had their legs broken—a mercy, since it meant they would suffocate faster, and suffer less.
Hopefully this post helps give you a starting point for writing pirates in a historically accurate, or at least historically plausible, fashion. Below are some suggestions for further reading in order to broaden your knowledge on the subject.
Helpful references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_...
Morgan Llewellyn, She-King of the Irish Seas
David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag
George Choundas, The Pirate Primer
Jenifer Marx, Pirates and Privateers of the Caribbean
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