Portal:Piracy

The Piracy Portal

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Introduction

The traditional "Jolly Roger" of piracy.

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. A land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors.

While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land (especially across national borders or in connection with taking over and robbing a car or train), or in other major bodies of water or on a shore, in cyberspace, as well as the fictional possibility of space piracy, it generally refers to maritime piracy. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the early 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue (with estimated worldwide losses of US$16 billion per year in 2004), particularly in the waters between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore.

Today, pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles, and machine guns, grenades and rocket propelled grenades use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships. They also use larger vessels, known as "mother ships", to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice, as these attacks often occur in international waters. Some nations have used their naval forces to protect private ships from pirate attacks and to pursue pirates, and some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons, or sound cannons to repel boarders, and use radar to avoid potential threats.

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Henry Every (also Avery or Avary) is thought to have been born somewhere between c. 1653 and c. 1659 in Plymouth, England, or the surrounding area. He disappeared from all records after 1696 and may have died in 1699. He was an English pirate/marooner whose aliases included John Avary, Long Ben, and Benjamin Bridgeman. He is most famous for being one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and also for being the perpetrator of the most profitable pirate raid in history.

During his career, the media in England portrayed Every as a notorious criminal, but he was a popular hero, and a sort of maritime Robin Hood as he exemplified the working class idea that rebellion and piracy were acceptable ways to fight back against unfair captains and societies. Every’s story inspired many other men to take up piracy, including the infamous Captain Kidd. Every's life inspired a number of accounts including The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery (c. 1709); a 1712 play, The Successful Pyrate by Charles Johnson, which was thought to be a pen name for Daniel Defoe; and a 1724 book by Daniel Defoe, The king of the pirates, being an account of the famous enterprises of Captain Avary. His career inspired, very loosely, that of Captain Ben Avery, the hero of George MacDonald Fraser's 1983 spoof novel The Pyrates.

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The Victual Brothers (the Vitalians or Vitalian Brotherhood) were a companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy. They were hired in 1392 by the Dukes of Mecklenburg to fight against Denmark, because the Danish Queen Margaret I had imprisoned Albrecht of Mecklenburg and his son to subdue the kingdom of Sweden. Albrecht was King of Sweden since 1364 and Duke of Mecklenburg since 1383.

The Victual Brothers were organised as a brotherhood or guild and attracted men from all over Europe. Their main naval enemy in 1392 was the powerful Hanseatic town of Lübeck, which supported Denmark in the war. Apart from Lübeck, the Hanseatic League at first encouraged the Victual Brothers. Most of the Hanseatic towns had no desire to see Denmark victorious, since its location was strategic for the control of the seaways. (more...)

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Selected quotations

“

Come, let us make a hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it.

”

— Blackbeard

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Did you know...

...that in 2011, pirates were reported as raiding along the Danube River in the center of Europe?

...that there is only one account of walking the plank?

...that English pirate Henry Every, who was sometimes known as Long Ben, was one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle?

...that red Jolly Roger flags were the most feared of all; all prayed they never encountered the "Bloody Red," which boldly declared that no mercy would be shown and all victims would be killed?

...that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?

...that, while it is unknown if pirates actually kept parrots as pets, it is thought that at least some captains kept cats aboard to keep populations of rats and other vermin down?

...that, unlike traditional Western societies of the time, many pirate clans operated as limited democracies, demanding the right to elect and replace their leaders?

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Selected images

Iban war prahu in Skerang river.
Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010.
Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard and Robert Maynard in Ocracoke Bay; romanticized depiction by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris from 1920
A fleet of Vikings, painted mid-12th century
The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves
Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837)
Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837)
Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy.
The traditional "Jolly Roger" of piracy.
"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California
Modern reconstruction of skull alleged to have belonged to 14th century pirate Klaus Störtebeker. He was the leader of the privateer guild Victual Brothers, who later turned to piracy and roamed European seas.
Bartholomew Roberts' crew carousing at the Calabar River; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837). Roberts is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels.
A Merchant seaman aboard a fleet oil tanker practices target shooting with a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun as part of training to repel pirates in the Strait of Malacca.
Mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia
Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air
Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan
Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean.
International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean.
The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island)
A person costumed in the character of captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp's lead role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.
A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008.
Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555
"Cossaks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by Grigory Gagarin
Pirate Anne Bonny (1697–1720). Engraving from Captain Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates (1st Dutch Edition, 1725)
U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804
1890 illustration by Rafael Monleón of a late 18th-century Iranun lanong warship. The Malay word for "pirate", lanun, originates from an exonym of the Iranun people
Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray.
Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743).
A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate
Private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with most captures during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is now known for hanging the governor of Martinique from the yardarm of his ship.
Double-barrelled lantaka cannons, kalasag shields, armor, and various swords (including kalis, panabas, and kampilan) used by Moro pirates in the Philippines (c. 1900)
Incidences of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011
Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy
Sixteenth century Japanese pirate raids.
A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573
Henry Morgan who sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671 – the second most important city in the Spanish New World at the time; engraving from 1681 Spanish edition of Alexandre Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America
Henry Every is shown selling his loot in this engraving by Howard Pyle. Every's capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai in 1695 stands as one of the most profitable pirate raids ever perpetrated.
An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2
Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863
Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848
British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference.
Pirate treasure looted by Samuel Bellamy and recovered from the wreck of the Whydah; exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 2010
Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century.
French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615
British forces engaging Iranun pirates off Sarawak in 1843
British sailors boarding an Algerine pirate ship and battling the pirates; colored engraving by John Fairburn (1793–1832)
The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic sea in the Middle Ages.