(Unitary Moonbat has taken the night off to attend to some important work involving his profession, actual Historian.
Tonight's Historiorant will follow some of the Pirates of the 17th and 18th centuries in their excursions around the Caribbean Sea, during The Golden Age of Piracy.
Join me below the fold to meet these motley crews.
Why Pirate?
Let's say the year is 1645. Let's say you're a low ranking sailor on a merchant ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Captain has just flogged you for some minor infraction, taken away your ration of rum and gruel, tossed you into the dark, dank, dirty hold, and rats are sniffing at your toes. You haven't been paid in months, and may never see a farthing or landmass ever again.
Or let's say you're a poor boy looking for work on a fishing boat in Bristol. A Navy Captain has you thrown into a cage with some other men, pressganged, to replace his former crew, 40% of whom have died of dysentery, Typhus or Yellow Fever, and another 20% who've died in battle. The pay of a conscript is slightly better than your Merchant ship cousin's, and the conditions, though deplorable, are a few crumbs shy of dismal.
In either case, yours is a miserable existence. The Navy and Merchant ships are governed by a top-down command structure. Crews endure abuse, oppression, cruelty and deprivation at the whims of the Captains, who range from mean-spirited to sadistic. And the pay is paltry, if you are paid at all.
The class structure is equally as rigid on land and offers little if any opportunity for the lower classes to improve their lot. It's cradle-to-grave degredation.
(Sound Republican much?)
Then one lousy, stinking day you're hoisting a mast or some such on the high seas, and you spy a ship in the distance growing larger. Suddenly there's cannon fire and a battle is on! The approaching ship hoists a Jolly Roger, and it's crew swarms your decks, a bloody melee ensues, and in the end your Captain is run through by a dirk and tossed into the briny! You and your mates are given the choice of joining the pirates or following the scurvy Captain to the bottom of the sea.
In the (fictitious) words of Moll Flanders, "What would you do?"
Let's say you join them, and walk through the portal into
The Golden Age of Piracy.
During this Golden Age of roughly 50 years, Pirate ships were egalitarian and democratic. The crews elected the Captains, deferred to his command only in battle, and could impeach him any time he got out of line. They shared the loot from their raids more or less equally, giving the Captain and First Mate a few percent more than the crew. A poor man could be upwardly mobile as a pirate, and retire rich if he stayed alive and didn't get caught. But more often, he spent his loot on rum, wenches, gambling, fighting, song and satiety, among equals. Rarely did he die rich. He was an outlaw, and often a folk hero, feared but admired.
Privateers
England didn't have a strong Navy, and was warring with Spain and France for slices of the New World empire and wealth. The Crown hired Privateers to harrass, battle and rob Spanish ships.
Piracy was the outlaw practice of preying on merchant ships and raiding coastal towns for profit. Privateering consisted of the same actions, but they were sanctioned by a government to be conducted against an enemy during war. Many mariners engaged in both activities, during times of war, they were legitimate naval axillaries and if captured were treated as prisoners of war. In times of peace, they were outlaws and if captured were treated as criminals. There is another distinction that sometimes existed between the two. Privateers were often, but not always, commercial ventures, financed by merchants and investors, with captains that worked for the ship owner. Pirates were often, but not always, mariner subalterns who had illegally obtained their ship and the captains were selected by the crew, and could be replaced at any time with a majority vote.
The first application of international law actually involved anti-pirate legislation. This is due to the fact that most pirate acts were committed outside the borders of any country.
Sometimes governments gave rights to the pirates to represent them in their wars. The most popular form was to give a license to a private sailor to attack enemy shipping on behalf of a specific king – Privateer. Very often a privateer when caught by the enemy was tried as an outlaw notwithstanding the license. Link
Rogues' Gallery
wiki
Edward Teach (c. 1680[1] – November 22, 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea during the early 18th century, a period of time referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy. His best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed [citation needed] to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.
John Rackham (died November 17, 1720), also known as Calico Jack Rackham or Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain during the early 18th century. His nickname was derived from the colourful calico clothes he wore. John Rackham is remembered for employing two of the most notorious female pirates of his time – Anne Bonny and Mary Read – in his crew. John Rackham and most of his crew were executed in Jamaica.
Anne Bonny (c. 1698, date of death unknown) was an Irish pirate who plied her trade in the Caribbean. She disguised herself as a man in order to join Rackham's crew aboard the Revenge. (Pirate articles often barred women from the ship.) The couple stole a sloop at anchor in the harbor and set off to sea, putting together a crew and taking several prizes. She took part in combat alongside the males, and the accounts describing her exploits present her as competent, effective in combat, and someone who gained the respect of her fellow pirates.
Mary Read(c.1690 – 1721) was an English pirate. While at sea, Read's ship was attacked and captured by the notorious pirate "Calico" Jack Rackham and his companion, the female pirate Anne Bonny.
Sir Henry Morgan (Hari Morgan in Welsh), (ca. 1635 – August 25, 1688) was a Welsh privateer, who made a name in the Caribbean as a leader of buccaneers. He was among England's most notorious and successful privateers.
William "Captain" Kidd (c. 1645 – May 23, 1701) is remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer. His fame springs largely from the sensational circumstances of his questioning before the English Parliament and ensuing trial.
Black Pirates
John Julian piloted the pirate ship Whydah (WID-uh). When Blackbeard fought to his death, 5 members of his 18-man crew were black. And at one point Captain Kidd appears to have had an African American second-in-command.
During the golden age of pirates (1680-1725), African Americans were often forced to work as slaves on land. But on sea they may have had more equality.
Pirates threw the law of the land overboard. That was good news for John Julian, a half-blood Mosquito Indian who joined Samuel Bellamy early in his brief, brilliant career. On land, Julian's skin made him nobody. On water, his skill made him somebody. He eventually piloted the Whydah, which was the leading ship of Bellamy's fleet. Julian was one of 30 to 50 people of African descent in the pirate crew—all treated as equals.
Julian's life took a nosedive when he survived the Whydah wreck in 1717. He was jailed in Boston but apparently never indicted. More likely, he was sold into slavery. He was probably the "Julian the Indian" bought by John Quincy—whose grandson, President John Quincy Adams, became a staunch abolitionist.
If so, he suffered. A purportedly "unruly slave," Julian the Indian was sold to another owner and tried often to escape. During one attempt he killed a bounty hunter who was trying to catch him.
The Caribbean bowl was your oyster for fifty years. From the Antilles to Panama, from the legendary pirate city of Port Royal, Jamaica to the Gulf of Honduras. You raided, battled, looted and caroused, among your outlaw equals.
Where are they today?
The descendants of Golden Age pirates still live in the countries of the Caribbean. Their patois, Cockney, Welsh, Scots and African accents are blended and heard in every coastal town. Some are still hunting for stashes of buried treasure.
Port Royal was called the wickedest place on Earth, until a massive earthquake and tidal wave sent her to Davey Jones Locker near the end of the 17th century.
There is so much I left out, but if you follow the links you will find more individual escapades.
(Please place your empties in the recycling bin, and put the nacho trays in the trashcan. UM keeps a tidy cave.)
Thank you for coming. ~;-)