Golden Age Of Piracy Essay

During the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, piracy was rampant in the Atlantic, specifically in the West Indies. Piracy has existed since the earliest days of ocean travel, for a range of personal and economic reasons. However, one of the major reasons why piracy was wide spread and rampant in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries was Great Britain’s endorsement and usage of piracy as an asset; in wars fought in the New World. Great Britain with its expanding power and conflicts with other nations would make piracy a lifestyle and lay down the foundation for the Golden Age of Piracy and eventually bring what it created to a screeching halt.

The theme of Criminality is shown throughout the book when Billy Bones (the Captain) and Long John Silver (the antagonist) receives the Black Spot, which symbolises the official verdict or judgement of one’s crime. It consists of a round piece of paper or card, with a black spot on one side, and the other conveys a message delivered to the accused. The reason why pirates are so afraid of legal punishment is the reason they go to sea, because at the sea, it is a free country. Here is a quote describing the criminality and the fear of the captain after the run-in at the Benbow Inn:

These pirates captured the crew and passengers of other ships. They then enslaved these people and some people died because of this.

The brand of justice pirates toward vessels they captured was something I found fascinating. For example, on page 88, the incident involving the capture of Captain Snelgraves vessel by the pirate Thomas Cocklyn. Initially Snelgrave resisted Cocklyns takeover so as Cocklyns crew overpowers Snelgraves and is taken by the pirates. Certain that Snelgrave will be killed or beaten for resisting, Snelgraves crew comes to their captains defense thus Cocklyn sparring the respected captains life. Because of the degree of respect Snelgraves had, Cocklyn not often seeing a government captain holding such admiration from a crew offered him a new ship and profits from a captured slave ship for his return to England. This story really caught my attention because of the level of hospitality pirates show to a captain who held such respect with his own crew.

“After the 1890 season, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys signed several players from rival American Association teams- including the Philadelphia Athletics star second baseman Lou Bierbauer. The Philadelphia team loudly protested the move, complaining to league officials that the Alleghenys’ actions were “piratical.” The Alleghenys made sport of being denounced for being “piratical” by renaming themselves the Pirates for the 1891 season.” Pirates have had a strong presence throughout the ages; their presence has often garnered acknowledgment from governments- both foreign and domestic. For the most part, pirates are more real than ninjas based upon their presence and the acknowledgment of their existence by governments throughout history.

The article by Ricks explaining the Pearl really shines a light on these horrors. She explains that all the fugitives trying to escape squeezed in the under part of the boat for four days. That is how desperate they were to escape. Clearly, if they were caught, they almost instantly would be sold into slavery and even the crew would be punished. But this is a risk they were willing to take. People from all over the world travel to D.C. to see the great landmarks and learn about the history. However, Washington has a dark side that many people are not aware of or a dark side people try to

Most people do not know this but piracy on international waters and on the coast of Somalia has become an increasingly important issue to global businesses. Since most people are unaware of this growing problem it has just now been noticed. To help stop piracy most crews are encouraged to have trained officers aboard while shipping cargo to avoid attacks by pirates. 95 percent of the piracy on international waters is by somali pirates. That’s right 95 percent. Piracy is robbery/stealing at sea. Not a lot of people are aware that piracy occurs almost everyday.

Marcus Rediker’s main point is the Atlantic Pirates were a group of highly intelligent people that unfortunately were forced to a criminal life because it was their only means to Survive. They were intelligent in the reason of choosing to attack the America colonies, but also in the way the pirates made their own governing structure. According to Dr. Rediker “a compact drawn up at the beginning of a voyage or upon election of a new captain, and agreed to by the crew. By these articles crews allocated authority, distributed plunder, and enforced discipline. These arrangements made the captain the creature of his crew”.(Rediker 209). These pirates knew that they had recently escaped a system of oppression that had done them wrong in many ways. This is why they made a system where everyone counted and where everyone got what they deserved. In a way they kept each other on check. An example of this today would be friend making sure another friend doesn’t cheat on his

There is little record of Blackbeard before his life of piracy in the 18th Century, other than his actual name being Edward Thatch and that he might be from the English port of because his name appeared on a census roll. The first actual historical record of Blackbeard was back in December 1716 when he was Hornigold’s lieutenant, where he was in charge of his own eight-gun, ninety man pirate ship. Blackbeard became a captain in a rather unusual way. In August of 1717, an unfamiliar vessel came into Nassau Harbor. The captain and crew were covered in battle wounds from them engaging in a clash with a Spanish warship upon arriving. The captain, Stede Bonnet, had ran away from his old life to start a new life of piracy. Bonnet sought protection

With canons blaring in the distance, Captain Edward Teach sits in his quarters, preparing for battle. To his belt, Teach straps pistols, daggers, and his cutlass. Across his chest, a sling with six pistols all loaded. Then, slowly, Teach braids his bushy, pitch-black beard that would come to give him his name. Finally, Teach places several slow burning fuses under his hat, lighting each one by one[i]. With wisps of smoke billowing around his face, Blackbeard, the most treacherous pirate in history, emerges from his cabin to join the fight. In the golden age of piracy, Captain Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard, stands out as the fiercest and most important figure. Blackbeard and his crew successfully controlled commerce along

Privateers were legal pirates or at least in terms to those who employed them and as long as the treasure was shared. There were problems with using privateers because they would often be tempted to attack ships of countries that they were not at war with and in times of peace using privateers left many men jobless so some would turn to piracy. Even Though pirates may be criminals they are not exactly the cold-blooded murderous psychos that some people envision today they were groups of intelligent men and women. In fact pirates made a significant contribution to the development of American democracy for instance they formed elections for positions like captain, they could also depose elected officials, they distributed treasure equally based on skill and position, they had a health care system, they also had a system of checks and

The United Nations and many of its committees and non-governmental organizations are actively involved in putting a stop to piracy and making the affected areas safe for trade ships and privately owned vessels to sail. The UN has several anti-piracy organizations that monitor and fight pirating. These NGOs (non-governmental organizations) include the IMO (International Maritime Organization), the IMB (International Maritime Bureau), and the BMC (Bureau of Maritime Crimes). The United Nations also uses the PRC (Piracy Reporting Centre) to collect incident reports and other data on pirate attacks. Within the UN there are also committees in charge of combatting piracy, some of which include: the Maritime Safety Committee and The Maritime Security

The pirates have created a unique system that has easily allowed them to continue to pirate with little conflict between one another. The former fishers, military, and technicians have joined together and mutually have all the skills needed to pirate including; difficulties of the navigation and handling ships, weapon and fighting training, and high tech equipment. They happen to be in a spot where lots of cargo ships have to go through as well as Somalis in port cities that tell the pirates when these ships are coming through. The pirates have a good distribution of power and profits and, without a greedy leader, everyone gets paid and no one rebels which could cause the whole system to collapse from the inside. They

Organised crime groups will utilise the Indian Ocean space to conduct their illicit operations (Hastings, 2012). Major crimes include piracy, smuggling and human trafficking. Piracy is a major security challenge in the IOR as it threatens peace and regional stability, trade and commerce as well as international energy movement (Herbert-Burns, 2012). It has encountered a lot of attention within the media as a successful means of financial gain through hijackings of private and merchant vessels. Maritime piracy has been prevalent since the early 1990’s and occurs primarily around shipping lanes (Lehr, 2013). In 2009, the list of reported piracy attacks was over four hundred, in which approximately three hundred of those occurred in the IOR (Hastings, 2012). The operation usually involves the pirates taking the crew or significant members of the crew (the captain) hostage and asking their families or employer for a significant ransom (Laipson, 2009). These ‘pirates’ will commandeer or utilise the crew to steer the ships back to their country. The strategic location of Somalia in the Horn of Africa, makes it an ideal departure location for piracy operations (Bhaskar & Kemp, 2011). The geographical chokepoint of the horn of Africa, in particular the Gulf of Aden, sees regular vessel traffic and this promotes an ideal environment for piracy to thrive. In recent years, piracy operations off the coast of Somalia have

These new pirates are similar to their predecessors in a variety of aspects. They are split up into two groups: those who work for themselves and others who have an alliance with a government. The most famously known group is currently known as the Somali pirates. They attempted to attack and capture the U.S. cargo vessel called Maersk Alabama in April 2009. However, they were fought off, and their one hostage, the ship’s skipper, was rescued five days later (Boot, Max. “Pirates, Then and Now”). Pirate techniques of stealing and escaping have not changed either. Sea robbers continue to elude the authorities by using state and country flags to become unrecognizable. Their ships are designed to be fast and easy to maneuver through coves and channels. On the other hand, technological advances have made it easier for ordinary ocean vessels to become victims of piracy. Wooden ships with shallow bottoms and cannons were ingenious a century ago, but speedboats have become the new pirate transportation. Somali pirates tend to have a larger, ‘mother ship’ used for deep ocean assaults (May, Laura.