Golden Age of Piracy

Buried treasure, eye patches, and walking the plank are all words and phrases that often appear in stories involving pirates. Tales about the voyages of pirates are often adventurous and riveting ones. It is very awe-inspiring to think about the daring lives those pirates once led. However, it might not be safe to assume that these stories are close to the truth or even based on genuine facts. In 1881 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book entitled Treasure Island, which in return would forever change the way people looked at the term "pirate." Due to this book there are several different movies that have been created to interpret the term pirate in different ways. Black Pirate, The Dancing Pirate, Sea Hawk, and Captain Blood include some

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.

Have you ever watched the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? If you have you may or may not think that’s how the life of a pirate was in the 1700s. This is necessarily true though. I believe that the life of a pirate is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays it.

Edward Teach, who was most commonly known as Blackbeard, was one of the most devilish and most notorious pirate ever known. Teach was only a pirate for about two years, but he still got the label. It wasn't just his travels or treasure that made him one of the most famous pirates, but his looks played a huge part. Blackbeard's few adventures, and crazy punishments are just a few things that made him the infamous Blackbeard historians know today.

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.

Under The Black Flag , a book written by David Cordingly expressed the reality and myths behind piracy. He clearly states in the introduction of the book that his aim “is to examine the popular image of pirates today, to find out where this image came from, and to compare it with the real world of the pirates” (Cordingly xiv). Along with his aim his thesis is also stated in the introduction of his book, which essentially states that the views by everyday people of pirates consists of a mixture of facts, and many other things such as romantic novels and films. He successfully informs readers of the history behind many important misconceptions of common beliefs. Although some of the things every person has learned about a pirate growing up may

Did you know blackbeard had a ship called Queen Anne’s Revenge? Blackbeard is one of the most famous pirates in his lifetime and still to this day. Blackbeard the pirate had 14 wives also he wasn’t always a pirate he first was a merchant ship stacker. He raided more than 300 ships in his lifetime. There is plenty more shocking facts about BlackBeard from when he was a kid and till he died.

The Atlantic pirates were after gold or booty as Disney producers portray it to be, but this wasn’t there main goal, instead the Atlantic pirate’s main goal was revenge. After several centuries of poverty and being in the bottom social rank people took to themselves to solve their economic problems by going against king and machinists. Many of these pirates either had worked for this mechanist or for the kingdom’s fleet. As stated by Dr. Marcus Rediker “Merchant seamen got a hard, close look at death: disease and accidents were commonplace in their occupation, rations were often meager and discipline was brutal… Some pirates had served in the navy where conditions aboard ship were no less harsh” (Rediker 206-207). These severe conditions were the driving force for revenge at whatever the cost maybe. The previous experience of being at sea made these pirates very knowledgeable because they also knew that the American colonies were doing their own thing. Even though they were

The Queen Anne’s revenge was a ship that belonged to the British royal navy in 1710. It was then captured a year later by the French. The French renamed the ship to La Concorde and mainly used the ship to transport slaves. The Queen Ann’s revenge did not gets its name till it was captured by Blackbeard the pirate in 1717. It was around the 1700s when Blackbeard the pirate began to terrorize the seas near the coast of North Carolina. He is considered one of the most notorious pirates that operated along the shipping coast of North America as well as the Caribbean. He is known for using his ship as a blockade in the port of Charleston. The blockade was implemented to take the supplies of the town. His rampage ended after crashing his ship into

Some sources indicate that Edward Teach was born in Jamaica, but it is not completely clear. Most information concerning Teach is available after he began his life as a pirate. He joined the pirate Benjamin Hornigold in the spring of 1716 and together they looted Spanish silver fleets.3 After Hornigold retired, Blackbeard took on this name, reportedly because he grew his beard out and tied black ribbons in it.4 Blackbeard had a crew of approximately 130-150 men, with twelve guns. It is unclear how Blackbeard 2 Samir S. Patel, “Blackbeard Surfaces: Raising the Wreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge,” Arachaeology 61, no. 2 (2008): 22.

The pirates who sailed the Atlantic and frequented the New England coast were made up of several different groups of men, and a few women, who attacked ships off the New England coast and had a rather large effect on parts of colonial America. Although the pirates who frequented these areas came from many different countries, many of those that that targeted the New England area and the waters around it, came from England during the rule of King James I

The Barbary States were states that were found in North Africa. The used piracy to get weaker Atlantic powers to pay them a tribute. The United States fought against Tripoli and Algiers. But sometimes the United States payed tribute for some of their soldiers to come back. The practice of state-supported piracy was not unusual in Europe. Lots of European countries used privateers to attack other countries ships and also participated in transiatlantic slave trade. Great Britain and France thought it was expedient to pay tribute to the Barbary states to keep their merchants safe and also so they could trade with Mediterranean places.

In the morning, Blackbeard didn’t attempt to escape but instead waited for the Navy to make the first move towards him. His crew was puzzled at why he just waited at the wheel but then he ordered them to set sail. Blackbeard led the ship into a small channel that was between the sore and a hidden sandbar. When the two Navy sloops followed the pirates, they both became stuck on the sandbar. The pirates then began to blast the sloops with cannons, destroying one sloop and leaving the other one damaged. However, Blackbeard also became stuck on a sandbar, moments later. Caption Maynard was on the damaged ship and ordered that his men throw off some items to make the ship lighter. After his plan worked and the ship became free, Maynard and his crew

When the word pirate is mentioned, many people think of ship carrying men across the seas as they pillage other ships. While this is true to some extent there was much more to the lives of the men that were known as pirates. Pirates were mostly men from French, English or Dutch heritage, and were privateers or merchants. Many of these men were sanctioned by their government. By the Spanish they were call piratas or unsanctioned sea-raiders, and would have a heavy influence of trade in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Empire.

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.