Pirates

Is he a pirate? Pirate has become the general term used by most people today to call someone who sails the seas and commits crimes. But other names were used to help identify particular pirates through the ages.

A privateer was legally commissioned by a body, typically a government, to help them harass or attack another government. A buccaneer would have been French or English around the 17th century, living on the island of Hispaniola, attacking the Spanish. A French buccaneer may also have been called a freebooter.

Off the North African and Mediterranean coasts were Muslim pirates called the Barbary corsairs. The French considered them straight up pirates but the locals and Islamic governments considered them privateers, as they tended to raid only non-Islamic people.

Pirates really got their big start in the seas around Greece, where they raided merchants and were used by the warring countries and city-states against each other. At one time they were even used by the city-states as tax collectors due to the fact that so many people feared the pirates.

France, Spain and England fought back and forth with each other many times through the years with pirates and privateers playing huge roles in the outcomes of battles and wars. Pirates could often prove so successful as to bring an entire navy to its knees or to steal government treasure or disrupt trade so badly as to bankrupt a country.

At times pirate activity would get so out of control that governments would forge alliances to clean up the waters of most pirates so that trade routes could be safe again.

Pirates would escape to sea running from poverty, escaping the local navy or cruel laws of the land. Pirates needed their own laws on board ship so that they could come together and operate successfully. This inadvertently led to pirates creating what became known as the first true individual democracy in which every pirate had a voice by having an equal vote in what took place on board the ship. But shipboard lawbreakers found they had to face harsh penalties to pay for their transgressions against fellow crew members.

Pirates around this time in the early to mid 1600's also established rules to take care of their own by compensation if they were injured or lost a body part. Typically a body part on the right side was worth more than on the left side.

While many boys and men were captured or pressed into serving on a pirate ship, most pirates joined up willingly. It provided a way to escape the navy of the day that was no better and often worse in pay and living conditions. A pirate ship provided you choices that the navy didn't and men were often forced into the navy.

Navy pay was terrible while a pirate could receive large sums after a successful raid and the treasure had been divvied up. But as was often the case a pirate would spend or lose all his money in a few nights of celebration.

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