A Pirate’s Life
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.
Privateers would have been pirates legally commissioned by a country or government giving them permission to wage war against another country or government. The French and English pirates that were living in the Caribbean about the time of the seventeenth century went by the name, buccaneer. Of course the name buccaneer is a very anglicized version of the French word, boucanier.
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.
In the Mediterranean area where sea trading was extremely active was where pirates really came to grow and be very dynamic. The governments and countries fighting with each other often used pirates against their enemies. The city-states of Greece even used pirates at one time as tax collectors because they new the locals were so afraid of the pirates that the people would pay up.
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 are known for creating the first true individual democracy in which every man had a vote or say. The buccaneers established this code in rebellion against their harsh treatment from former countries. Breaking agreed upon rules was dealt with harshly as a means to enforcing their own laws or code.
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.
Piracy could be a hard life, dangerous and deadly but it was often preferable to the navy of the day. You could potentially get better pay, better food be treated better and have a say in decisions.
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.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!