Portal:Piracy

The Piracy Portal

Introduction

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically intending to steal cargo and valuable goods, or take hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy date to the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding.

Historic examples of such areas include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term piracy generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks, and (in science fiction) outer space. Piracy usually excludes crimes committed by the perpetrator on their own vessel (e.g., theft) as well as privateering, which implies authorization by a state government.

Piracy, or pirating, is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also of many crimes under the municipal law of many states. In the 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue, with estimated worldwide losses of US$25 billion in 2023, increased from US$16 billion in 2004. (Full article...)

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c. 1736 portrait

Edward Teach (or Thatch; c. 1680 – 22 November [3 December N.S.] 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. He remains one of history's most well-known pirates.

Little is known about Blackbeard's early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateering ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him. (Full article...)

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Buccaneers were privateers and pirates operating in the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established as early as 1625 on northwestern side of Hispaniola after the devastations of Osorio, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688, during a time when governments in the Caribbean area were not strong enough to suppress them. Martinique was a home port for French buccaneers as well as pirates like Captain Crapeau.

Originally the name applied to the landless hunters of wild boars and cattle in the largely uninhabited areas of Tortuga and Hispaniola. The meat they caught was smoked over a slow fire in little huts the French called boucans to make viande boucanée – jerked meat or jerky – which they sold to the corsairs who preyed on the (largely Spanish) shipping and settlements of the Caribbean. Eventually the term was applied to the corsairs and (later) privateers themselves, also known as the Brethren of the Coast. Although corsairs, also known as filibusters or freebooters, were largely lawless, privateers were nominally licensed by the authorities – first the French, later the English and Dutch – to prey on the Spanish, until their depredations became so severe they were suppressed. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that Stephen Foster's best-selling song "Old Uncle Ned" made little money for him due to the many pirated publications circulating in the marketplace?
... that Queen Eschiva and her children were kidnapped by the pirate Kanakes after her husband put a bounty on him?
... that a Dutch publisher pirated the first four volumes of Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality, then hired the author to write more?
... that a search engine for pirated books has been used to train large language models?
... that the pirate anime streaming site HiAnime had more visitors than legal competitors like Crunchyroll or Disney+?
... that Pixel Piracy's developers released a free torrent of their game?

... that, while it is unknown if pirates actually kept parrots as pets, it is thought that at least some captains kept cats aboard to keep populations of rats and other vermin down?
... that red Jolly Roger flags were the most feared of all; all prayed they never encountered the "Bloody Red," which boldly declared that no mercy would be shown and all victims would be killed?
... that English pirate Henry Every, who was sometimes known as Long Ben, was one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle?

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Selected quotations

“

This man was a real-life Goliath; sadly, there was no David who could stand up against him!

”

— unknown)

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General images

The following are images from various piracy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 2Chinese pirate flag with the bagua and taijitu, captured by George Henry Preble. Circa 1871 (from Piracy)
Image 3Henry Every is shown selling his loot in this engraving by Howard Pyle. Every's capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai in 1695 stands as one of the most profitable pirate raids ever perpetrated. (from Piracy)
Image 41890 illustration by Rafael Monleón of a late 18th-century Iranun lanong warship. The Malay word for "pirate", lanun, originates from an exonym of the Iranun people (from Piracy)
Image 5Modern reconstruction of skull alleged to have belonged to 14th century pirate Klaus Störtebeker. He was the leader of the privateer guild Victual Brothers, who later turned to piracy and roamed European seas. (from Piracy)
Image 6Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 7A merchant seaman aboard a fleet oil tanker practices target shooting with a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun as part of training to repel pirates in the Strait of Malacca, 1984 (from Piracy)
Image 8The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
Image 91724 engraving of Bonny from A General History of the Pyrates (from Piracy)
Image 10Barbary pirates were involved in the Barbary slave trade in North Africa (from Piracy)
Image 11Map of Vlorë in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 12The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
Image 13Anti piracy operations by Indian Navy's INS Tabar, in the Gulf of Aden on 18 November 2008 (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 14Map of Dalmatia in 1715 by Guillaume Delisle (from Albanian piracy)
Image 15Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
Image 16Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
Image 17Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 18A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 19Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 20Henry Morgan who sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671 – the second most important city in the Spanish New World at the time; engraving from 1681 Spanish edition of Alexandre Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America (from Piracy)
Image 21French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 22A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 23A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthonisz, c. 1615 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 24"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure, Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 25The Barbary corsairs frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 26Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century. (from Piracy)
Image 27Bartholomew Roberts' crew carousing at the Calabar River; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837). Roberts is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels. (from Piracy)
Image 28Coat of arms of the town of Almuñécar, granted by King Charles V in 1526, showing the turbaned heads of three Barbary pirates floating in the sea (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 29An Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 30Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 31The crew of the merchant vessel Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on their health and welfare. The Belize-flagged cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, was seized by pirates 25 September 2008 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali coast. The ship was carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 32Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 33Armed pirates in the Indian Ocean near Somalia. After the picture was taken, the vessel's crew members opened fire on U.S. Navy ships and the ship's crew members returned fire. One suspected pirate was killed and 12 were taken into custody (see engaged pirate vessels). (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 34Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship by Grigory Gagarin (from Piracy)
Image 35Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 36Castle of Ulcinj in the 1890s (from Albanian piracy)
Image 37An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 38The traditional "Jolly Roger" flag of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 39Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 40Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with the most captures during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is now known for hanging the governor of Martinique from the yardarm of his ship. (from Piracy)
Image 41Incidents of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 42A person costumed in the character of captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp's lead role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (from Piracy)
Image 43Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 44Slave market in Algiers, Ottoman Algeria, 1684 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 45Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 46A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 47Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 48Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 49Painting from 1772 depicting British and French sailors at battle with Dulcignottes (Ulcinj pirates). These pirates were defeated on 5 September 1772. (from Albanian piracy)
Image 50The Prisoner by Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ after Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1871 (from Albanian piracy)