How do you know about Pirates?!!

In honor of tomorrow being "International Talk Like A Pirate Day," this week's article is all about pirates! No, not the pirates from Somalia... I'm talking about real, swashbuckling, rum-drinking, treasure-hunting Caribbean pirates!

This post spans a period that is commonly known as the Golden Age of Piracy. Historians argue about the dates of this age but the general consensus is that it spans from about AD 1630 to the 1720's. Our modern perception of pirates is derived largely from this time period.

Prior to this time and due to religious warring between European nations, piracy mostly happened under the guise of national interest. Many seaman labored as privateers in the navy who, with letters of mark giving permission, targeted ships belonging to rival nations, raided whatever they had on board, and split the proceeds with with their governments.

Sometime around 1630, England and France signed a treaty with Spain that allowed them to establish colonies along the Spanish Main. These colonies were mostly on the island of Hispaniola (now known as Haiti and The Dominican Republic.)

Since the relationship between these countries had grown more peaceful, they no longer found themselves in need of such massive navies. Thus, thousands of seamen suddenly found themselves relieved of military duty without any knowledge of another trade to support themselves.

Many of these seamen had settled in the new Caribbean colonies. The islands they lived on had large populations of wild pigs and the settlers had become quite fond of barbecuing the pigs over open fires called buccans or boucan. Thus, earning themselves the nickname of Buccaneers.

When the buccaneers suddenly found themselves unemployed and incapable of supporting themselves, they began to turn to piracy to meet their needs. A large number of the buccaneers, who also referred to themselves as Brethren Of The Coast, moved to an island off the coast of Hispaniola that proved to be an effective pirate stronghold. This island had fertile land, fresh water, good places to weigh anchor, and defensible harbors. It's name was Tortuga.

By the year of 1650, pirates patrolled the Caribbean, the Eastern seaboard of America, and the West coast of Africa. They were many merchant ships in this range that were part of the Triangular Trade. Ships would begin their journeys by picking up slaves from Africa, then they would sail to the Caribbean to sell the slaves, accepting goods such as sugar, molasses, and manufactured articles for payment. They would then continue on to America to sell those goods to the colonists. Ships in the triangular trade made a profit at each stop, for the most part. There were many ships also sailing from South and Central America directly back to Spain filled with treasure from the conquests of the Spanish Conquistadors.

Generally, pirates managed to raid ships with very little violence. They favored small, fast moving vessels and would often wait in sheltered bays where they would be able to quickly sneak up on a passing merchant ship. They would then fire warning shots from their cannons. At this point, most merchant ships would surrender since they were not capable of outrunning the pirates. Besides, it would be much more costly to lose a ship to damage inflicted by cannon fire than to give up a portion of the goods on board.

Of course, there were times when a vessel would refuse to surrender and the pirates would choose to use whatever means possible to take the ship, it's crew, and it's cargo.

Pirates did not only raid ships for the purpose of stealing treasure. They often also took food, water, alcohol, clothing, weapons, and, on occasion, the entire ship itself. Basically anything that they needed to live at sea.

Pirates were not an unpopular group in the Caribbean though. In fact, many ports welcomed pirates knowing that they had plenty of money to spend. One port, in particular, became a favorite to the buccaneers.

It had bars, gambling houses, brothels, and just about any other place that a pirate could imagine to spend all the money he had managed to acquire during his most recent stint at sea. This was Port Royal, Jamaica.

In the month of July of 1661 alone, forty new licenses were granted for taverns to be opened in the city. Such was the demand for pirates to entertain themselves on shore.

One minister traveled to Port Royal thinking that his services might be needed in the quickly developing colony. This is what he said of his time there:

"The majority of its population consists of pirates, cutthroats, whores and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world. Therefore, I felt my permanence there was of no use."

He departed on the same ship on which he had arrived.

Unfortunately, the pirate lifestyle couldn't last forever. By the 1700's the Europeans felt they had put up with enough piracy. They again began to bolster their navies by employing more men and adding more ships to their fleets so that they might accompany merchants on their voyages.

This move, combined with dwindling amounts of treasure being shipped from the New World back to Europe is what started the decline of piracy.

In the 1720's, Jamaica also began to take an anti-pirate stance on trade and was no longer welcoming pirates into the ports that they had once frequented. In addition, many men who had been privateers and pirates their whole lives had reached old age and began to retire from sailing. Piracy had nearly faded out of existence by the end of the decade.

In the late nineteenth century, stories drawing heavily on piracy and adventure gained popularity. Literature such as, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson and plays such as J. M. Barry's Peter Pan, worked to associate glamour and romance with the buccaneers in the minds of the public. Movies later continued to advance this imagery and have forever fixed in our culture a fascination with this era.

Even though there has been a history of piracy throughout the time that man has been known to travel the oceans, the pirates of the Caribbean were literally the rulers of the sea during the Golden Age. No pirates before or since have ever held such notoriety. Even hundreds of years after they lived, we still find ourselves, even from a young age, knowing infamous pirates by name and enraptured by stories of their lives. 

This week's post is also subject to a personal note.

Grandpa Lloyd and Grandma Terry are two of my very favorite people in this world. I love them very much. And I have no doubts whatsoever that they would have made two of the most fearsome and terrible pirates who ever sailed the Spanish Main.