{"id":3685,"date":"2025-04-09T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T14:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/who-were-the-pirates\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T12:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T10:02:17","slug":"who-were-the-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/who-were-the-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO WERE THE PIRATES?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

WHO WERE THE PIRATES?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Pirates of the 18th century were often experienced seamen who turned to piracy out of necessity, rebellion or greed for profit. Their crews were ethnically mixed, their way of life rough, but often more egalitarian than in regular shipping. Many sought a new life at sea – voluntarily or by force. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The typical pirate was an experienced mariner who had been discharged or had deserted from merchant or naval service. Routine punishments meted out to misbehaving mariners aboard naval ships for minor misdemeanours such as drunkenness, insolence or petty larceny ranged from a \u2018dozen lashes\u2019<\/em> to \u2018running the gauntlet\u2019<\/em> which meant enduring a beating from the entire ship\u2019s crew. Escape to the relative egalitarianism of a pirate vessel where a great deal more money could be earned was very tempting. \u201cIn 1700 an East India Company man sailing east for 18 months might hope to earn himself \u00a330. In stark contrast are the figures for piratical returns: an average expedition produced a staggering dividend of \u00a350 to \u00a33,000 per man.\u201d<\/em> Captain Howell Davis reminded his pirate crew, \u201cthat they should remember, their Reasons for going a pirating were to revenge themselves on base Merchants, and cruel commanders of Ships\u201d<\/em>. Some men consciously became pirates, by mutineering, usually in response to ill treatment on board merchant or naval ships. But the majority of those who became maritime outlaws were simply men employed on ships that were captured by pirates and with few alternative options, ended up amongst their crews.<\/p>\n

Since ex-seamen made up a significant proportion of pirates, their crews tended to be dominated by northern Europeans, but in the Indian Ocean captured Indians and Africans might also be converted into pirates. Thus, the pirate ship Defiance mustered a crew of 164 Europeans in 1703. Of these 43 were English, 50 French, 70 East Indians, and the remainder Danes, Dutch and Swedes. Despite the popular image of a pirate as a rebel, Darby Mullins, of Londonderry, had been an indentured servant, dockhand and tavernkeeper in Jamaica before moving to New York where he enlisted on William Kidd\u2019s 1696 privateering expedition which became a pirate cruize. He was hanged on the same day as Kidd. Captain Snelgrave, captured by pirates, noted that the ordinary sailors \u201cwere generally glad of an opportunity of entering with them\u201d<\/em>. When his first mate Simon Jones joined the pirates, he explained \u201chis Circumstances were bad at home: Moreover he had a Wife whom he could not love; and for these Reasons he had entered with the Pirates, and signed their Articles\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ambroise Louis Garneray (1783-1857): La Prise du Kent par Surcouf<\/p><\/div>\n

Some of the pirates might best be described as political exiles from Europe. French Huguenots and Scottish Jacobites, persecuted for their beliefs at home, were among the pirate communities that roamed the Indian Ocean. Snelgrave reported that pirate captain Cocklyn drank a toast to the Pretender, King James the Third, \u201cand thereby I found they were doubly on the side of the Gallows, both as Traitors and Pirates\u201d<\/em>. Unwilling recruits into piracy, pressed into serving, were likely to have skills prized by the outlaws. A ship\u2019s carpenter or cooper who was unlucky enough to be stopped by pirates would find himself under considerable pressure to sign the pirate \u2018articles\u2019<\/em> and come away with them.<\/p>\n

A considerable number of the men on the Indian Ocean pirate ships were black. Christian Tranquebar was on a ship attacked by two vessels commanded by Bartholomew Roberts in 1721 and reported that Roberts\u2019 ship was manned by 180 white men and 48 French Creole blacks; while his consort was manned by 100 whites and 40 French blacks.<\/p>\n

Pirates Edward England, William Moody and Richard Frowd all reportedly had mixed crews of whites and blacks. Avery and other marauders who captured Indian ships kept the native crews, known as lascars, on board for considerable periods of time. However relations between whites and blacks were not necessarily egalitarian. While blacks who became full-fledged pirates might achieve a status equal to their white confreres, in general pirates regarded blacks \u201cas commodities to be bought and sold, and they used them as slaves on board their ships for the hard and menial jobs: working the pumps, going ashore for wood and water, washing and cleaning, and acting as servants to the pirate captain\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the family ties of pirates however, a few documents exist, such as the 1709 petition sent to Queen Anne in 1709 by the wives and other relations of the Pirates and Buccaneers of Madagascar and elsewhere in the East and West Indies signed by 47 women. In many cases, pirates, unable or unwilling because of their past misdemeanours to return home, attempted to settle in far-off outposts and established relationships with local women.<\/p>\n

Further information can be found under this link<\/a>: Pirates of Mauritius<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

All articles Backgrounds<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stories and history about the “Golden Era of Piracy”, La Buse and the cryptogram.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

All articles Cryptogram<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cipher that has been sprouting the fantasies of many people in all its aspects for 90 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

All articles La Buse<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The life and work of the most famous French pirate of the 18th century.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3685"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4254,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3685\/revisions\/4254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}