Somali Pirates are very much like historical pirates - even down to being driven to it by real desperation.
I understand that the Somali pirates are very poor people who are scraping by. Pretty much sea-bandits. But there are
so
many completely different historical pirate groups that were driven by different motives in different circumstances.
The Salley Rovers/Barbary Pirates controlled North Africa for centuries. The were the power and owned the cities and ran them: Tripoli, Sale, Algiers, Tunis. That's different from Elizabeth's privateers, who were different from Capt. Morgan, who was very different from the pirates of the South China Sea.
In periods and cultures of great social restraint, piracy offered many, many more freedoms and advantages than people often got in their home country. And...that's romantic. As Strega notes, the outlaw status of the pirate is completely aligned with the romantic notion of defining your morality personally, outside of the dictates of your culture.
Some pirate stuff from Wikipedia:
Unlike traditional Western societies of the time, many pirate crews operated as limited democracies.[62] Both the captain and the quartermaster were elected by the crew; they, in turn, appointed the other ship's officers. The captain of a pirate ship was often a fierce fighter in whom the men could place their trust, rather than a more traditional authority figure sanctioned by an elite. However, when not in battle, the quartermaster usually had the real authority. Many groups of pirates shared in whatever they seized; pirates injured in battle might be afforded special compensation similar to medical or disability insurance.[63] Often all of these terms were agreed upon and written down by the pirates, but these articles could also be used as incriminating proof that they were outlaws. Pirates readily accepted outcasts from traditional societies, perhaps easily recognizing kindred spirits, and they were known to welcome them into the pirate fold. For example as many as 40% of the pirate vessels crews were slaves "liberated" from captured slavers. Such practices within a pirate crew were tenuous, however, and did little to mitigate the brutality of the pirate's way of life.
Even though pirates raided many ships, few, if any, buried their treasure. Often, the "treasure" that was stolen was food, water, alcohol, weapons, or clothing. Other things they stole were household items like bits of soap and gear like rope and anchors, or sometimes they would keep the ship they captured (either to sell off or because it was better than their ship). Such items were likely to be needed immediately, rather than saved for future trade. For this reason, there was no reason for the pirates to bury these goods. Pirates tended to kill few people aboard the ships they captured, often times they would kill no one if the ship surrendered, because if it became known that pirates took no prisoners, their victims would fight to the last and make victory very difficult.
I remember when Disney retooled the Pirates of the Caribbean 'ride' so that the pirate was chasing a woman holding food.
You know who's to blame for all this Pirate popularity? Robert Louis Stevenson.
Waffles:
Good reading list, so far as Romantical Pirates is concerned: Victoria Janssen: Researching Pirates
I was thinking the old-tyme pirate thing in our culture is kind of like the old-tyme gangster/bank robber/gunslinger thing. But I'm not really awake enough to really get into it, so you can fill in the rest yourselves.
I've had this exact same fantasy: [link]
It would have made physics class so much easier.
the complete authoritarian tone of it all it what I hate. done.
Um, er? msbelle, I don't follow. Maybe I need more caffeine?
