Mary Read!

Hello and thank you everyone for visiting our site. We are glad to have new readers from the US, and all other countries 😉

As a continuation for our past reflection on the pirates’ history, and how it is shown to us, via media tools.

Pirates have been the subject of countless books, movies, and plays. Many people are familiar with Captain Hook in the story Peter Panas well as those characters in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.

But, you still do not know enough about their golden age. Why don’t you explore history with us here?

The Piracy attacks ships and steals valuables like gold, jewels, and money. A privateer is a ship or private person authorized by the government to stop other ships to take possession of their property.

A privateer had a Letter of Marque, which gave them permission to raid an enemy ship. Similar to the role of a bounty hunter, a privateer could turn the crew of the ship over to his country. Those that had been captured were faced with charges and even punishment.

Sometimes privateers became pirates after they saw all of the riches that had been acquired by the other pirates they encountered at sea.

Corsairs were French privateers who occupied the southern Mediterranean Sea. Working for the King of France that began in the Middle Ages, Corsairs attacked the ships of their country’s enemies; they did this mostly in order to get compensated for the economic hardships they encountered during times of war.

Pirates have occupied the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and the seven seas for thousands of years.

The Barbary pirates from North Africa were famous for their solidarity and successful attacks on merchant ships. Some of the first pirates stole from trade ships sailing in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

Around the 8th century, Vikings from Denmark and Norway sailed the Atlantic Ocean. They raided and burned ships.

They traveled in long ships, which were sea vessels made by the Vikings that traveled up and down the European coast attacking other ships and stealing their valuables. Centuries later, many pirates attacked ships that came from the New World.

Though piracy has been in existence for centuries, the ‘Golden Age’ of piracy occurred from the 1650’s through the 1730’s.

Mary Read was a famous female pirate. She disguised herself as a man in 1721 to join the crew of pirate ‘Calico Jack’. She got captured and died in prison.

Many men turned to piracy because they wanted to experience the freedom and benefit by the riches of a pirate’s life.

Pirates often recruited crew members from the ships that they captured. Some of the crew members worked under harsh conditions on a merchant or cargo ship was more than happy to join a pirate’s crew.

Naturally, there were rules to be obeyed. One of the most important rules was that a pirate could not steal from another crew member. No women were allowed aboard. If pirates didn’t adhere to these rules, they were punished.

Some pirate ships sent offenders to a deserted island and they left them there stranded. Some were tied to the mast of the ship and whipped mercilessly while others were hanged for breaking the rules.

The pirate flag with skull and crossbones is an iconic image seen throughout history. Blackbeard named the skull and crossbones flag the Jolly Roger, which also happened to be the name of one of his ships.