Angus Konstam's pirate blog

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FREQUENTLY ASKED PIRATE QUESTIONS

 

        

Angus Konstam is frequently asked questions about pirates and piracy. Here are his answers to some of the most commonly posed ones;

 

What is piracy?

Piracy is simply an act of robbery on the high seas. That’s why the same definition that applied in the days of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd still works today.

 

What are the origins? Who were the first pirates?

Piracy has been going on ever since mankind first started messing about in boats. The first recorded instances of piracy are recorded on the walls of temples in Ancient Egypt, and date back to around the 14th century BC – almost three and a half thousand years ago.

 

When was the golden age of piracy?

The so-called Golden Age of Piracy was a phrase coined by pirate novelists and historians to describe the period from between 1695 and 1730, when all the best-known pirates were in business. That includes Blackbeard, Captain William Kidd, “Black Bart” Roberts, “Calico Jack” Rackam, and the two women pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Reade. In fact, the real peak came after 1713, when peace between Britain and France meant that hundreds of privateers – state-sponsored pirates if you like – were out of a job. Rather than return to more legitimate pursuits, many turned to piracy. This peak continued until around 1722, ending with the mass hanging of “Black Bart” Robert’s pirate crew on the West African coast.

 

What was life like for pirates back then?
Almost all pirates in the early 18th century were merchant seamen, and were well-used to life at sea. However, as a member of the pirate crew they escaped the often harsh discipline and poor conditions often found on other ships of the period. Instead, pirate crews elected their own captain, established their own rules and codes, and shared their plunder out equally amongst themselves. This apparent freedom, however, came at a price. In the end, most pirates of the “Golden Age” were hunted down, caught and hanged. In other words, a pirate’s life was nasty, brutish and short!

 

 Who were the most famous pirates? Were there any famous Scottish ones?
Probably the most famous pirate in history was Blackbeard, so named because of his distinctive black, bushy beard. His real name was probably Edward Teach, and he reputedly hailed from Bristol. He operated in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic seaboard of North America around 1717-18, and finally met his come-uppance in a sea battle fought off Ocrakoke Island, in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

 Of course, Scotland had its own pirates. Probably the most famous of these was Captain William Kidd, who was probably a native of Greenock. He probably never planned to be a pirate at all, but set out to be a privateer captain. However, after attacking a British ship in the Indian Ocean he became a wanted man, and was eventually brought to trial and hanged in May 1701.

  Then there was one of my favourites – Captain John Gow, who was from Orkney. He turned to piracy in 1724, and after cruising in the Atlantic he returned to Orkney, where he tried to pass himself off as a legitimate sea captain. The truth eventually came out, and he fled to sea, but was caught a few days later during a raid on a laird’s house on the Orkney island of Eday. Like most other pirates of the time, John Gow was transported to London, where he was tried, convicted, and then hanged. You find a lot of public hangings in pirate history – it was a great way for the authorities to make the point that piracy doesn’t pay!

 

How do modern-day pirates operate? Where are we most likely to find them?

The only difference between the pirates of old and those in operation today is that instead of attacking a ship using cutlasses and pistols, these modern pirates have AK-47 assault rifles. In recent years, pirate attacks have been reported in the Malacca Straits near Singapore, off the coast of Nigeria, and more significantly, off the coast of Somalia.

 The Gulf of Aden is now the world’s biggest pirate hot-spot. These pirates don’t just attack ships and steal whatever they can find on board. Recently they’ve also been taking control of these ships, and sailing them into a friendly Somalian port. Once there they’re hold the ship, the cargo and the crew to ransom. In most cases the ship owners have no option but to pay up. At the moment, upwards of 200 sailors of all nationalities are being held prisoner in Somali ports, and over 25 ships have been captured this year alone. That makes it a big problem, and a growing one, as with every successful attack, more recruits flock to Somalia, wanting a share of the action. The only good news in all this is that at the moment, these pirates rarely kill people, as they need live hostages, not dead ones.

  

What are their vessels and equipment like?

For the most part, the Somali pirates use fast speedboats, so they can race out from the coast, attack a passing ship, and return to the safety of the shore before anyone can stop them. Another ploy is to use local fishing boats – even sailing ones – and disguise themselves as harmless fishermen. Once they come close to a merchant ship they’ll arm themselves, and send a boat over to seize their victim. With the money from ransoms and plunder, they can buy satellite phones, radar, weapons, navigation equipment – everything they need to make their operation slicker and more efficient.

 

How difficult an area is it to police?
The area is almost impossible to police. For a start, the Somali coast is over 1,500 miles long, and for more than 500 miles it borders the Red Sea, which – thanks to the Suez Canal – is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. That makes it very hard to patrol, especially as pirates can launch an attack and be back on land in less than an hour.

 The trouble with Somalia is that for the past 16 years there hasn’t been any effective government. The country is an anarchic place, where rival warlords vie for control of the land, and ports like Berbera and Mogadishu are places where law and order has completely broken down. The navies of the world can only do so much. Until the international community steps in, and some sort of order is imposed on land, then these pirate attacks will continue.

 

 Why has there been a spate of recent incidents?
A year or so ago, most of these attacks were crimes of opportunity – a bit like a burglar discovering an open window, and deciding to break in and help himself. Unfortunately, these days piracy is now big business in Somalia. Local fishermen have teamed up with militiamen to combine the skills of the seaman with the firepower of the modern soldier.


At first, the Somali pirates claimed they were acting to protect their own waters. Last week, one of them said; “We don’t consider ourselves pirates. “We consider the pirates are those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.” Unfortunately their definition of home waters is fairly elastic, and these attacks are usually carried out in international waters.

 

 Are there any myths about pirates you'd like to question?
Unlike the pirates of fiction, no historical pirate was ever known to make people walk the plank, or to bury treasure. Actually, that isn’t strictly true, as Kidd hid his plunder on an island outside New York – a sort of insurance policy – before sailing into port to meet the governor. The New York Governor simply arrested Kidd, and forced him to say where he’d hidden his loot. The authorities then dug it up.

 Walking the plank comes from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Treasure maps, where “X” marks the spot are another piece of pirate fiction, invented by another Scottish writer, Robert Louis Stevenson, who penned Treasure Island. They also didn’t go “Arrr” all the time – that was the invention of Robert Newton, the actor who played Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Island, filmed in 1950.

 That said, historical pirates of the early 18th century would have been as familiar as any other seamen with exotic pets such as parrots, wooden legs and desert islands.

 

 Have movies like Pirates of the Caribbean distorted the reality?
Yes. Thanks to Hollywood, Disney and Robert Louis Stevenson, its now almost impossible to unravel pirate fact from pirate fiction. Still, for the past ten years I’ve been working hard at it, and I can honestly say, some of the real pirates of history were far more colourful than any characters invented by filmmakers.

 

What’s your favourite pirate tale?
A few years ago I wrote a book called Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorioius Pirate. Of all the things he did, probably the most daring was to blockade the port of Charleston, South Carolina. At the time it was the third biggest port in Colonial America, and for a week Blackbeard and his crew lay off its harbour, and captured every ship that tried to sail in or out. The equivalent today would be if a gang of Somali pirates established themselves in the English Channel, captured every ship that tried to sail past, and brought the shipping of Rotterdam, London and Antwerp to a standstill!

 

Do you get “good” pirates?
As pirates were criminals, you probably don’t really get good ones. However, someone like Sir Francis Drake was seen as a pirate by the Spanish, and a national hero by the English. I suppose its all a matter of the way you look at them!

 Other pirates also weren’t as tough as they sounded. For all his formidable appearance, bark and bluster, there’s no evidence that Blackbeard actually killed anyone, at least, not before his final sea battle against Lieutenant Maynard of the royal Navy, in November 1918. In fact, you could say he was a bit of a piratical pussy cat!

 

What’s the significance of flags to pirates?
Pirate flags were designed to intimidate people into surrendering without t a fight. The “Jolly Roger” comes from a French  phrase meaning jolly red (rouge), the colour flown by privateers. Like skeletons, skulls and crossed bones, this was a symbol of death, or a fight “without quarter”. In other words, it sad, if you resist, we’ll kill you!

 

How did you become interested in the subject?
From 1995-2001 I was a curator in a maritime museum in Key West, Florida. That put me in the heart of the pirate map. In 1998 we put on a pirate exhibition, and I started looking into the subject then, trying to separate the myth from the reality. I’ve been working at it ever since!

 

Why do pirates interest moviemakers so much?
Pirates are anti-authority figures, rebels without a cause, who life according to their own rules. That’s what makes them so appealing to youngsters, and its probably what makes them so attractive for adults as well!

 

Do you get women pirates?

 Yes. Anne Bonny & Mary Reade sailed with “Calico Jack” Rackam in the Caribbean during the early 18th century, and when they were captured, both reputedly fought like wildcats, while most of the men in the crew were too hung over to lift a sword. Then, when they were facing execution, it was discovered that they were both pregnant, so they escaped the noose. Another famous woman pirate was Madam Cheng, who ruled a confederation of pirates on the coast of China during the early 1800’s. Until she retired, she ruled over a pirate empire consisting of hundreds of pirate junks, and thousands of men. In fact, the Chinese pirate chief in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film was loosely on this formidable lady.

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A selection of pirate books by Angus Konstam:

               

Angus Konstam's Pirate Blog           Blackbeard:Ten facts you mightn't know