Real Pirates of the Caribbean

Very simply put, a pirate is a private person, not associated with any government, who engages in robbery or violence at sea. This does not include crimes committed among people on the same vessel.

Pirates who commit acts of piracy for and at the request of their government are called “privateers.” The US used these against Britain in the American Revolution, since the government didn’t have enough money to build its own navy.

Piracy goes back as far as people used the seas for trade and transportation. The earliest recorded acts of piracy are of the unknown “Sea Peoples” against the ancient Greeks.

In the 16 th century, Spanish ships were sailing from Europe to South America and back, loaded with gold, silver, and other treasures. These ships were big, slow, and lightly guarded. They were ripe for the picking, sailing out on the lonely ocean, thousands of miles from home.

Most ships raided by pirates contained no real treasure. Generally the pirates just found food, water, clothing, and weapons. For this reason, there was no reason for most pirates to bury their treasure.

The government of a pirate ship was generally rather democratic, with the captain and quartermaster (guy in charge of supplies), elected by the crew. The captain would then appoint his officers.

There were also terms, agreed upon up front by the crew and officers, as to how any captured money was spent. Many times, the money was collected into a pool and distributed to compensate for injuries to the crew. Some records show that a pirate who lost a leg in battle was paid 600 pieces of eight (gold coins worth over $150,000 today), while an eye was only worth about 100 pieces (over $26,000).

Most of the time, pirates captured ships without killing very many people at all. The goal was to get the ship’s holdings, and maybe the ship itself, right?

Well, if you know that surrendering to the pirate ship means every person on your ship was going to be killed, wouldn’t you fight as hard as you could to keep that from happening? And on the other hand, if you knew those nasty pirates were just going to take some food, water, and money, and leave you alone, wouldn’t you be more inclined to surrender to them?

Pirates used a variety of weapons in their ship to ship battles. Upon closing with another vessel, the pirates would usually toss across grappling hooks, and last the ships together. Once the ships were tied tightly, the two crews would fight across the decks with a short sword called a cutlass, protected by small shields called bucklers.

Often more ingenious weapons were employed. Upon lashing the ships together, many pirate crews would toss caltrops onto the opposing deck. Caltrops are little multi- pointed spikes, built so that one spike always points up. Since most pirates fought barefoot, caltrops could inflict a lot of damage.

Later, pirates adopted firearms and outfitted their ships with short-range, mid-range, and long-range cannon. A ship’s size was designated by the number of cannon it contained.

The guns the pirates themselves carried were always very short, cut-down muzzleloaders. They had to be short to operate onboard a crowded ship, and as a result they were very inaccurate. To hit a guy with a pirate pistol, you had to literally be able to hit the guy with the pistol.

There are a lot of famous pirates, but let’s talk about just a few. Probably the most famous was Englishman Edward Teach, better known as “Blackbeard”. Blackbeard sailed from England to the West Indies, up and down the east coast of America where he terrorized both ships and cities.

Blackbeard was tall with broad shoulders, and a long dark beard. His shaggy black hair grew straight out from his head, giving him a frightening appearance. Often, when meeting with the captain of a ship he intended to seize, Blackbeard would stick cannon fuses in his beard and hair and light them, then walk out of his cabin and approach the other captain. Most times, they surrendered out of sheer fright.

But ol’ Blackbeard wasn’t as bloodthirsty as his reputation painted him. Most of the time he made his money by anchoring off the shores of wealthy cities, rowing in, and taking a rich guy from the city hostage. He would then demand ransom from the captive’s family. If they paid, they went free. If they didn’t, they died. They almost always paid.

One time, though, Blackbeard got a surprise. It is told in Charleston, South Carolina, that Blackbeard and his men had captured a rich man from the city named Stede Bonnett. When they demanded ransom from Bonnet’s wife, she laughed at them and told them to keep her husband. He was so heartbroken that Blackbeard took mercy on him, and even took him aboard his ship, teaching him the ways of piracy.

Other stories say that Stede was just driven to piracy by his wife’s constant nagging. Either way, Stede Bonnet became the pirate captain of the ship Revenge. It is often said that Stede Bonnet made his prisoners walk the plank, though no modern account shows him ever doing this at all.

English Captain William Kidd was actually a privateer, early in his career. He is commonly thought of as a pirate due to a mistake. In 1698, he raised a French flag over his ship, and captured a large French/Armenian vessel loaded with gold, silver, and rich fabrics. When Kidd learned the captain of the ship was an Englishman, he tried to persuade his crew to return the ship and goods. They, of course, refused, and the English government sent out ships to capture him.

Kidd was eventually lured to Boston by a friend, and sold out to the English. He was found guilty of murder and piracy, and ordered to hang. On the first try, the rope broke, so they hoisted him up and hung him again. This time it worked, and Kidd died. His body was hung in an iron cage for two years over the Thames River as a warning to any other pirates in the area.

Blackbeard was killed in a battle aboard his ship, Adventure in 1718, after being trapped off the coast of North Carolina. When his body was examined, it was found that Blackbeard had been shot five times, and badly cut at least 20 times. The English decapitated him and threw his body overboard. His head was hung from the bowsprit of an English ship.

Stede Bonnet’s ship was run aground off the coast of North Carolina, and he was captured, tried, and hanged for piracy. He was buried next to his crew, who had already been executed.

Captain Kidd’s legend lives on, mainly due to the search for his buried treasure. Maps have turned up over the years, leading modern treasure hunters on wild goose chases all over the world. One of the most intriguing possible locations is the “Money Pit” on Oak Island, Canada. Excavations have been going on here since 1795, with the speculation that beneath the ground in this one exact spot lies the treasure of Captain Kidd.

In 1795, 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular depression with a pulley hanging over it from a tree. McGinnis and his friends began digging in the depression, and discovered a layer of flagstones a few feet below ground. As they continued to dig, they discovered layers of logs every ten feet. They abandoned the dig at 30 feet. The Onslow Company took up the excavation 8 years later, and found those same logs every 10 feet, down to 90 feet, along with charcoal, putty, and coconut fiber. At 80 feet down, a large stone was found, bearing an inscription that was later deciphered to say “forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.” No photographs were taken of the stone before it disappeared in The pit then flooded to the 33 foot level. Bailing failed to lower the water level. Investors then formed the Truro Company in 1849, and dug back down to the 86 foot level, where it flooded again. They then drilled into the dirt below the water, where the auger passed through a platform of spruce at 98 feet, 22 inches of metal shards, 8 inches of oak, 22 more inches of metal, 4 inches of oak, another spruce layer, and then 7 feet of clay. The search was then abandoned.

Another excavation attempt was made in 1861, when the shaft collapsed into a cave or booby trap beneath. Further excavations were made in 1866, 1893, 1909, 1931, 1935, 1936, and 1959, with no success. A 1931 dig sank a shaft near the old one, and found a number of artifacts, including an axe, an anchor fluke, and a pick. A 70 ton crane was brought in in the 1960s, and a huge shaft excavated to a level of 235 feet. It is said that a camera lowered into a cave at that level found human remains, tools, and several chests. The cave collapsed before anyone could get to it, however, and no verification has ever been made of these claims. An American has recently bought the island, and Canada has agreed to allow excavations to continue until the end of 2010, when all treasure hunting on Oak Island will cease.

Today, modern-day pirates harass ships from all over the world off the coast of Africa. Pirates from the nation of Somalia have raided numerous ships, and even captured one American merchant captain, Richard Phillips, before being shot by US Navy Seals. Not really Pirates of the Caribbean, are they?