Real Pirates of the Caribbean

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Real Pirates of the Caribbean
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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.
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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
didnt have enough money to build its own navy.
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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.
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In the 16th 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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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Most of the time, pirates captured ships without
killing very many people at all. The goal was to
get the ships holdings, and maybe the ship
itself, right?
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Well, if you know that surrendering to the pirate
ship means every person on your ship was going to
be killed, wouldnt 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, wouldnt you be more
inclined to surrender to them?
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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.
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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.
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Later, pirates adopted firearms and outfitted
their ships with short-range, mid-range, and
long-range cannon. A ships size was designated
by the number of cannon it contained.
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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.
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There are a lot of famous pirates, but lets 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.
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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.
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But ol Blackbeard wasnt 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 captives family. If they paid, they went
free. If they didnt, they died. They almost
always paid.
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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 Bonnets 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.
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Other stories say that Stede was just driven to
piracy by his wifes 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Stede Bonnets 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.
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Captain Kidds 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.
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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 1912. 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.
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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.
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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?