Pirates and Piracy: From the dawn of civilization.

[mojo]

I figured i may as well share some of my favorite threads that i authored at ATS, some of you have probably all ready seen most of them anyway.
I decided to put it in this forum as there are some legends of lost pirate cultures which i'll cover later.
I have a heap more links and story's of pirates and piracy to add to this as we go along.

Since man first sat on a piece of bark and floated on the water Piracy has been a way of life, in fact could probably vie with another as the oldest proffesion. ;)
Down through the ages piracy has been at once a scourge to some, a way of life to others, an adventure, a last resort and an epedemic that still threatens sea borne trade in todays modern world. Piracy costs billions of dollars each year worldwide, it never has been just a problem that surfaced during some romantacized era in the Carribean or the Spanish main.
I'll outline some of the history of piracy first starting in ancient times then i'll touch on some of my favorite pirate era's.

Wikipedia, for a good broad summary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates) though not completely accurate.


The earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the Aegean in the 13th century BC.


I would expect that piracy would reach further back in time than this, anywhere that water borne trade was being carried out surely would have been open to piracy.
If a man see's room for profit with little risk he will take it, or if he is forced by desperation because of social or economic impacts, he will do what he needs to do to survive.
Sumer and Mesopotamia were carrying out trade on the water as far back as 3000bc, both on the river systems of the Tigris and the Euphrates as well as sea and ocean going trade in the Persian gulf and possibly colonization.
Back then that area was marshes and channels feeding off the river systems, perfect ambush and hideouts for anyone interested in piracy. :)

Link (http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch01.htm)


By 4500 BCE a people called Ubaidians by archaeologists were living in towns in southern Mesopotamia, near where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers emptied into the Persian Gulf. The Ubaidians drained marshes. They grew wheat and barley and irrigated their crops by digging ditches to river waters. They kept farm animals. Some of them manufactured pottery. They did weaving, leather or metal work, and some were involved in trade with other societies.


By 3800 BCE the Sumerians had supplanted the Ubaidians and Semites in southern Mesopotamia. They built better canals for irrigating crops and for transporting crops by boat to village centers.

Ok, so i suggest that piracy would have had its beginnings around 4000bc at least, a good 2000yrs before the wikipedia article states.
The first Pirates i believe would have been around where the scholars suggest that the cradle of civilization began, that would make sense.

Then we have the Sea Peoples. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Peoples)


The Sea Peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty, and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty.

The origins of the Sea peoples is still debated but there is little doubt that they were the scourge of shipping and trade at that period in time.

And my favorite Pirate's, the Illyrians (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyrians), a group who harrassed and harangued the mighty Roman Empire.


The Illyrians formed several kingdoms in the central Balkans, and the first known Illyrian king was Bardyllis. Illyrian kingdoms were often at war with ancient Macedonia, and the Illyrian pirates were also a significant danger to neighbouring peoples.


Under Queen Teuta, Illyrians attacked Roman merchant vessels plying the Adriatic Sea and gave Rome an excuse to invade the Balkans.
In the Illyrian Wars of 229 BC and 219 BC, Rome overran the Illyrian settlements in the Neretva river valley and suppressed the piracy that had made the Adriatic unsafe.

Cilician Pirates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilician_Pirates) kidnapped Julius Caesar and held him for ransom. :o they never taught me that in History classes.


The Cilician pirates dominated the Mediterranean Sea from the 2nd century BC up until their speedy suppression by Pompey (67-66 BC). Although there were notorious pirate strongholds in Cilicia, Cilician had long been a term for pirates, who came from all parts of the ancient world - driven by the lure of adventure or by desperation.


Pirates seized control of the vessel in 75 BC, kidnapped Caesar, and held him for ransom. Caesar was insulted at the ransom demand, which was insultingly low, and promised to crucify the pirates after he was free. At his insistence, the pirates raised the ransom demand to a level in accordance with his station: his friends quickly raised the sum. After his freedom was purchased, he assembled a small army, which captured the pirates and crucified them.

Polynesian pirates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact#Polynesians) an extremely skillful and competant sea going race who may have even been the first pirates of the sea to reach the America's?


Between 300 and 1200 AD Polynesians in canoes spread throughout the Polynesian Triangle going at least as far as Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii; and perhaps on to the Americas. The kumara (sweet potato), a plant native to the Americas, was widespread in Polynesia when Europeans first reached the Pacific. Kumara has been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 AD, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 AD and spread across Polynesia from there, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back

Pirates have sailed our rivers, sea's, lakes and oceans since it became profitable to do so.
There have been pirates from all races and geographical locality's and ive only scratched the surface so far, weve not even reached the classical period.
I'll continue to add to this if there is enough interest. My main reason for this thread was the idea that a lot of people seem to have, thanks to the movies, of this romantic notion that pirates and piracy belong to one specific time in our history when nothing could be further from the truth.

There are legends and myth's, of daring deeds and huge risks, sacrifice and betrayal, adventure and loss reaching back to the dawn of time that surpass anything that Hollywood could possibly imagine.

:D And i'll bring you some of those legends, myth's and true story's.

Feel free to add any of your own favorite pirates or story's or legends as well.

mojo

[Yo Mama]

I love that story about Caesar. Colleen McCullough includes it in her extremely well researched First Man in Rome series.

[mojo]

I love that story about Caesar. Colleen McCullough includes it in her extremely well researched First Man in Rome series.

Yes its not something your ever taught at school. I came across it when i was researching the Illyrian pirates for a story i was going to write.
Now the Illyrians and piracy is an extremely interesting period.

[mojo]

Some famous Pirate strongholds.

The beautiful Coracesium/Alanya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coracesium)


Alexander's successors left the area to Ptolemy I Soter after 323 BC. His dynasty maintained loose control over the mainly Isaurian population, and the port became a popular refuge for Mediterranean pirates.[2] The city resisted Antiochus III the Great of the neighboring Seleucid kingdom in 199 BC, but was loyal to the pirate Diodotus Tryphon when he seized the Seleucid crown from 142 to 138 BC. His rival Antiochus VII Sidetes completed work in 137 BC on a new castle and port, begun under Diodotus Tryphon.[8]
The Roman Republic fought Cilician pirates in 102 BC, when Marcus Antonius the Orator established a proconsulship in nearby Side, and in 78 BC under Servilius Vatia, who moved on the Isaurian tribes.[9] The period of piracy in Alanya finally ended after the city's incorporation into the Pamphylia province by Pompey in 67 BC, with the Battle of Korakesion fought in the city's harbor.[10] I


Tortuga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortuga)


From 1630 onward, the island of Tortuga was divided into French and English colonies allowing buccaneers to use the island more frequently as their main base of operations. In 1633, the first slaves were imported from Africa to aid in the plantations. The new slave trend did not stick, and by 1635, the use of slaves had ended. The slaves were said to be out of control on the island, and at the same time there had been continual disagreements and fighting between French and English colonies. In the same year, the Spanish returned and quickly conquered the English and French colonies, only to leave again, due to the island being too small to be of major importance. This abandonment of Tortuga allowed the return of both French and English pirates. In 1638, the Spanish again returned to take the island and rid it of all French and newly settled Dutch. They occupied the island, but were soon expelled by the French and Dutch colonists.
By 1640, the buccaneers of Tortuga were calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. The pirate population was mostly made up of French and Englishmen, along with a small number of Dutchmen. In 1645, in an attempt to bring harmony and control over the island, the acting French governor imported roughly 1,650 prostitutes, hoping to regularize the unruly pirates' lives. By the year 1670, as the buccaneer era was in decline, many of the pirates, seeking a new source of trade, turned to log cutting and trading wood from the island. At this time, however, a Welsh pirate named Henry Morgan started to promote himself and invite the pirates on the island of Tortuga to set sail under him. They were hired by the French as a striking force that allowed France to have a much stronger hold on the Caribbean region. Consequently, the pirates were never really controlled, and kept Tortuga as a neutral hideout for pirate booty. In 1680, new Acts of Parliament forbade sailing under foreign flags (in opposition to former practice). This was a major legal blow to Caribbean pirates. Settlements were finally made in the Treaty of Ratisbon of 1684, signed by the European powers, that put an end to piracy. Most of the pirates after this time were hired out into the Royal services to suppress their former buccaneer allies.


Madagaskar (http://www.cindyvallar.com/havens3.html)


Madagascar lies 250 miles off the southeast coast of Africa and was close to two trading routes: the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Small bands of native peoples populated the island, but none lived in close proximity to each other, and some welcomed the pirates to their shores. The fact that no European power held the island also made Madagascar appealing to pirates because it lacked laws and religious morals. It also met the other criteria of a perfect haven because it had sheltered coves, abundant supplies of food and fresh water—including limes and oranges needed to prevent scurvy—and beaches ideal for scraping barnacles from ships’ hulls.
Madagascar became a particular favorite of pirates before the Golden Age of Piracy. French privateers, who preyed on ships sailing the Red Sea, first used it as a base of operations sometime before 1614. Later, the island attracted more pirates in part because plundering the Caribbean became less and less profitable.


Korcula (http://www.korcula.net/history/shipbuilding.htm)


Shipbuilding in Korcula is very old and certainly older than the written documents about it. As an Illyrian pirate stronghold and a Greek colony of the Antiquity Korcula was an important centre.Since it was inhabited by the Neretva pirates, it is reasonable to presume that boats were constructed there as most of the activity of the town was carried out on the sea.


Antikythira and Crete (http://www.antikythira.gr/en/history.php)


The Minoans left few traces on the island, but it is likely that it came under their control as they sought to secure navigation throughout the Aegean. No evidence has been found of settlement between the Minoan period and the end of the fourth century, though we know that the island, by virtue of its location, was always a useful hideout and base of operations for pirates.
After about 300 BC the island played an important part in piracy undertaken by nearby Cretan cities, each of which claimed the island for themselves. Each wanted it as a lookout post and lair for attacks on those ships that dared to pass through the surrounding seas. We also have evidence of expeditions undertaken from Rhodes against the Antikytherans (who are referred to as 'the Aegilian robbers'). Plutarch writes that the island was "occupied" by King Kleomenes the third of Sparta on his way to Egypt after his defeat in Sellasia in 222 BC. Plutarch recounts that Thirykion, a faithful follower of Kleomenes who as a Spartan could not bear to retreat, chose to commit suicide on Antikythera. From very early, the Cretan city of Falasarna seems to have taken control of the island. We know that settlements on the island and in Falasarna were destroyed between 69 and 67 BC, as part of the efforts by Rhodes to quell piracy in the Mediterranean basin. The island was again inhabited towards the end of the Roman Imperial Era, in the fourth and fifth century AD. Soon
afterwards Arabian pirates occupied both Crete and Kythera and no doubt influenced life on the island of Antikythera as well. We know little of the island's subsequent history until the Third crusade


Malaysia and Borneo (http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_profiles/2004-2005/Malaysia.html)


In the eighteenth century, various struggles for political and economic influence fragmented authority in the Malay world, so that conflict and instability were the norm. In the peninsula’s western areas, two groups that had migrated to the peninsula for centuries, the Buginese and the Minangkabau, often fought each other. By 1740 the victorious Buginese ruled many peninsular states and continued to do so until they were defeated by an alliance of Johor and the Dutch in 1784. In eastern areas of the peninsula, Thai kingdoms often fought with and ruled Malay kingdoms from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Furthermore, Malay waters become some of the most dangerous in the world. Dutch monopolistic trade practices encouraged substantial black-market trade, and idle anak raja (sons of rulers) supported piracy as a means of income and recreation suitable to their elite status. Similarly, in Borneo piracy and slave raids supported by foreign powers were common. Piracy even forced the British East India Company to abandon two island settlements (in 1775 and 1776) off the coast of Borneo.



Theres some other famous havens/strongholds which i'll get to later, next i'll focus on some of the more famous pirates.

[mojo]

Black Sam Bellamy.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/ax/frame1.html

Sam Bellamy was in love. The object of his affection, according to Cape Cod lore, was Maria Hallett of Eastham, Massachusetts. Her parents liked Sam well enough but didn't think a poor sailor would make much of a husband. So in 1715 Bellamy went looking for his fortune.
He and his friend Palgrave Williams started out as ordinary treasure hunters, looking for shipwrecks. They found none. Rather than return empty-handed, the legend says, the determined lover became a pirate—"Black Sam" Bellamy.
It was the perfect career for him. In just a year of raiding, Bellamy and his crew plundered more than 50 ships on the Caribbean and Atlantic. They were getting rich—quick (http://javascript<b></b>:openWin(11)). And they were rebelling against a world that had sentenced them to grinding poverty. Bellamy's crew called themselves "Robin Hood's Men" and lived by a remarkably democratic set of rules (http://javascript<b></b>:openArtWin()).
Then came the coup of a lifetime. In February 1717 Bellamy captured the Whydah, a three-masted English slave ship. With her came gold and silver worth more than 20,000 pounds sterling—money earned from the sale of human beings. For men who might have earned two pounds a month as honest sailors, it was a fortune beyond belief.
"Lads, we've gotten enough," Bellamy is said to have told his men. "It's time to go home." The pirate fleet headed to New England—and Maria. But triumph turned to tragedy on April 26, 1717. A fierce storm sank the ship, killing Bellamy and all but 2 of his 145 men.


http://colonial-america.suite101.com/article.cfm/pirate_buccaneer_black_sam_bellamy

Rebellion pulsated in Bellamy's blood--beginning with his hairstyle. Refusing to wear the powdered wigs of his day, he secured his long, flowing black hair with a black ribbon, thus earning the nickname, "Black Sam" Bellamy. The colorful swashbuckler enjoyed fine clothing and no doubt cut an eye-catching figure standing on the deck of his ship--his sash bulging with several pistols action ready.
Leaving his native England at an early age, perhaps as a teenager, Bellamy sailed to the New World. Eventually, he met and fell in love with a Mary Hallet of Cape Cod. He had asked her to marry him, but whether she refused or her family did not approve of the match, or poverty was an issue, the marriage did not take place. Bellamy sailed away in search of sunken treasure.
He formed a partnership with financier Paul Williams. Together they searched the coast off Florida for sunken Spanish wealth. Disappointed that their searches came to naught, Bellamy and Williams decided to take up pirating, seriously.
Alliance with Other Infamous Rogues
Bellamy and Williams teamed up with Benjamin Hornigold and Edward "Blackbeard" Teach upon the Mary Anne. Hornigold refused to raid British ships. For whatever reason, he was ousted from his leadership of the Mary Anne and Bellamy reigned in his place.
They plundered ships from the Caribbean and along the eastern, American seaboard. Denied riches through normal practices, Bellamy snatched riches his own way. His crew considered themselves akin to Robin Hood's men, after the legendary English folk hero.




There was also some thought that Bellamy may have been a Freemason due to a compass symbol found etched into a plate, supposedly Bellamy's.

[Gunter]

In New England, Black Beard is still a folk hero. RIP.

[TWDAMO]

In New England, Black Beard is still a folk hero. RIP.

why is that BE?