Pirates (Art by Giuliano Bròcani)
A pirate is a seaman, robber who attacks, seizes or destroys any ship at high seas and sometimes even harbors at the shore. Such an act is called piracy, an offence against the universal law of society. Besides that, they were involved in many other illegal activities like smuggling and slave trades as well as many adventures involving the supernatural.
Description[]
Many pirates of the Middle Ages are portrayed as wearing tattered rags but pirates were much more likely to wear comfortable clothes that were practical to sail in. Hoop earrings were sometimes worn because it was thought that the pressure the applied to the earlobes would prevent seasickness. The gold jewelry could also provide the money for their funeral, should they be killed.
The pirates perform these actions for personal interest, without any legal rights. And as those attacks were unauthorized acts, they were treated like criminals in all countries. In periods when those sea-robbers were most influential, piracy was punished with death almost everywhere. Legality of their actions is also the main distinction between them and the privateers or buccaneers for whom we can also say that were some kind of pirates, but not treated like criminals.
Pirates have journeyed across the Seven Seas for all sorts of gains, whether it be for the thrill of adventure, the ambition to find a powerful supernatural item or treasure long lost to humanity, it all remains the same for them and of course they are not without the enemies they make along the way as well as confronting beasts and entities only found in myth.
Overview[]
The pirates have existed and terrorized from the very earliest days of history and they are still active. Some regions like the islands of the Indian Ocean, west coasts of Africa and especially the Caribbean, were being their “hunting grounds” for centuries.
Pirates have been around since people began transporting goods through sea. The earliest known pirates were the Sea People, who pillaged and plundered the Mediterranean Sea in the 13th century B.C. The ancient Illyrians had spent years pillaging Roman and Greek vessels in the Adriatic Sea. The piracy in the old times was mostly prominent in the Mediterranean, although there were the Vikings in the Northern seas. Mediterranean pirates were hunted down by powerful empires, such as Greek, Roman, and Persian; while the Vikings flourished and conquered new lands.
The Caribbean was the most prominent area for piracy. The vast loads of Aztec gold traveling from the New World and Spain was the perfect target for aspiring swashbucklers. Colonies were settled in the islands and on the mainland, triggering trading routes and transportation by sea. Many people became pirates shortly after the end of the Spanish Succession War. Buccaneers began arriving in the mid-late 17th century. The buccaneers were people that smoked meat over a structure called a buccan, thus earning their name. The buccaneers lived on the island of Hispaniola, selling their smoked goods to passing ships. After the Spanish slaughtered their pig cattle, the buccaneers, not knowing any other job to do and seeing the fleets of gold being transported in open waters, turned to piracy. Pirates were rising in fame and some were forever immortalized as the most fearsome pirates that have ever sailed. From the Bahamas to Trinidad to the Florida Keys, no merchant ship was safe from pirates.
