As long as there have been ships going to sea there have been seafaring pirates who preyed on them. The term "pirates" covers a broad spectrum of this "profession" and the terms are often misused. Before going into the history, some definitions are in order.

Pirates: Pirates are those who commit warlike deeds on their own, not sponsored by any government. They not only attack ships at sea but may land and raid towns on shore. The term is also used for people like corporate raiders in today's business world and to those referred to the Pirate King in his song. Pirates continue to make headlines today.

Privateers are privately owned ships which carry a letter of marque (a document issued by a nation allowing a private citizen to seize citizens or goods of another nation, theoretically of a nation which has committed some offense against the issuing government.) In other words, legalized piracy. The ship's cost were born by private inventors who shared with profits. Sir Francis Drake was a privateer who also circumnavigated the globe. He is a hero to the English, but the Spanish regarded him as a pirate.

Corsairs: Corsairs were the pirates of the Mediterranean, especially those of the north coast of Africa. Many of these were sponsored by the rulers, but not officially.

Buccaneers: Buccaneers were pirates who were active in the Caribbean Sea in the seventeenth century. Many were actually privateers who carried letters of marque from England and shared their profits with the Crown.

Cornish "Pirates": If there were any Cornish Pirates they worked for ships not associated with Cornwall. They certainly were not "famous" as the Major-General calls them in The Pirates of Penzance. In fact the title is one of the jokes of the operetta. What Cornwall is famous for are its smugglers. Today there are Cornish Pirates. They are one of the teams of the British professional rugby union, and their base is in Penzance. The name is a tribute to the Gilbert and Sullivan work. A list of famous English pirates, some of whom may be Cornish,can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:English_pirates.

Smugglers: Cornwall with its many isolated rocky coves is made for smugglers. In Gillbert and Sullivan's time these were private ship owners who would sail to countries such as France where they could legally buy goods such as wine which was much cheaper there than in England. (In France tea cost one sixth and brandy one fifth of what they did in England.) They would return to one of the coves where they could unload the cargo with the complicity of local confederates (who included all classes from peasants to those of high rank) and who would then take it, hide it, and dispose of it for prices much higher that those paid for it abroad. Indeed, smuggling was one of the major industries of Cornwall and constituted a large share of its economy.

ANCIENT TIMES: The earliest known reports of piracy are from the fourteenth century BCE. Homer mentions them and Herodotus and other Greek writers spoke of piracy as just another profession, bad only if the pirate was an enemy. Throughout the history of the early Roman Empire, pirates were a constant menace, often causing famine in Italy by waylaying grain ships. One of their captives was Julius Caesar and, when the pirates demanded twenty talents for his ransom, the proud young man declared he was worth fifty. In 67 BC, Pompey was chosen to rid the Mediterranean of its pirates, and all the resources of Rome were put at his disposal. He was given three years to accomplish the task and finished in three months. While there were sporadic outbreaks after that, piracy was effectively crushed and, after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the advent of the 'Dark Ages', it diminished until the time of the crusades. Saint Patrick was captured by Irish pirates..

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE:
The northern seas were the realm of the Vikings of the early Middle Ages

Barbary Corsairs: During the Middle Ages, piracy was rampant in the Mediterranean regions. One of its main activities was the enslavement of the captured crews. For more on this see The Corsairs of Algeria.

Pirates of the Caribbean and Buccaneers: The Golden Age of Piracy was from about 1690 to 1730 and is the one most pictured in books and films such as Captain Blood, Frenchman's Creek and Pirates of the Caribbean. In particular, pirates preyed on the rich cargos on Spanish and French ships carrying gold and other products from the New World. The buccaneers gave England an economical way to control Atlantic trade without having to use its own warships. This brought a twofold benefit; the government did not have to bear the cost and it received some of the booty. Henry Morgan was one of the most famous of these. Ruth was not alone as a woman with a pirate crew. While they were relatively few in comparison to men, there were many women pirates.

A little known fact about Cotton Mather, the New England Puritan best known because of his involvement in the Salem Witch Trials, is that he preached to and about pirates.

MODERN PIRACY:
The Constitution of the United States authorizes Congress to grant Letters of Marque. In the early nineteenth century attacks by ships from Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands and others continued. The loses to the Barbary states amounted to about 20% of the government income and resulted in the Barbary Wars with the states of North Africa. One of the relics of this time is in the United States Marines hymn "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli". Piracy was also rife among the sea trade of nineteenth century China, and it continues unabated in the waters near Melanesia. There was a relative lull until World War II when a Letter of Marque was granted to a U.S. airship.

Until recently most people thought of pirates in the romantic terms of those pictured in books, theatre and film. However, all that has changed. Almost daily there are news reports of piracy and smuggling, particularly the of pirates of Somalia who prey on the cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden which are nearing or leaving the Suez Canal. Because these ships, though very large, are staffed by very small crews, they can easily be overcome by pirates using very small, fast boats. Other attacks occur in international waters where jurisdiction is vague. Laws and international treaties about piracy have not been kept up to date. There are also problems with military ships that capture them. They may not have the authority to try the pirates, and they can not just execute them as they did in the past. Some pirates claim asylum in a country such as Great Britain which captures them, because they might be executed at home. This would cause more problems for the host country, so they are let go.

The pirates of Somalia are usually not interested in the cargo itself but the cash in the safe and the possibility of ransom. In some respects the situation in Somalia is similar to that in Cornwall in the nineteenth century. It is one of the world's poorest countries and the pirates' take like that of the Cornish smugglers, can constitute a large share of the countries income and help the living standard of the entire nation, not just the pirates. There is also another benefits. The rich fishing waters off the coast were being depleted by foreign fishing fleets with their factory trawlers. The pirates have caused many of these to leave the area, the fish are increasing and Somalia is reaping the benefit.

The smuggling of drugs can be compared to the smuggling of wine by the Cornish.

Some Internet sites:

http://www.cindyvallar.com/piratearticles.html a list of articles about pirates of all times and all places with a link to each..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buccaneer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsairs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggling
http://www.britannia.com/history/legend/cornish/cornss07.html
http://www.connexions.co.uk/culture/smuggler.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia

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Revised March 2010
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