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Introduction

The traditional "Jolly Roger" of piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, while the dedicated ships that pirates use are called pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. A land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes.

While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land (especially across national borders or in connection with taking over and robbing a car or train), or in other major bodies of water or on a shore, in cyberspace, as well as the fictional possibility of space piracy, it generally refers to maritime piracy. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the early 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue (with estimated worldwide losses of US$16 billion per year in 2004), particularly in the waters between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore.

Presently, pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles, and machine guns, grenades and rocket propelled grenades use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships. They also use larger vessels, known as "mother ships", to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice, as these attacks often occur in international waters. Some nations have used their naval forces to protect private ships from pirate attacks and to pursue pirates, and some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons, or sound cannons to repel boarders, and use radar to avoid potential threats. (Full article...)

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Charlotte Badger (1778 to after 1843) was a former convict who was on board the Venus during a mutiny in Tasmania in 1806. Taken to New Zealand, she was rescued by Captain Turnbull of the Indispensible, and eventually she returned to Sydney. In the intervening centuries, a number of writers have contributed to the fiction that she took an active role in the mutiny and she became known – erroneously – as Australia’s first female pirate. (Full article...)

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Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The character was created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and is portrayed by Johnny Depp. The characterization of Sparrow is based on a combination of The Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards and Looney Tunes cartoon character Pepé Le Pew. He first appears in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He later appears in the sequels Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

In the films, Sparrow is one of the nine pirate lords in the Brethren Court, the Pirate Lords of the Seven Seas. He can be treacherous and survives mostly by using wit and negotiation rather than by force, opting to flee most dangerous situations and to fight only when necessary. Sparrow is introduced seeking to regain his ship, the Black Pearl, from his mutinous first mate, Hector Barbossa. Later, he attempts to escape his blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones while fighting the East India Trading Company. In later adventures he searches for the Fountain of Youth and the Trident of Poseidon. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that the opera The Devil and Daniel Webster features a jury of ghosts made up of famous historical American figures who are now residents of Hell; including the pirate Blackbeard?
... that U.S. district judge Loretta Preska has presided over criminal cases against a basketball coach, a computer hacker, a Somali pirate, and a Rikers Island guard?
... that the developers of Serious Sam's Bogus Detour created a free version of the game to entice pirates to buy the original?
... that the current Indonesian ambassador to Nigeria, Usra Hendra Harahap, personally led a rescue operation to free Indonesian crew members taken hostage by pirates in June 2020?
... that the play-by-mail game Beyond the Stellar Empire was part of the "stomping ground" of the genre's top players, allowing them to govern a space colony or join a space pirate band?
... that the Casa Fuerte de Adeje was built in Tenerife in the 1550s to protect a sugar mill against pirates, but the complex was destroyed by fire in 1902 and has yet to be rebuilt?

... that English pirate Henry Every, who was sometimes known as Long Ben, was one of the few major pirate captains to retire with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle?
... that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?
... that there is only one account of walking the plank?

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Selected quotations

“

Now for our affair's are on the razor's edge, men of Ionia, wither we are to be free or slaves ... so if you will bear hardships now, you will suffer temporarily but be able to overcome your enemies

”

— Dionysius the Phocaean

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General images

The following are images from various piracy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Map of Durrës in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 2Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
Image 3Barbaria by Jan Janssonius, shows the coast of North Africa, an area known in the 17th century as Barbaria. c. 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 4Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy (from Piracy)
Image 5Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
Image 6Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni, the last of the Barbary Pirates. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 7Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 8A person costumed in the character of captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp's lead role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (from Piracy)
Image 9Iban war prahu in Skerang river (from Piracy)
Image 10Private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 11Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
Image 12Time series of maritime traffic crossing the Indian Ocean showing the effect of piracy and its progressive decline in re-routing ships. Each sub-plot shows 6-month colour-coded trips, red southbound and green northbound, using Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) historical data. Operational authorities requested an increase of LRIT reporting frequency from ships in 2009 and 2010 in order to better track them remotely in the High Risk Area. The increase of tracking points can be erroneously perceived as an apparently higher volume of traffic with respect to other periods. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 13British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 14Modern reconstruction of skull alleged to have belonged to 14th century pirate Klaus Störtebeker. He was the leader of the privateer guild Victual Brothers, who later turned to piracy and roamed European seas. (from Piracy)
Image 15Mulai Ahmed er Raisunis Headquartered in Tangier, Morocco. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 16Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 17Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray (from Piracy)
Image 18A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 19Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan (from Piracy)
Image 20Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean. (from Piracy)
Image 21A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthonisz, c. 1615 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 22Photomontage of Somali pirates on the MV Faina (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 23Pirate Anne Bonny (1697–1720). Engraving from Captain Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates (1st Dutch Edition, 1725) (from Piracy)
Image 24Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century. (from Piracy)
Image 25The Quattro Mori ("Four Moors") by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy (from Barbary pirates)
Image 26The Prisoner by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1861 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 27The traditional "Jolly Roger" of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 28Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 29British sailors boarding an Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary pirates)
Image 30U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
Image 31A merchant seaman aboard a fleet oil tanker practices target shooting with a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun as part of training to repel pirates in the Strait of Malacca (from Piracy)
Image 32A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
Image 33Slave market in Algiers, 1684 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 34The work of the Mercedarians was in ransoming Christian slaves held in Muslim hands, Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires, 1637 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 35Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard and Robert Maynard in Ocracoke Bay; romanticized depiction by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris from 1920 (from Piracy)
Image 36British forces engaging Iranun pirates off Sarawak in 1843 (from Piracy)
Image 37A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 38Henry Morgan who sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671 – the second most important city in the Spanish New World at the time; engraving from 1681 Spanish edition of Alexandre Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America (from Piracy)
Image 39A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008 (from Piracy)
Image 40Map of Vlorë in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 41A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 42Armed pirates in the Indian Ocean near Somalia. After the picture was taken, the vessel's crew members opened fire on U.S. Navy ships and the ship's crew members returned fire. One suspected pirate was killed and 12 were taken into custody (see engaged pirate vessels). (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 43Mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia (from Piracy)
Image 44Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 45A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary pirates)
Image 46French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 47Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
Image 48Incidences of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 49Sixteenth century Japanese pirate raids (from Piracy)
Image 50A fleet of Vikings, painted mid-12th century (from Piracy)
Image 51Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 52Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 531890 illustration by Rafael Monleón of a late 18th-century Iranun lanong warship. The Malay word for "pirate", lanun, originates from an exonym of the Iranun people (from Piracy)
Image 54French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
Image 55Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 56The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
Image 57Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary pirates)
Image 58The crew of the merchant vessel Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on their health and welfare. The Belize-flagged cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, was seized by pirates 25 September 2008 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali Coast. The ship is carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 59An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2 (from Piracy)
Image 60Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (from Barbary pirates)
Image 61"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 62Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 63Battle of Preveza, 1538 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 64Double-barrelled lantaka cannons, kalasag shields, armor, and various swords (including kalis, panabas, and kampilan) used by Moro pirates in the Philippines (c. 1900) (from Piracy)
Image 65"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by Grigory Gagarin (from Piracy)
Image 66Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 67The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
Image 68Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, circa 1800 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 69Pirate treasure looted by Samuel Bellamy and recovered from the wreck of the Whydah; exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 70Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 71The Barbary pirates frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 72Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 73The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves (from Piracy)
Image 74Coat of arms of the town of Almuñécar, granted by King Charles V in 1526, showing the turbaned heads of three Barbary pirates floating in the sea. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 75Painting from 1772 depicting British and French sailors at battle with Dulcignottes (Ulcinj pirates). These pirates were defeated on 5 September 1772. (from Albanian piracy)
Image 76Anti piracy operations by Indian Navy's INS Tabar, in the Gulf of Aden on 18 November 2008 (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 77International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 78Bartholomew Roberts' crew carousing at the Calabar River; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837). Roberts is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels. (from Piracy)
Image 79Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 80Henry Every is shown selling his loot in this engraving by Howard Pyle. Every's capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai in 1695 stands as one of the most profitable pirate raids ever perpetrated. (from Piracy)
Image 81A pirate skiff in Baltiysk, Russia — captured by the Russian Navy (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 82Map of Ulcinj in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 83An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 84British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
Image 85Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with most captures during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is now known for hanging the governor of Martinique from the yardarm of his ship. (from Piracy)
Image 86Map of Dalmatia in 1715 by Guillaume Delisle (from Albanian piracy)