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WELCOME TO PIRATE'S PLUNDERS

Welcome to Pirates Plunders. The page is entirely devoted to pirates, buccaneers, and privateers.



The Definition of Piracy

According to the Shorter Oxford dictionary piracy is robbery, kidnapping, or violence at sea or from the sea without lawful authority. Piracy can also be the illegal copying of software, music, and other music. However, I will only be discussing piracy at sea.

The Difference Between Pirates and Privateers

A pirate is a person who randomly attacks random ships for personal gain. However, a privateer is a person commissioned to attack ships by a country. England hired privateers to attack gold laden Spanish ships in an effort to cripple the Spanish treasury. Usually privateers are given safe harbor by the country in exchange for about 1/5 to 1/2 of the money obtained from the attack.

The Buccaneers

"Buccaneers were French settlers in the Caribbean who used to barbecue or 'smoke' wild boar and oxen. Boucanier literally means ' one who hunts wild pork'. It is a term used to describe pirates and privateers who had their roots in the Caribbean.(Pirates of the Caribbean, 3)".

Torture

The pirates had several ways to punish captives. One torture was to tie the victim in ropes and drag his body along the barnacles on the bottom of the boat. Another way was to maroon people. It may seem like a mild punishment, but it was not. Sailors were left on islands populated by dangerous or cannibalistic natives and were given little or no food, supplies, or water. Yet another way consisted of cutting open the captives chest and nailing one end of the chest to the floor of the ship. The prisoner was then forced to dance until all off his guts had fallen out. A common form of torture was flogging.   The whip usually used was a particularly vicious type called the " Cat-O-Nine Tails. It was a whip frayed at the end into nine seperate strings.Finally, the most simple punishment was to throw the prisoner off the ship.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard, or Edward Teach, was one of the most feared pirates in history. He put lit cannon fuses under his hat so that there has always smoke around his face. One day while playing cards with his best friend Israel Hand he blew out the candle, crawled underneath the table, and shot Hand's kneecap off.   Hand was crippled for life after that. After he was finally captured by the British Navy, he demanded hand to hand combat with the Fleets commander. It took 20 cutlass and five gunshots to kill him.