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| | The golden period of pirates ruling the seas falls between the 1640
and 1680 and took place in the Caribbean Sea, where piracy appeared
mimicing conflicts between the European nations at war - England,
Spain, Holland, and France - attacking each other's ships and
settlements. The two most famous pirate bases were Tortuga,
established by Falon, and Port Royal in 1640s and 1650s.
Many famous pirates were the living legends among common folks, and
inspired many famous books and plays after their death. The reality of
pirate life, however, was far from a legend. Often they had no good
food for months sailing at sea, poor sanitary conditions, and lack of
medical care and drugs made the life at their ships harder thatn in
any severe reality show. Because of the above conditions and constant
life risk due to the fights to battles, made the average life span of
a pirate quite short. Those who survived were far from being healthy
and wealthy. Naturally if they were wounded and could no longer carry
on their fighting life in battles they had to retire and settle down
somewhere on shore. There they faced a whole new set of problems -
trouble with the law (few were lucky to have changed their names and
escape prison), and starting their life from scratch, when they had no
other skills but fighting and looting. That being sad, pirate ships
were the first attempt at true democracies. The captain was chosen in
a voting where each crew member had the equal vote. Normally the
captain would be chosen from the most active fearless fighters in the
battle, who inspired others and whom they could trust their life.
Outside of the battles, however, the ship's quartermaster usually had
more power that a captain. Pirates had very detailed code of their own
laws as to the election / replacement of captain and about the rules of
conduct of the ship, describing the punishments for violations. Those
pirates who were injured in battles received their compensation,
according to their written rules, and were allowed to leave the ship
with their part of the loot and compensation if their health damage was too severe.
This was the first analogy of the life and health insurance as well as
a prototype of social security system. Many pirate teams readily
accepted outcasts from the societies, who had nothing to lose in life,
but become the rebels and sail the seas. They were struggling outlaws
but proud people. It's interesting to know how sometimes the whole
British ships would turn themselves into pirates during the attack and
would sail as a new pirate ship and a crew. Those happened mainly on
warships, which were the guardian ships for the merchant vessels.
Conditions on those ships were very rough and captains often abused
their powers to the extreme, while crew members were given little freedom. |
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"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" hits the theaters in May. It features Bill Clinton digging the chests and getting some booty.
