University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk

Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of Society and Culture

2016-11-12 Pirates, Visionaries or Entrepreneurs

Stevenson, KA http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/10198

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PIRATE: Adventurer or outlaw PRIVATEER: also filibuster (see below) or freebooter - NOT, strictly speaking, who illegally attacks and plunders a pirate so long as they confined their attacks to enemy shipping. ships at sea or moored in When at war the King could issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal to privately harbours. owned commercial vessels so they could legitimately attack enemy ports and ships as an act of war on behalf of the sovereign state where the ship is PIRACY: against the State counts registered (see Poster on Drake). as treason and until 1998 carried Privateers could keep what they plundered but were not permitted to attack a mandatory death sentence. shipping indiscriminately. Some, like Henry Morgan, were regarded as heroes. Privateering was outlawed in the middle of the nineteenth century. In international law piracy is an Henry Morgan was a Welsh adventurer shanghaied offence against ALL states and (coerced against his will onto a ship) and sold as an against ALL humanity because indentured labourer to work as a slave in Barbados. there is no legitimate commission When released from servitude, like many such white The Pirate King? for acts of piracy. The most famous pirate was slaves he turned to piracy. Morgan, and a Dutch pirate, Blackbeard, believed to be Mansvelt, were commissioned by the Governor of Edward Teach from Bristol, who Jamaica to capture the Dutch island of Curacao. Instead deliberately chose to LOOK with 15 ships and 500 men they set up their own island terrifying to strike fear into his Tortuga in the 17th Century state on Tortuga, funded from seizing thousands of enemies but often AVOIDED ‘pieces of eight’ (Peruvian gold) from the Spanish. unnecessary violence, relying on Pirate, entrepreneur or visionary? his fearsome appearance to In 1670 Morgan mustered 2,000 men and 37 ships to attack Panama and led a capture and loot merchant ragbag army of 1,200 criminals, pirates and slaves to overwhelm 3,000 Spaniards vessels. .Blackbeard used ‘Jack What is the link between SCAN destroying the city. In 1672 he was transported back to England to be tried as a for clue Sparrow like’ tricks such as Blackbeard and this ship? pirate but his luck turned again and he was made a baronet returning to Jamaica attaching fuses under the brim as its Governor, SIR Henry Morgan. SCAN for more of his hat and lighting them like Blackbeard’s career as a pirate as in this picture! was short-lived: with a £100 bounty on his head he was BUCCANEER: (from the French ‘Boucanier’) killed in a hand-to-hand battle Caribbean pirates who poached animals and smoked the meat on The Perfect Pirate Ship? with Lieutenant Robert ‘Boucans’ (Spanish cooking frames). With his mentor Capt Hornigold, in Maynard in Okracoke, NC, CORSAIR: also French (from the Latin currere ‘to run’), 1717, Blackbeard captured a French 1718. His head was severed Mediterranean based, primarily Muslim, such as the Barbary pirates, slave ship La Concorde making her from his body and hung over operating out of North Africa. his flagship. Formerly a Royal Navy the bowsprit of Maynard’s ship frigate, he renamed her Queen FILIBUSTER: (from the Spanish filibustero) or Freebooter (Dutch), Anne’s Revenge as an insult to her Barbary Corsairs raided the Cornish and Devon coasts from the late Attacked shipping or ports to disrupt governments and foment successor King George and installed C16th to the mid C17th as portrayed in this book by Sabatini who also revolution abroad, but, unlike a privateer, had no licence to do so. 40 guns and a dozen cannons. With based Captain Blood on the true life story of Henry Pitman, a surgeon, ROVER: a stateless pirate serving his own interests and armed 300 crew he blockaded ports in the wrongly convicted by Judge Jeffries of treason. Transported to Barbados without permission Caribbean seizing gold, sugar and he was captured by pirates. Blood is indentured and becomes a pirate cocoa before she ran aground in whereas Pitman actually found his way back to England. SCAN for more North Carolina. Pirate, entrepreneur or visionary? SCAN to see ship Kim Stevenson [email protected]