Portal:Piracy

The Piracy Portal

Introduction

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 valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, and vessels used for piracy 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 civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding.

Historic examples of such areas include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term piracy generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks, and (in science fiction) outer space. Piracy usually excludes crimes committed by the perpetrator on their own vessel (e.g. theft), as well as privateering, which implies authorization by a state government.

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 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue, with estimated worldwide losses of US$25 billion in 2023, increased from US$16 billion in 2004. (Full article...)

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Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan from Piratas de la America (1681) by Alexandre Exquemelin

Sir Henry Morgan (Welsh: Harri Morgan; c. 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as they did so. With the prize money and loot from the raids, Morgan purchased three large sugar plantations on Jamaica.

Much of Morgan's early life is unknown; he was born in an area of Monmouthshire that is now part of the city of Cardiff. It is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how the Welshman began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the late 1650s during the Anglo-Spanish War. Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica; as diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, or a licence, to attack and seize Spanish vessels. Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto del Príncipe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (now Portobelo in modern Panamá). In 1668, he sailed for Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Gibraltar, on Lake Maracaibo; he plundered both cities before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. (Full article...)

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Una Goleta de Guerra Persigue un Barco Pirata, the artwork used to depict the event in Paul G. Miller's Historia de Puerto Rico (1922).

The capture of the sloop Anne was the result of a naval campaign carried out by an alliance between the Spanish Empire forces in Puerto Rico, the Danish government in Saint Thomas and the United States Navy. The powers pursued Roberto Cofresí's pirate flotilla in March 1825 because of the economic losses suffered by the parties to the pirates, as well as diplomatic concerns caused by their use of the flags of Spain and Gran Colombia which menaced the fragile peace between the naval powers. Several of those involved had been attacked by the freebooters. Among the diplomatic concerns caused by Cofresí was a robbery carried out by several of his subordinates, the catalyst of an incident that threatened war between Spain and the United States known as "The Foxardo Affair", eventually leading to the resignation of his rival, pirate hunter David Porter.

Sailing under the authorization of the Danish West Indies, the coalition employed two local ships, including a former victim of the pirates named San José y las Animas and USS Grampus of the West Indies Squadron. A ship from Gran Colombia, named La Invencible, also provided support during the initial stages. The final naval engagement took place on March 5, 1825, and began with a trap set at Boca del Infierno, a passage off Bahía de Jobos, Puerto Rico. The flagship of Cofresí's flotilla, the sloop Anne (otherwise known as Ana), was baited by the set up. Surprised and outnumbered, the pirates abandoned the ship and escaped to shore, where they were captured by Puerto Rican authorities and placed on military trial. With the execution of Cofresí, the West Indies Anti-Piracy Operations were considered a success and he came to be known as "the last of the West India pirates". (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that HMS Redpole, one of the aptly-named coffin brigs, sank in an action with a pirate vessel in August 1828?
... that a search engine for pirated books has been used to train large language models?
... that Black Sheep Radio dedicated its first day of programming to a fallen pirate?
... that since 1904 the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, has featured a pirate-themed parade?
... that the developers of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number suggested that Australian customers pirate their game?
... that Pixel Piracy's developers released a free torrent of their game?

... that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?
... that, while it is unknown if pirates actually kept parrots as pets, it is thought that at least some captains kept cats aboard to keep populations of rats and other vermin down?
... 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?

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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 1U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
Image 2Time 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 3Barbaria by Jan Janssonius, shows the coast of North Africa, an area known in the 17th century as Barbaria, c. 1650 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 4Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 5Sixteenth century Japanese pirate raids (from Piracy)
Image 6Modern 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 7Pirate 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 8Baluarte Watchtower, La Union. A 400-year-old Spanish-era structure built to guard against pirates, later used in World War II as a communication tower for the USAFIP-NL airfield. (from Piracy)
Image 91724 engraving of Bonny from A General History of the Pyrates (from Piracy)
Image 101890 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 11Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 12A 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 13Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 14The traditional "Jolly Roger" flag of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 15International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 16Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century. (from Piracy)
Image 17Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 18Photomontage of Somali pirates on the MV Faina (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 19Bartholomew 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 20Castle of Ulcinj in the 1890s (from Albanian piracy)
Image 21Barbary pirates were involved in the Barbary slave trade in North Africa (from Piracy)
Image 22The Barbary corsairs frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 23Map of Durrës in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 24A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
Image 25Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 26A fleet of Vikings, painted mid-12th century (from Piracy)
Image 27British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 28"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by Grigory Gagarin (from Piracy)
Image 29A private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 30A fight between Filipino pirates, Bugis trading ship, and Dutch mariners. (from Piracy)
Image 31Anti 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 32An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2 (from Piracy)
Image 33Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray (from Piracy)
Image 34Map of Ulcinj in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 35Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 36Double-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 37The Prisoner by Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ after Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1871 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 38Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
Image 39The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
Image 40An Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 41Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 42Capture 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 43A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 44A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthonisz, c. 1615 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 45Battle of Preveza, 1538 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 46Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
Image 47Henry 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 48Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
Image 49British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
Image 50Map of Vlorë in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 51The Quattro Mori ("Four Moors") by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 52Painting 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 53Coat 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 corsairs)
Image 54A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008 (from Piracy)
Image 55Incidents of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 56Armed 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 57Bartholomew 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 58Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean. (from Piracy)
Image 59A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 60Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 61Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan (from Piracy)
Image 62"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 63An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 64Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
Image 65A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 66Iban war prahu in Skerang river (from Piracy)
Image 67Map of Dalmatia in 1715 by Guillaume Delisle (from Albanian piracy)
Image 68The 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 was carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 69Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 70A 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, 1984 (from Piracy)
Image 71Henry 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 72Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, c. 1800 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 73The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves (from Piracy)
Image 74Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 75A mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia (from Piracy)
Image 76Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 77Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
Image 78Slave market in Algiers, Ottoman Algeria, 1684 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 79Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 80A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 81Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 82The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
Image 83French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 84Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy (from Piracy)
Image 85Currimao Watchtower, Ilocos Norte. 'Currimao' comes from the Iloco term cumaws (pirates) and the Spanish word correr (to run), reflecting the warnings given by watchmen during pirate attacks. (from Piracy)
Image 86A pirate skiff in Baltiysk, Russia — captured by the Russian Navy (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 87Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 88A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
Image 89The work of the Mercedarians was in ransoming Christian slaves held in Muslim hands, Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires, 1637 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 90Extent of pirate attacks on shipping vessels in the Indian Ocean between 2005 and 2010. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)