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Pirates

By Ceilidh

Hello, My name is Ceilidh and I will be talking about Pirates today. First off, What is a pirate? A pirate is a person who sails on a ship, fighting and stealing from others. They may steal from the navy, merchants, or even other pirates. Pirates were known for attacking other ships, but also they would attack port towns and even in some cases inland cities. Pirates were people who thought they could make more money from crime then legal occupations. Conditions on merchant and naval ships were often not good. They got paid very little, and sometimes weren’t even given their wages. On pirate ships however, they had a democracy, there was an equal division of work, everyone was paid equally, and they even had code they lived by.

In today’s society, Pirates are often romanticized. We see them as these charming, cunning, rogues who buried treasure and have parrots on their shoulders. In reality things were much different. They were cruel and violent, and willing to attack others for money and valuables. Pirates have a very long and rich history. They have been on the seas as long as people have been using it for trade and travel.

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Overview of Topics

History of pirates

Ancient Pirates
Pirates in Greece and Rome
The Vikings
The Golden Age of Piracy
Modern Pirates

Specific Pirates (fiction Vs Reality)

Real Pirates

Blackbeard
Anne Bonny
Charles Vane
Calico Jack
Mary Read

Fictional Pirates

Captain Jack Sparrow
Captain Blood
John Silver

Famous Ships and Sailing Terms

The Queen Anne’s Revenge
The Black Pearl
Sailing Terms

The important parts

My Experience

Building
Obstacles
Final product

Conclusion

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The History Of Pirates (part 1)

Ancient Pirates

Pirates in Ancient Greece and Rome

The Vikings

Ancient Pirates:

First record of pirates is from the Mediterranean in 14 BCE (Before Common Era), when Babylonians and Egyptians dealt with sea raiders.
These people were known as The Sea Peoples.
They would attack targets both on the shoreline and inland.
There is still debate on where these raiders came from today.

Pirates in Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece piracy thrived
Places such as Cilicia and Delos were known to harbor pirates
In place in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas there were many small islands where pirates could hide their ships.
Without compass technology merchants would have to keep the coast in sight, making them easy targets for hiding pirates.
Pirates of the time often preferred shallow bottom ships. If they were pursued they would be able to sail into shallow rockier waters to evade larger ships.
Pirates of the time even participated in the slave trade. Instances of this have appeared in famous writings of the time, such as Homer’s Odyssey.

Pirates of Rome

Piracy flourished in 3rd Century BCE with the rise of the Roman Empire.
Once a crew of Aegean pirates captured Julius Caesar and held him prisoner.
At one point pirates were such a threat to Rome’s grain resources that a man named Pompey created plan to get rid of them.

This plan was to destroy all the pirate towns and then capture all of the pirates and their families to relocate them inland far away from their original homes to place with fertile land where they could farm.
This made for very efficient farmers as well as encouraged other pirates to turn themselves in.

The Vikings

In the 8th century CE (common era) Vikings began to appear in the seas of Europe.
From the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea to even Ireland and Russia.
They were extremely destructive in Western Europe, where their tactics evolved from raiding to dominitating the places they found by extorting money in exchange for not attacking the locals or even conquering the places they came to and creating their own kingdoms.
The main thing Vikings are known best for is their ships, which were long and shallow so they could travel far inland to attack inland cities much like the Sea Peoples did.
They were even known to use rollers to transport their boats across the land to other rivers.

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History of Pirates (Part 2)

The Golden Age of Piracy

Modern Pirates

The Golden Age of Piracy:

The most well known depictions of pirates are from the Golden Age of Piracy. When you see pirates in fiction they are usually present in the Golden Age.
The Golden age was from 1650’s to 1720’s and produce pirates such as Black Beard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read.
In 1618, before the Golden Age of Piracy, The 30 Years War took place which was fought by the Catholic and Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire. The war ended up dissolving the Holy Roman Empire which broke up into individual countries.
In the year 1647, the end of The 30 Years War lead an increase wealth and resources in the Carribean made conditions just right for piracy to flourish.
In addition, local French and British governments started to offer permits to people willing to commit acts of piracy against competing countries, these legalized pirates were known as privateers.
When raids and natural disasters struck and reduced profits, piracy in the Carribean became much less appealing.
From 1700-1714 the Golden Age of Piracy began to fade.
Increasing legal sources of income for British sailors, and growing intolerance for pirate activity, as well as a large reduction in privateering, piracy began to decline.

Modern Day Pirates:

Piracy still exists in modern times, however a lot has changed since the Golden Age.
Modern piracy is carried out on small fast motor boats that can catch up to the large slow merchant ships.
Common areas for pirate attacks are off the coast of Somalia, and the Strait of Malacca.
The weapons pirates carry today are rocket launchers and guns as opposed to cutlasses and flintlocks that pirates of the Golden Age would have used.
They use their weapons to threaten the crew which usually small even for large ships, and they rarely kill anyone. Sometimes they will even take over a ship and bring it to a friendly port where they will have it repainted and sold.

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Specific Pirates (Real Pirates)

Blackbeard (Edward Teach)

Captain Vane

Calico Jack

Anne Bonny

Mary Read

Some of the most famous pirates we know are from the Golden Age.

Black Beard:

One of the most famous pirates known around the world is Blackbeard. He was born in Bristol, England in 1688.
He was known for his cruelty and physical strength.
His appearance was terrifying. He was taller than average, wore his beard long with black ribbons, and he wore a cutlass at his side, and a holster over his shoulder with three brace of pistols. One brace is two pistols, so three brace would be 6 pistols.
Perhaps, the most frightening thing about his appearance was that when he went in to battle he would have a lit slow match, which is used to fire cannons, underneath his hat or in his beard so that they would smoke adding to his fearsome appearance.
He captained the notorious Queen Anne’s Revenge.
One of his more notable achievements was founding a pirate haven in Ocracoke, North Carolina.
He was killed in battle by Lieutenant Robert Maynard in 1718 when he was 38 years old.

Captain Vane:

Another notorious pirate was Captain Charles Vane. He was born in 1680 and started his life of piracy in 1716.
He was known to be a skilled navigator and good in combat.
He had a reputation for being exceptionally cruel to those he captured, utilizing torture techniques.
In one specific instance he tied a sailor to the front of the ship and he and his crew threatened to shoot the man if he didn’t tell them where the goods were on the ship.
In 1718 he captured 12 merchant ships in a single month.
Vane was frequently disrespectful to his crew. This eventually lead to him being forcibly removed from leadership.
Vane’s attitude towards his crew alienated them so not many were loyal to him. An incident occured where Vane attacked french naval ship. He quickly realized that he was outgunned and decided to flee. The crew disagreed and thought he was cowardly and the crew voted to replace Vane with one of their fellow crew mates, a pirate named Calico Jack.
Vane was given a small sloop and left out to sea with a few pirates that were still loyal.
Vane slowly rebuilt his pirate fleet, but lost it all when a hurricane sunk his fleet and left him stranded on a small island.
He was then captured by the British government and sentenced to hanging in 1720. He was 40 years old when he died.

Calico Jack:

One pirate, nicknamed “Calico” Jack Rackham, was born in Bristol, England in 1682, only 6 years older Black Beard.
He gained the nickname “Calico Jack” from his fondness of the indian cloth.
He started his career in piracy in 1718, under the pirate captain Charles Vane. he later took the captaincy after calling Vane a coward.
As captain, Calico Jack spent his time attacking small merchant ships, not gaining much success.
He was known for being bad at fighting, and ship to ship combat. Instead, he utilized his cunning and stealth
His biggest success was capturing a merchant ship named the “Kingston.” the Kingston was carrying valuable cargo and would’ve sold for a lot. However, the merchant who had the ship sent out bounty hunters. The bounty hunters found them at the island “Isla de Los Pinos.” in 1719 which is now known as “Isla de la Juventud.” most of the pirates were off the ship when the bounty hunters caught up to them. Calico and his crew hid in the woods as the bounty hunters took his ship and his treasure.
Possibly the thing that made him most famous however, was that he had two women on his crew: Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Another fun fact about Calico Jack is that he designed the flag the Jolly Roger, and was the first to sailed with it.
Calico Jack died by hanging in 1720 at only 37 years old. He was hanged with the rest of the men on his crew, and then his body was hanged on a small island next to the harbor called “Rackham’s Cay.”

Anne Bonny:

While there were a lot of male pirates, there were also female pirates, like Anne Bonny. Born in Ireland in 1698, as the daughter of a lawyer and his maid. Her father, along with her mother moved to north carolina. She was heir to a large fortune but left it all behind to run away with James Bonny.
Later, in 1718 she met “Calico” Jack Rackham. Together, they stole a ship called the “william” and became pirates.
Dressed as a man, she fought alongside pirates that believed her to be a man.
Later in her life she met another female pirate named Mary Read and they became friends.
Anne and the rest of Calico Jack’s crew was captured and imprisoned in 1720. Anne was allowed to see Calico one last time before his death, and she said to him: “Had you fought like a man, you need not have hanged like a dog.”
Anne was sentenced to death but she was pregnant so they postponed her execution. There is much speculation of what happened to Anne. some say she died in prison while others say she was released and lived out the rest of her life in a port town.

Mary Read:

Another famous female pirate was Mary Read, who was born as the result of an affair.
After her half brother died and her mother’s husband left the family, she was passed off as her deceased half brother so her mother could continue to get money from the boy’s grandmother.
When Mary was 13, the grandmother died, and Mary continued to dress as a boy.
Later in her life, Mary joined the military and she met and fell in love with a fellow soldier. After revealing her true gender, they got married and opened an inn, but her husband died and she went back to dressing like a man and got a job as a sailor.
While out sailing one day, Mary’s ship was captured by pirates. It was not clear if She chose - or was forced - to join them, and soon after she joined a pirate ship captained by Calico Jack, and she and Anne became friends.
She was captured and imprisoned like the rest of the crew in 1720, and her execution was also postponed because she was pregnant as well. She died from a fever at the age of 36.

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Pirates in Fiction

(Captain) Jack Sparrow

(Captain) Peter Blood

Long John Silver

Pirates have become popular in modern times through pop culture. Literature, games, movies, and music present an often romanticized version of piracy playing on stereotypes and come tropes.

In fiction, Pirates are often handsome,mischievous, dashing rogues , who were charming, cunning, and in the end would do the right thing.

Some common tropes found in fiction about pirates include:

Buried treasure which included gold, gems, and Rum.
Intricate treasures maps, with puzzles, clues and “X” marks the spot
Parrots on the shoulder
Peg Legs
Pirate lingo
Always flying the Jolly Roger flag
Fencing with the wrong swords (the swords that pirates are shown fighting with are fencing foils rather than cutlasses)

Some examples of pirates in fiction are:

Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirate of the Caribbean Movies, was captain of the Black Pearl, who often got into trouble, but always escaped through ridiculous antics. He was playful and often goofy and was always in search of treasures and rum while evading the government and the east india trading company. Even though he was a pirate, he would always help his friends when they were in need, and do the right thing in the end.
Captain Peter Blood from the movie Captain Blood, was a doctor who turned to piracy after being wrongfully accused of participating in a rebellion and sold into slavery. He was handsome, clean-cut and charming, and he always did the right thing,fought with honor, and saved the damsel in distress.
Long John Silver from the book Treasure Island, was closer to real pirates than other fictional characters, but he still displayed common tropes found in literature such as the peg leg, the parrot on the shoulder, charming, in search of buried treasure.

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Famous ships

The Queen Anne’s Revenge

The Black Pearl

Every good pirate needs a ship. Sometimes the ships are famous and notorious as the pirates themselves.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge -

The Queen Anne’s Revenge was a real ship that Blackbeard sailed.
It was a originally a french slaving ship, named La Concorde. (Slaving means it was used to transport slaves)
Blackbeard captured the ship in 1717. He modified the ship so that it had 40 cannons, and painted it all black.
The ship weight 200 tons.
It was the most formidable ships on the sea.
Blackbeard sailed the ship for only a year at which time he ran her aground, by accident, when entering Top Sail Inlet, North Carolina.

The Black Pearl -

The Black Pearl is a famous fictional ship captained by Jack Sparrow.
Originally it was a normal trading vessel named the Wicked Wench used to transport slaves against Jack’s will.
He didn’t complete the shipment because he didn’t agree with it and so the East India Trading Company lit his ship on fire.
Jack made a deal with Davy Jones to raise it from the sea and be allowed to captain it for 15 years for the price of 100 souls.
The Wicked Wench was raised from the sea, and christened The Black Pearl.

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My Experience

Building

Obstacles

Final Product

For my experience, I built a model of Blackbeard’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. It was 64.4 cm tall and 67.7 cm long and had 340 pieces. Building the ship was frustrating at times but all and all it made for a really cool model. I chose to do the Queen Anne’s revenge because I find it to be an interesting ship, it was one of the most powerful ships of the time, captain by one of the most famous pirates we know.

Building

The first thing I did was open up the box took a look at all the pieces inside. The pieces were pages of foam core and cardboard. When I saw all the pieces it was a little intimidating.
Next I reviewed the manual. I wanted to see how long it would take to build, how much space I would need, and if we need any other tools. All of the materials were included and the pieces fit together in a slot and tab fashion.
Most of the instructions in the manual was done in diagrams rather than in text. Sometimes this was a little confusing because of how many small pieces there were which made it really easy to miss something.
Then I started to build the ship beginning with the ribbing framework of the hull. This step was pretty easy as it had lots of big pieces.
Next, I added the flooring of the lower deck, the walls of the hull, and the stand that the ship sits on.
After this it was time to add the LED lights that lit up the ship. This part was particularly difficult because it was hard to understand the instructions and the wire lengths were mixed up in the packaging. I needed to get my dad to help with this. It took a couple days to get the lights finished.
From here, I started building again, placing cannons on the bottom deck, putting on the top deck, and placing more cannons. I counted all the cannons and there were actually 40 like on the real ship!
Next I made the ship’s wheel and other decorative pieces.
Finally, we built the masts and sails and rigging. This part was very frustrating. There were small pieces that held things and it was hard to get them to fit together correctly.

Obstacles - There were several challenges while building such as:

The instructions were confusing - the diagrams were complex and frequently hard to understand
Some pieces were labeled incorrectly
The LED lights were difficult to place
There were lots of small bits to the masts that had to fit together just right or it would collapse.
The connections for the sails were fragile. If you even bumped it slightly it would fall apart.

Final Product - When I completed it the ship it was magnificent! Overall, it took several hours over three days to complete. The process was irritating at times, but overall it was fun and I was really excited to see it fully built. I thought it turned out really well, everything was together, and there was a minor amount of problems. There was one inaccuracy I saw on the ship though. The flag that was on top of the middle mast was incorrect. The flag was the Jolly Roger, but Black Beard had his own personal flag that was a depiction of a horned skeleton stabbing a heart with a spear. I think they changed the flag to the Jolly Roger because it is more well known as the symbol of piracy.

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My Experience Part 2

Over the course of my project and experience I learned about the parts of the ship and some common sailing terms. Here are a few basic ones:

Ship Parts

Stern - The back of the ship
Bow - The front of the ship
Capstan - Raises and lowers the anchor

Ship Terms

Aft - towards the back
Fore - towards the front
Port - to the left
Starboard - to the right

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Conclusion

Why I chose to study pirates

What i learned from my project

What i enjoyed

In conclusion, I learned a lot about pirates. Pirates have fascinated people throughout the years. They have a rich history and have been integrated into our literature, games, movies and even music.

I myself became interested Pirates as a project through the video game Sea of Thieves.

I have learned that Pirates have been sailing the seas for as long as people have been using the seas for travel and trade The earliest recorded history of pirates being as far back as 14 BCE.

I have studied the lives of several of the most famous pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy and learned that the reality of piracy was very different from the fictionalized versions of piracy we today.

In reality piracy was a very dangerous job. Conditions of life at sea were terrible. They didn’t have medical care, and often ran out of provisions Pirates were cruel, ruthless people who would hurt or kill anyone who got in their way. Life as a pirate was violent and they often lived short lives. There treasure was often not gold or gems, but rather provisions including food, drink, cloth, or spices. Instead of burying their treasure they divided it up equally and either spent or lost it.

In fiction Pirates are often shown as dashing rogues who are charming, mischievous, cunning,witty, and their lives are full of fun adventures in which they always end up victorious or as the hero.

Overall, I enjoyed my project. There were times when I felt a little overwhelmed with all of the information, but I particularly enjoyed learning about the lives of some of the pirates, especially the female pirates.