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 intending to steal cargo and valuable goods, or take 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 date to the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. 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 of many crimes under the municipal law of many 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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Samuel Bellamy, Wreck of the Whydah, from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series (N19) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes MET DP835027

Captain Samuel Bellamy (c. 23 February 1689 – 26 April 1717), erroneously known as "Black Sam" Bellamy, was an English sailor turned pirate during the early 18th century. He is best known as one of the wealthiest pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy. Though his known career as a pirate captain lasted little more than a year, he and his crew captured at least 53 ships.

Bellamy was born in England in 1689, and began sailing for the British Royal Navy as a teenager. After traveling to Cape Cod around 1715, he then went south to the Florida coast in an effort to locate a sunken treasure fleet. From there he made his way to the Bahamas, sailing under Benjamin Hornigold and his second-in-command, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. After Hornigold and Teach were voted out of command, Bellamy took a captured vessel as his own, before capturing a state-of-the-art slave trade ship, the Whydah Gally, in the early spring of 1717. Two months later, the vessel was caught in a nor'easter storm off the coast of Massachusetts and sank, taking Bellamy and most of his crew down with it. The remains of the Whydah Gally were discovered in 1984, making it the first fully authenticated Golden Age pirate ship discovered in North America. (Full article...)

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Piracy kidnappings occur during piracy, when people are kidnapped by pirates or taken hostage. Article 1 of the United Nations International Convention against the Taking of Hostages defines a hostage-taker as "any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the 'hostage') in order to compel a third party namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or Juridical person, or a group of people, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offense of taking of hostages ("hostage-taking") within the meaning of this convention." Kidnappers often try to obtain the largest financial reward possible in exchange for hostages, but piracy kidnappings can also be politically motivated.

The coast of Somalia has been a piracy hot spot since the late 1990s, threatening state security and global trade. During the early 2000s, the international community established multilateral anti-piracy initiatives such as the Combined Task Force 150; in 2008, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) enacted Resolution 1816 to combat piracy in the Somali region. The number of incidents decreased in that region after the international initiatives, but increased in West Africa (especially in the Gulf of Guinea). In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) saw an increase in kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea; 95 percent of all kidnappings of crew members of hijacked vessels took place in the gulf. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that Pixel Piracy's developers released a free torrent of their game?
... that the pirate anime streaming site HiAnime had more visitors than legal competitors like Crunchyroll or Disney+?
... that Queen Eschiva and her children were kidnapped by the pirate Kanakes after her husband put a bounty on him?
... 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 North Korea thanked the United States for helping its sailors defeat a group of pirates?

... that red Jolly Roger flags were the most feared of all; all prayed they never encountered the "Bloody Red," which boldly declared that no mercy would be shown and all victims would be killed?
... that, unlike traditional Western societies of the time, many pirate clans operated as limited democracies, demanding the right to elect and replace their leaders?
... that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?

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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 1Currimao 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 2The 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 3The traditional "Jolly Roger" flag of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 4A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 5Time 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 6Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 7A private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 8A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 9British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 10Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
Image 11Capture 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 12Painting 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 13British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
Image 14Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, c. 1800 (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 15Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 16Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 171724 engraving of Bonny from A General History of the Pyrates (from Piracy)
Image 18International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 19Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with the 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 20U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
Image 21A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
Image 22The Monument of the Four Moors by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 23Extent of pirate attacks on shipping vessels in the Indian Ocean between 2005 and 2010. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 24Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 25Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 26A 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 27A mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia (from Piracy)
Image 28Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
Image 29The Barbary corsairs frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 30Baluarte 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 31An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2 (from Piracy)
Image 32Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy (from Piracy)
Image 33Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 34Map of Vlorë 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 36A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
Image 37Bartholomew 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 38A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 39Incidents of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 40Barbary pirates were involved in the Barbary slave trade in North Africa (from Piracy)
Image 41Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary corsairs)
Image 42Chinese pirate flag with the bagua and taijitu, captured by George Henry Preble. Circa 1871 (from Piracy)
Image 43"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure, Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 44Henry 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 45Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
Image 46Double-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 47Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
Image 481890 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 49Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 50Iban war prahu in Skerang river (from Piracy)