Wikipedia:WikiProject Piracy

Categorization

Piracy related topics can be placed in a range of categories, ranging from specific (individual privateers, buccaneers, corsairs, etc.), to broad (regions and historical periods). The subjects include, but are not limited to:

• Historical periods:
  • Piracy in the Ancient World (pre–1000)
  • Piracy in the Middle Ages (1000–1500)
  • Piracy on the Barbary Coast (1492–1595)
  • The Spanish Main (1570–1650)
  • The Buccaneering Era (1640–1690)
  • The Golden Age of Piracy (1690–1730)
  • Decline of Piracy (1730–1900)
  • Modern (1900–present)
• Individual pirates (captains, sailors, victims, etc.)
• Pirate vessels (boats, ships)
• Pirate havens (Port Royal, Tortuga, etc.)
• Pirate culture (organizations, laws, customs, songs, etc.)
• Piracy in popular culture:
  • Piracy in the Film and TV
  • Piracy in Games
  • Piracy in Literature

Privateers

Inevitably there will be some overlap between piracy and privateering. We fully expect to cover many privateers in our articles. However, for a given privateer to be included in the project, he should have been at risk for execution or other punishment as a pirate if captured, whether because his targets' government did not recognize his letter of marque, or because he exceeded his commission and crossed the line into piracy.

Thus, for example, Henry Morgan and his crew would be within our purview, because their attack on Panama was not authorized by Morgan's letter of marque. The project probably also covers John Paul Jones, because Britain did not recognize the Continental Congress's right to grant letters of marque, and thus Jones would likely have faced trial and execution as a pirate had the British caught him. On the other hand, any Saint-Malo or Dunkirk corsair whose sole claim to fame is legally plundering Britain’s commerce during the Wars of the Grand Alliance or Spanish Succession would not be considered a pirate here, because Britain did not treat such privateers as pirates.

Intellectual property piracy

Copyright and trademark piracy is not part of this project. That topic is best covered by WikiProject Law.

To do

Open tasks

Here are some tasks you can do to help with WikiProject Piracy:

• Requests: John Lopez (pirate), Lords of the Spanish Main, Benjamin Bennett (governor) (see What links here), Thomas Walker (pirate), Richard Bishop (pirate)
• Expand: Charles Vane, Edward England, Emanuel Wynn, George Lowther, Pierre Le Grand, Roche Braziliano, Thomas Cocklyn, Woodes Rogers, Piracy in the Indian Ocean
• Verify: Daniel Johnson (pirate), Henry Jennings, François l'Olonnais, Olivier Levasseur, Edward Davis (buccaneer)
• Copyedit: Golden Age of Piracy
• Images: MV Delight, MV Powerful,

Featured articles

• Edward Low
• Stede Bonnet
• Jack Sparrow
• Woodes Rogers

Requested articles

See: Requested articles

Article assessment and re-assessment

See: Assessment

Article alerts

Requested moves

• 21 Oct 2026 – John Rackham (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Jack Rackham by PharaohCrab (t · c); see discussion

Project banners

• {{WikiProject Piracy}} – Our project banner
• {{WP:WikiProject Piracy/Welcome}} – A welcome message to invite new users to join WikiProject Piracy

Userboxes

• {{User Pirate}} – A project member userbox

Article pages

• {{Pirate-stub}} – A stub template for individual pirates
• {{Piracy-stub}} – A stub template for any article that falls under our scope
• {{Portal}} – A portal box
• {{Pirates}} – A navigational box
• {{Piracy in Somalia}} – A navigational box

Infoboxes

• {{Infobox Pirate}} – An individual pirate infobox

Bibliography

• Botting, Douglas. The Pirates (The Seafarers; v.1). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1978. ISBN 0-8094-2652-8.
• Burnett, John (2002). Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas. ISBN 0525946799
• Butler, Lindley S. Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. ISBN 0807825530
• Calendar of State Papers, Colonial series, America and West Indies, Jan. 1716–July 1717. London: HM Stationery Office. 1930.
  • Pages xiii–xvi, xl–xliii and lviii are parlicularly useful.
• Calendar of state papers, Colonial series. America and West Indies, August 1717–Dec. 1718. Vaduz: Kraus Reprint. 1964.
  • Pages x, xv–xxiii, xxxi, xxxiii, lv–lvi and 514–515 are parlicularly useful.
  • Also available here and here.
• Cawthorne, Nigel (2004). History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas. ISBN 0785818561
• Cordingly, David (1997). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Harvest Books. ISBN 081297722X
• Earle, Peter (2003). The Pirate Wars. Methuen. ISBN 041375880X
• Ellms, Charles. The Pirates [Originally published as "The Pirates' Own Book"]. New York: Grammercy Books, 1996. ISBN 0-517-18251-3.
• Exquemelin, Alexander O. The Buccaneers of America. Anapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55750-077-0. (available in many translations and editions, full text online here.)
• Grey, Charles (1933). Pirates of the Eastern Seas (1618-1723) A Lurid page of History. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. (misidentifies Edward Davis (buccaneer) of the Bachelor's Delight as John Davis (alias of Robert Searle))
• Jameson, J. Franklin (1923). Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents. MacMillan. OCLC 2778131
• Johnson, Captain Charles. A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. New York: The Lyons Press, 1998. ISBN 1-55821-766-5.
  • Johnson, Charles (1724). A General History of the Pyrates (2 ed.). London: T. Warner.
  • Johnson, Charles (1726). A General History of the Pyrates, vol. 2 (4 ed.). London: T. Woodward.
• Konstam, Angus (2006) Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. Wiley.
• Konstam, Angus (2003). The Pirate Ship: 1660-1730, Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1841764973
• Konstam, Angus (1998). Pirates: 1660-1730. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
• Konstam, Angus (2001). Privateers & Pirates, 1730-1830. Osprey Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1841760161
• Konstam, Angus (2000). Buccaneers: 1620-1700. Osprey Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1855329123
• Lane, Kris E (1998). Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0765602563
• Langewiesche, William (2004). The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime. North Point Press. ISBN 0965429512
• Little, Benerson (2005). The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730. Potomac Books. ISBN 1574889109
• Rediker, Marcus (1987). Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521303427
• Rediker, Marcus (2004). Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807050245
• Ritchie, Robert (1986). Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674095014
• Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates! An A-Z Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. ISBN 0-306-80722-X.
  • Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
  • Rogozinski, Jan (1999). Dictionary of Pirates. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. ISBN 1-85326-384-2.
• Rogozinski, Jan (2000). Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0811715299
• Sherry, Frank (1986). Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy. Hearst Marine Books. ISBN 0688046843
• Snow, Edward Rowe (December 1944). Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast. Boston, Massachusetts: The Yankee Publishing Company.
• Stephens, John R. (1996). Captured by Pirates: 22 Firsthand Accounts of Murder & Mayhem on the High Seas. Fern Canyon Press.
• Thomson, Janice E. (1994). Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 22–26, 43–54, 66–76, 107–118, 140, 143–144, 218. ISBN 0-691-08658-3.
• The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates. London, Printed for Benj. Cowse at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1719. OCLC 85801912
• Turley, Hans (1999). Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and Masculine Identity. New York University Press. ISBN 081478223X
• Woodard, Colin (2007). The Republic of Pirates. Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 978-0-15-101302-9. (may be unreliable when discussing Jacobitism with regard to Lord Archibald Hamilton (in fact a Whig) and his brother (whom he apparently muddles with another George Hamilton))
• Zacks, Richard (2002). The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd. Hyperion.

External links

• General history and other information:
  • Pirates and Privateers - The History of Maritime Piracy (highly recommended, lots of research resources)
  • Pirates: Fact & Legend
  • Rob Ossian's The Pirate King
  • Isle of Tortuga
  • Pirates of the Carribean, in Fact and Fiction
  • Brethren of the Coast
  • Lots of older pirate books now freely available - and a good source of free images - on Project Gutenberg and Google Books

• Historical periods:
  • 1680-1730: Pirates and Anglo-American piracy in the Atlantic, largely a digest of Rediker's Marxist interpretation
  • Buccaneer Trading Company: The Golden Age of Piracy

• Specific regions:
  • Pirates and Piracy in early Newfoundland history

• Pictures, maps, documents and other images:
  • Beej's Pirate Image Archive, Great source for images, all old and in public domain.

• Misc.
  • IMO: Piracy and Robbery against ships
  • Piracy timeline
  • Le Diable Volant (in French and English)
  • Pirates Message Board
  • Pyracy Pub