A Brief History of Piracy

Pirates are sea robbers who prey on other ships and rob them of their goods and sometimes capture the ship itself for their own purposes. Piracy began over 2000 years ago in Ancient Greece, when sea robbers threatened the trading routes of Ancient Greece. Since then, this threat has continued amongst seafaring nations ever since, until the birth of regular navies. Roman ships were attacked by pirates who seized their cargoes of grain, and olive oil. The Vikings (which means sea-raider) were renowned for attacking shipping and coastal settlements. However, piracy really flourished between 1620 and 1720, and this period is known as the golden age of piracy. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, there have been different types of pirates, these being, privateers, buccaneers, and corsairs.

Privateers were lawful pirates who were authorised by their government to attack and pillage ships of enemy nations. They shared their profits with the government. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries governments issued ‘letters of marque' which were licenced these sailors to plunder alien ships. This was to prevent privateers from being charged with piracy, which was an offence punishable by death. Francis Drake was England's most famous privateer. In the sixteenth century he attacked Spanish treasure ships returning from the new world, sharing his profits with Elizabeth I, who knighted him for his services. Buccaneers were pirates and privateers who operated from bases in the West Indies, and attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean. Corsairs were Muslim or Christian pirates who were active in the Mediterranean from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The Barbary Corsairs were Muslim, and operated solely from the North African states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco, and were authorised by their government to attack the ships of Christian countries. In contrast the Maltese Corsairs were Christian and were granted a licence by the Christian Knights of St John to attack the ‘barbarian' Turks.