Pirates
Story Stream
Redeeming a Psychopath? Captain Edward Low December 27, 2024
There are many stories of horror at sea, committed by those who sail beneath the bloody flag: Jean-David Nau tore out the hearts of his victims. Harry Morgan starved his prisoners. Charles Vane tied burning matchcords around his victims’ fingers. Hen...
Phantom of the Gulf: Jean Lafitte The Most Dangerous Pirate in Louisiana December 11, 2024
The Outlaw Who Became an Unlikely Hero?...
How the British Caught World's Most Notorious Pirate November 26, 2024
On this day in 1718, the Royal Navy attacked and killed Blackbeard, also known as Edward Teach, off the coast of North Carolina...
Forgotten Scottish Pirates: Treachery and Treasure November 15, 2024
From William Kidd to Helen Gloag, meet the daring Scots whose exploits rivalled the Caribbean’s most famous buccaneers....
Female Pirate History in Focus at Wisconsin Maritime Museum October 04, 2024
The “Great Women of the Great Lakes and Beyond” series at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc focuses on female pirates this month, with a talk from a UW-Oshkosh history professor....
List of Pirate Ranks and Responsibilities October 03, 2024
A list of all pirate ranks and roles on a ship. The pirate ranks in order of the shares they received. See which pirate role ranks highest and which ranks lowest....
Francis Drake: World's Most Controversial Pirate September 04, 2024
Circumnavigation is the pinnacle of Drake’s career, cementing him in history as the world’s most controversial pirate. S1, E1 | Pirates: Behind the Legends...
The Forgotten Shadows of History: The Barbary Pirates and Their Impact Across Europe September 02, 2024
When we think of piracy, the image that often comes to mind is that of swashbuckling buccaneers in the Caribbean, brandishing cutlasses and hunting for buried treasure. But Europe, too, had its share of pirate nightmares—one of the most notorious bei...
Sir Francis Drake - The Pirate Who Saved England Documentary August 12, 2024
Life of English Pirate and Privateer, Sir Frances Drake. ...
Pirate Shipwreck Shows "Great Maritime Horror" August 09, 2024
The remains of the vessel, which belonged to a notorious group of pirates, were found at a depth of 2,700 feet....
This Battle a Pivotal Moment in Marine History April 07, 2023
The Battle of Derna lasted from April 1805 until May 1805. It isn’t a battle many people talk about often. However, it was a deciding factor in the history of the Marine Corps and the First Barbary War. In fact, Marines sing about it every in the fir...
10 Most Notorious Pirates in History January 30, 2023
The world’s most notorious pirates terrorized the seven seas and amassed huge riches between the 16th and 19th centuries. Many of these ship plunderers remain famous to this day, but they were very different from the often-friendly pirates seen in th...
Did Pirates Advance Democracy? January 23, 2023
In a pirate stronghold on the lush eastern shore of Madagascar, the child of a native-born sorceress and a roving buccaneer unites warring kingdoms, fends off a tyrant from the mountains and secures a long-lasting peace. In the hands of most historia...
Blackbeard Didn't Go Down Easy November 22, 2022
Blackbeard is arguably the best-known pirate from the Golden Age of Piracy, which stretched from the late 1600s to the mid-1720s. Although his pirating career lasted only a few years, and he failed to accumulate much in the way of treasure, he and hi...
Privatized Pirates on the Revolutionary Seas July 08, 2022
Eric Jay Dolan, author of several books on America and the sea, sets out to offer “a comprehensive history of the full extent of American privateering, and just how important it was to the American cause in Rebels at Sea. The author never loses sight...
What Happened to History's Most Famous Pirate? July 05, 2022
The life of a pirate in the golden age of sail was a dangerous one. Most did not live to see old age, and even fewer managed to win the riches which brought them to this life. If the heavily armed and dangerous European naval ships did not see you ha...
Thomas Jefferson's America Worth Celebrating July 04, 2022
Thomas Jefferson is perhaps our most polarizing founding father. No discussion of our nations’ founding can be had without bringing up the author of the Declaration of Independence. What's more, it seems no discussion of the author can pass without r...
German Pirates Ingenious and Brutal March 01, 2022
Das boot! Schiff verlassen! While lesser known to many than the British pirates of popular imagination, a suite of German pirates defined by ingenuity, cunning and sometimes brutal approaches to handling perceived cowardice have left their mark on th...
5 Notorious Pirate Ships in History February 18, 2022
The most infamous pirates in history, from Blackbeard to Captain Kidd, would have been nothing without their fearsome vessels. Typically stolen, stripped bare in the interest of speed and kitted out with numerous cannons, pirate ships were arguably t...
When American Navy Sunk Own Ship ... on Purpose February 16, 2022
On February 16, 1804, the U.S. Navy conducted a stunningly audacious raid to deny the enemy the use of an American warship by concocting a ruse that allowed American sailors into the jaws of the enemy harbor to sink a captured American frigate. The ...
Babe Ruth's Final Homers Weren't in Final Game May 25, 2021
The bedraggled Boston Braves were already in their familiar abode—the National League cellar—at 8-19 and 11 games out when they played their 28th game of the 1935 season. The venue was Pittsburgh’s bucolic Forbes Field; the opponents were the home-st...
Captain Kidd Was Unlucky, Even in the Gallows May 24, 2021
On Thursday, May 8, 1701, Captain William Kidd, the Scot at the heart of the great London piracy uproar, entered the Old Bailey courtroom along with his fellow accused.After two years of solitary confinement in Boston and London, he was at the mercy ...
A Brief History of Piracy May 21, 2021
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 G...
300-Year-Old Pirate Skeletons Found in MA February 16, 2021
Seaborne salvage operations at Cape Cod have recovered the pirate remains of at least six buccaneers who were lost at sea more than three centuries ago. At the time of their watery demise these unfortunate souls were part of a crew of 146 men serving...
The What and Why of First Barbary War February 16, 2021
Before the American Revolution, Britain's navy protected its colonist tradesmen sailing from the Americas. By the 1770s one-fifth of the maritime trade from Britain's Atlantic coast colonies went to the Mediterranean in the holds of around 100 Americ...
Philip II's Foreign Policy Shaped Europe February 05, 2021
Philip II’s foreign policy was to affect much of Europe. In many senses Philip II had too many responsibilities and not enough financial clout to respond to his foreign problems. Philip’s foreign policy went from grand successes, such as defeating th...
Debunking Myths About 'Real' Buccaneers February 05, 2021
ost years, as January draws to a close, pirates invade Tampa. Hundreds of boats swarm the city harbor, led by a 165-foot-long, fully rigged pirate ship. A crew of swaggering, swashbuckling bandits in eye-patches and tricorns accost the mayor and dema...
Different Take on Rommel in Africa May 27, 2020
There is no more evocative phrase to emerge from World War II than Afrika Korps. The name conjures up a unique theater of war, a hauntingly beautiful empty quarter where armies could roam free, liberated from towns and hills, choke points and blockin...
Life and Times of Capt. Kidd May 21, 2020
He was one of the most famous figures of the Golden Age of Piracy, yet some maintain that William Kidd was never a pirate at all. Certainly, he went to the gallows protesting his innocence. But in the space of a few short years, he sailed all over th...
How America Used to Take on Rogue State April 24, 2020
Over two centuries ago, the United States was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era. These pirates preyed on unsuspecting trade ships. The...
Inside Navy SEALs Killing of Somali Pirates April 08, 2020
ON APRIL 8, 2009, four pirates armed with AK-47s clambered up the side of the U.S.-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama, sailing off the coast of Somalia. But after a brief scuffle with some of the 20 crewmembers, the pirates opted to abandon the 50...
Meet the Real 'Robinson Crusoe' February 12, 2020
Three centuries ago an impetuous Scottish sailor known as Alexander Selkirk—though this wasn’t his real name—was languishing off the coast of Chile in a battlescarred, worm-eaten British ship called the Cinque Ports when he began to argue with the ca...
Legend and Execution of Captain Kidd May 22, 2019
William Kidd spent his last days on earth in Newgate Gaol, where on Sunday 18 May 1701, he heard his final sermon, preached by the prison chaplain on the cheerful text, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.' Kidd still hoped for...
History of America's Most Notorious Pirates February 21, 2019
rr, matey! Give no quarter to these landlubbers! They want to steal our pieces o' eight and buried treasure! Batten down the hatches, and send ‘em straight to Davy Jones' Locker!The pirate's life has long intrigued people of all ages. The tales of Bl...
Blackbeard's Last Stand November 22, 2018
These are only details about Blackbeard's final battle. To find more about the life of the most notorious pirate, check out our main article about Blackbeard.The end of most famous pirateThese are some facts about the one of the greatest sea-battles,...
Real-Life Pirates Helped Shape History June 07, 2018
For decades, pirates have been key figures in tales of danger, adventure and mayhem. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Treasure Island make it hard to separate reality from fantasy. But the true life of an 18th-century pirate was pretty grim, ...
