Pete The Elder

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November 15, 2005

A Semi-defense of Pirates

Ahoy there! Dangerous Dan wrote about the recent Somali pirate attacks here:

People often like to romanticize the high seas pirates of a few centuries ago and call them swashbucklers, adventurers, etc. Think of Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, or even the fictional "Jack Sparrow" of Pirates of the Caribbean. Truth is, most of the old pirates were sociopath bastards who thieved for a living (even the "licensed" ones with letters of mark).

That's why it should be enlightening for these folks when stories of the Somali pirates come out. They recently attacked a cruise ship with machine guns and RPG's, and, according to eyewitnesses account, seemed to be having an enjoyable time. It appears they have a mother ship that's been spotted a few times and they've even taken seven ships and their crews captive. Arrr, just like the pirates of yore getting their booty and galley slaves.

Here is my semi-defense of piracy: 17th and 18th era century piracy was not all bad, at least if the facts in a book about the history of pirates I read a few years ago are accurate (I forget the books exact title). Many pirates were bad, but many were state sponsored privateers who were conducting unconventional warfare against other nations, which is only as bad as other forms of unconventional warfare like espionage.

First let us consider an example of piracy. A few years back I read the biography of John Paul Jones by Evans Thomas. John Paul Jones is a good example of how one mans freedom fighter is another mans pirate. Jones launched some very, very small raids along the English coast and if I remember correctly his total plunder was part of one familys silver collection that he tried to return to them after the war was over. But the British press said he was a terrible pirate and technically he was practicing piracy even though he never hurt any civilians and was very polite when he was stealing from them. Jones actions did caused panic and distraction in England, which played a small part in winning the revolutionary war. But at least in Jones case the description of being a romantic swashbuckler is not far off.

Second, at some points in the 17th and 18th centuries it is estimated that a third of the pirates in the Americas (Pirates of the Caribbean type pirates) were escaped slaves. Piracy may be bad, but what else were they supposed to do? They could not settle down anywhere since they were escaped slaves and piracy was often the only way they could eat and stay free. Plus they were often attacking the ships of nations who had enslaved them in the first place.

Finally, some pirate ships were run democratically and elected their captains from the crew. Also many pirate crews were completely voluntary and they shared the spoils democratically. The navies they were attacking were usually the tools of tyrannical monarchies that enslaved their citizens with vicious press gangs to man the ships and then tortured or executed any crewmember who stepped out of line. This does not include the slavery and other evil actions the navies committed. The pirates may not be perfect, but they were often morally better than the ships they were attacking.

The modern day Somali pirates on the other hand do not meet criteria like being polite or being escaped slaves so they should all be hung from the yardarms! Arrghh!

Posted by Pete at November 15, 2005 06:54 PM

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Posted by: Jeff at November 16, 2005 04:21 PM