History of Piracy

The earliest record of piracy appears in 1350 B.C. This is recorded on a clay tablet. Greek merchants trading in Mediterranean ports like Phoenicia and Anatolia were occasionally attacked by pirates.

Piracy was more prevalent in the eastern Mediterranean during the Roman period. Pompey, the Roman military commander, had built a fleet dedicated to fighting the pirates. Once out of power, Uri Caesar was even captured by pirates, after which he took brutal revenge by mobilizing his fleet to completely destroy the pirates' lair in Farmacuz. However, the Roman Senate was reluctant to suppress the pirates because they had a vested interest in their existence: supplying thousands of slaves and disrupting the grain trade so that they could inflate the price and profit from it. During the Roman period and before, piracy was confined to the Mediterranean, but began to flourish in northern Europe in the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages were a period of development for piracy and a period of fame for the Nordic pirates. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records an attack in 787 B.C.: three Norse pirate ships attacked Lindisfarne Abbey off the coast of England, where they "plundered and ravaged everything inhumanly, dug up the altar and plundered all the treasures of the sacred church".

Between 800 and 1100 A.D., pirates became important social actors in northern Europe. The ancestors of the Danes, like those of the Norwegians and Swedes, fought on the shores of Europe, earning the so-called "Nordic pirate" title. When archaeologists dug up the grave of a Swedish pirate, they found silver coins from Spain, Egypt, Syria, Baghdad and the Central Asian city of Tashkent. He was accompanied by axes, spears and short swords, several small knives, a shield and a belt buckle.

Pirates also began to appear along the coasts of southeastern Asia, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. With the decline of centralized power in the 13th century, pirates also began to flourish off the coast of China, often docking at will in ships capable of carrying up to 300 people and ransacking a village.

Discovery of the New World

Beginning in the 16th century, pirates began to gain notoriety, and their ships grew larger and faster. And with the discovery of the New World, the expansion of colonies, and a wide variety of ships sailing around the world laden with gold and other cargoes, competing interests and ambitions for colonies made it easy for sailors to find ways to legitimize brutal acts of piracy. At the time, British privateers were free to attack and plunder Spanish cargo ships with impunity.

A privateer's license sounds like a bit of robber baron logic. For example, a Dutch merchant whose goods were stolen in Germany, and who could not legally or diplomatically obtain compensation for his losses, could obtain a privateer's license authorized by the Dutch government, which allowed him to capture a German merchant ship to make up for his losses. In fact, these licenses were later used by governments as a national tool to strengthen their navies, giving them an additional naval force capable of attacking enemy merchant ships without increasing their budgets. This was because captured ships were required to be brought to the Admiralty to confirm that they were legitimate prey and not the property of a neutral country. The use of privateer's licenses was terminated in 1856, when many nations signed a declaration at Paris. The United States and a number of other countries signed it later. The United States at that time relied heavily on privateering to build up their maritime power, as they lacked a strong navy. It is recorded that Turkish pirates seized 466 merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea between 1609 and 1616; and in 1625, 27 of them were seized in ten days. After the discovery of the New World in the Caribbean Sea area of maritime transportation is also exceptionally prosperous, and with this area of piracy is also unprecedented, the spearhead of the region's "exclusive predator" of the Spanish cargo ships.

Golden Age

The golden age of piracy was from 1691 to 1723. This period appeared a number of extremely prestigious pirate leaders, the famous "Blackbeard" Edward Teach, Captain Kidd, "Black Baron" Roberts, etc. have become legends in the history of piracy.

Roberts was born in Wales in 1682. He was a first mate on a Barbados merchant ship when "Blackbeard" was making a name for himself off the coast of America. After nearly 20 years as a common sailor, he finally realized: "anyway, to steal a shilling will be on the gallows, why not go to steal a larger amount of wealth!" He therefore joined the pirate ship of Captain Davies, who was killed in a battle with the Portuguese, and Roberts was elected as the captain of the ship. 1719 September, he commanded the "Royal Tramp" robbed a convoy of 42 Portuguese merchantmen. In June 1720, the "Royal Tramp", flying the skull and crossbones flag, swaggered into the harbor of Trebasi, looted more than 150 ships anchored here, and picked the best fast ship as his new flagship, which Roberts named "Royal Happiness". Later, in three days in October, they robbed 15 British and French ships around the Dominican Republic, and sank a 42-gun Dutch warship ......

On the morning of February 10, 1722, at Cape Lopez in Africa, the Royal Bliss encountered the British Royal Navy. "On the morning of February 10, 1722, at Cape Lopez in Africa, the Royal Bliss encountered the Royal Navy cruiser Royal Swallow, and a piece of shrapnel blew out Roberts' throat, killing him instantly. Roberts's pirate career total **** robbed more than four hundred ships, he has a very complex personality connotation, or a very focus on the constitution of the people, there is a Roberts formulated the rules of the ship so that: 1. daily affairs of each person has an equal vote; 2. theft of property to be abandoned on deserted islands; 3. gambling is strictly prohibited on the ship; 4. 8:00 pm on time to extinguish the lights; 5. do not allow to wear unclean weapons to be Always scrub their guns and knives; 6. not allowed to carry children on board, seducing women who died; 7. desertion death; 8. strictly prohibit private fights, but can be in the case of a notary public duel, the murder of his companions and the dead should be tied together and thrown into the sea; 9. in the battle crippled can stay on board and from the "public **** savings" in 800 Spanish silver coins. In the division of the booty, the captain and coxswain received two shares, the gunners one and a half shares, and the others one and a quarter shares.

"Treasure Island" suspense

The largest "sale" in the history of piracy, the so-called "Lima Dabao" case occurred in 1821. At that time, South America against the Spanish colonial rule of the famous leader of the army led by Simon Bolivar approaching the Peruvian capital of Lima, Lima is considered to be the richest city in South America, there are countless gold ingots, gold coins, Inca gold ornaments, religious temples of the precious paraphernalia, necklaces, rings, encrusted with precious stones of the weapons, gold statues and so on. The treasure was loaded onto the Mary Keel, an English two-masted sailing ship from Brixtel, England, commanded by the Dutch captain, Viljam Thomson, who was known for his loyalty and reliability at the time. "After the Mary Keele set sail, one night Thomson led the sailors to break into the passenger cabin and killed the Governor of Lima and the Archbishop of Lima, who were escorting the ship, and raised the pirate flag on the ship.

Since then, the whereabouts of this huge wealth has been covered with a layer of unknown dark shadow. Local rumors abound that the treasure is buried in the Pacific Ocean, a small island - Cocosofe Island. The island is not far southwest of the Costa Rican coast, and interestingly enough, Stevenson's famous book "Treasure Island" depicts this island.

Resurgence

With the development of technology, especially the use of steam engines, and the strengthening of navies to enhance coastal patrols, pirates almost disappeared for quite a long time in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, and people were informed of pirate stories and legends from novels, plays and paintings.

In the summer of 1981, a Cuban ship found a "ghost ship" off the Bahamas, traveling under full sail and not answering any signals. Its sides were riddled with bullet holes and the deck was covered with blood. ...... The schooner, later identified as the Caria III, had sent a distress telegram two days earlier, saying it had been attacked by four unmarked speedboats.

Previously, just 70 nautical miles from Havana, several unmarked motorboats tracked and machine-gunned a Spanish dry cargo ship, the Sinara Arancazú. The ship was on its way to Cuba with a cargo of food, cloth and children's toys. Soon the ship catches fire and the crew has to abandon ship and jump into the sea, but the pirates have already organized a "hunt", searching for those who have fallen into the water and shooting them one by one. The modern pirates have made their debut.

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