piracy, robbery committed or attempted on the high seas. It is distinguished from privateering privateering, former usage of war permitting privately owned and operated war vessels (privateers) under commission of a belligerent government to capture enemy shipping.
..... Click the link for more information. in that the pirate holds no commission from and receives the protection of no nation but usually attacks vessels of all nations.

As the line between privateering and piracy is often hard to draw, any act of doubtful legality committed on the seas is apt to be characterized as piracy. Thus the sinking of merchant vessels by the Germans in World War I was characterized by some as piracy, although the act was done on the authority of a national state. However, at the Washington Conference of 1921 a treaty was concluded that declared that improper visit and search (see search, right of search, right of.

1 In domestic law, the right of officials to search persons or private property, usually obtained through some form of search warrant authorized by a court. In the United States, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. ) by one in the service of any power would constitute piracy.

Since piracy is a crime against humanity, those practicing it may be tried in any competent court, regardless of nationality. To the forms of piracy defined by international law, however, a nation may add offenses committed on board its own vessels or in its own territorial waters.

History

Because it is often the result of failure or laxity in patrolling sea routes, piracy flourished in times of unrest, or when navies ordinarily protecting commerce were engaged in war. Pirates found their most suitable base of operations in an archipelago that offered shelter together with proximity to trade routes. Pirates preyed upon Phoenician and Greek commerce and were so active in the 1st cent. B.C. that Rome itself was almost starved by their interception of the grain convoys.

Pompey Pompey (Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) (pŏm`pē), 106 B.C.–48 B.C., Roman general, the rival of Julius Caesar .
..... Click the link for more information. swept piracy from the Mediterranean, but with the decline of the Roman empire it revived there and was prevalent until modern times. Muslim pirates infested the W Mediterranean; the Venetians, who ostensibly policed the E Mediterranean, preyed upon the maritime trade of rival cities; and the Barbary States Barbary States, term used for the North African states of Tripolitania , Tunisia , Algeria , and Morocco . From the 16th cent. Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria were autonomous provinces of the Turkish Empire. Morocco pursued its own independent development.
..... Click the link for more information. got much of their revenue from piracy. In the North, the Vikings Vikings, Scandinavian warriors who raided the coasts of Europe and the British Isles from the 9th cent. to the 11th cent. During the Neolithic period the Scandinavians had lived in small autonomous communities as farmers, fishermen, and hunters.
..... Click the link for more information. harassed the commerce of the Baltic Sea and the English Channel. Emerging in the 13th cent., the Hanseatic League Hanseatic League (hăn'sēăt`ĭk, hăn'zē–), mercantile league of medieval German towns.
..... Click the link for more information. succeeded in curbing the piracy of its era.

New trade routes opened during the Renaissance, e.g., the shipment of precious metals from the Spanish colonies, the rich trade with the East, and the development of the slave trade, that made piracy especially lucrative. At this period no great stigma was attached to piracy because maritime law had not been systematized. This fact, together with the increasing colonial rivalry of the powers, led states to countenance those pirates who promoted the national cause by attacking the commerce of rival nations. With the tacit approval of the provincial authorities, the West Indies became a pirates' rendezvous, and the English buccaneers of the Spanish Main Spanish Main, mainland of Spanish America, particularly the coast of South America from the isthmus of Panama to the mouth of the Orinoco River. Spanish treasure fleets, sailing home from the New World, passed through the Caribbean N of the Main and were attacked by
..... Click the link for more information. in the 17th and 18th cent., who despoiled the Spanish treasure armadas and pillaged Spanish-American coast settlements, returned to England to divide their spoils with the crown and to receive the royal pardon.

The development of national navies caused the decline of piracy. Beginning in 1803, the United States endeavored to crush the corsairs of Tripoli. In 1815 and 1816 the United States, the Netherlands, and Great Britain wiped out the Barbary pirates, who had exacted tribute under the threat of capturing ships and imprisoning their crews. In 1816, Great Britain and the United States began operations against pirates in the West Indies, particularly those on the Cuban coast, and in 1824 the United States sent David Porter Porter, David, 1780–1843, American naval officer, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1798, he served in the West Indies and in the war with Tripoli. In 1803 his ship, the Philadelphia,
..... Click the link for more information. to complete the task. The power of the pirates along the Straits of Malacca and the China seas was broken after the Opium Wars Opium Wars, 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. in the late 19th cent. During the Spanish Civil War the major powers agreed (1937) at the Nyon Conference on an antipiracy pact after mysterious attacks on merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Small-scale piracy persists in some waters, particularly in Indonesia and SE and S Asia, in the Red Sea and off the Horn of Africa, off the Gulf of Guinea coast, and off Ecuador.

Famous Real and Fictional Pirates

Famous names appearing in the long history of piracy include Sir Francis Drake Drake, Sir Francis, 1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80).

Early Career

He was born in Devonshire, the son of a yeoman, and was at an early age apprenticed to a ship captain.
..... Click the link for more information. and Sir John Hawkins Hawkins or Hawkyns, Sir John, 1532–95, English admiral. In 1562–63 and in 1564–65 he led extremely profitable expeditions that captured slaves on the W African coast, shipped them across
..... Click the link for more information. , the Elizabethan buccaneers, Edward Mansfield Mansfield, Edward, d. 1667, West Indian buccaneer. Possibly born in Curaçao of Dutch parentage, he is also called Edward Mansveld. He was engaged (1665) by the British governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford, to take Curaçao from the Dutch.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry Morgan Morgan, Sir Henry, 1635?–1688, Welsh buccaneer. In his youth he went to the West Indies, eventually joining the buccaneers there. On the death (1667) of Edward Mansfield , Morgan took his place as commander of the buccaneers.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jacques Nau Nau, Jacques Jean David (zhäk zhäN dävēd` nō), c.1630–1671, French pirate in the West Indies.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean Laffite Laffite, Jean (zhäN läfēt`), c.1780–1826?, leader of a band of privateers and smugglers.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Edward Teach (Blackbeard Blackbeard, d. 1718, English pirate. His name was probably Edward Teach, Thatch, or Thach. He probably began as a privateer in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), then turned pirate.
..... Click the link for more information. ). There is some doubt as to whether the activities of Captain Kidd Kidd, William, 1645?–1701, British privateer and pirate, known as Captain Kidd. He went to sea in his youth and later settled in New York, where he married and owned property. In 1691 he was rewarded for his services against French privateers.
..... Click the link for more information. constituted piracy.

The pirate is a frequent figure in literature, especially in books written for children. Perhaps the most famous fictional pirate is Long John Silver in R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island. Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper each wrote a novel entitled The Pirate, Charles Kingsley wrote of buccaneers in Westward Ho!, and Sir William Gilbert ridiculed pirate stories in his Pirates of Penzance.

Bibliography

See H. A. Ormerod, Piracy in the Ancient World (1924); P. Gosse, The History of Piracy (1932, repr. 1968); C. H. Karraker, Piracy Was a Business (1953); A. L. Hayward, The Book of Pirates (1956); R. Carse, The Age of Piracy (1957, repr. 1965); H. Cochran, Freebooters of the Red Sea (1965); A. G. Course, Pirates of the Eastern Seas (1966).

piracy

Illegal act of violence, detention, or plunder committed for private ends by the crew of a private ship (usually) against another ship on the high seas. Air piracy (i.e., the hijacking of an aircraft) is a more recent phenomenon. Piracy has occurred in all stages of history: the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans engaged in it, as did the Vikings, Moors, and other Europeans. It also occurred among Asian peoples. During the wars between England and Spain in the late 16th century, treasure-laden Spanish galleons proceeding from Mexico into the Caribbean were a natural target for pirates. In the 16th–18th centuries pirates from North Africa's Barbary Coast threatened commerce in the Mediterranean. The increased size of merchant vessels, improved naval patrolling, and recognition by governments of piracy as an international offense led to its decline in the late 19th century. In the late 20th century incidents of piracy occurred with increasing frequency in the seas of East and Southeast Asia. See also Blackbeard; Francis Drake; Jean Laffite; Henry Morgan.

See software piracy.

Piracy

Pitilessness (See HEARTLESSNESS, RUTHLESSNESS.)

Plague (See DISEASE.)

Barbary Coast Mediterranean

coastline of former Barbary States; former pirate lair. [Afr. Hist.: NCE, 229]

Blackbeard (Edward Teach,

d. 1718) colorful, albeit savage, corsair. [Br. Hist.: Jameson, 495]

Conrad, Lord

proud, ascetic but successful buccaneer. [Br. Lit.: The Corsair, Walsh Modern, 104]

Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596) British

navigator and admiral; famed for marauding expeditions against Spanish. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 793]

Fomorians

mythical, prehistoric, giant pirates who raided and pillaged Irish coast. [Irish Legend: Leach, 409]

Hawkins, Sir John (1532–1595) British

admiral; led lucrative slave-trading expeditions. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1206]

Hook, Captain

treacherous pirate in Never-Never Land. [Br. Lit.: Peter Pan]

Jolly Roger

black pirate flag with white skull and crossbones. [World Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 926]

Jonsen, Captain

boards ship taking seven children to England, seizes its valuables, and sails off with the children, who have their own piratical plans. [Br. Lit.: The Innocent Voyage (High Wind in Jamaica) in Magill II, 488]

Kidd, Captain William (1645–1701) British

captain; turned pirate. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1476]

Lafitte, Jean (1780–1826)

leader of Louisiana band of privateers and smugglers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1516]

Morgan, Sir Henry

(1635–1688) Welsh buccaneer; took over privateer band after Mansfield’s death. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1832]

Silver, Long John

one-legged corsair; leads mutiny on Hispaniola. [Br. Lit.: Treasure Island]

Singleton, Captain

buccaneer acquires great wealth depredating in West Indies and Indian Ocean. [Br. Lit.: Captain Singleton]

piracy - software piracy