Pirate Trivia

Piracy is a war-like act committed by private parties (not affiliated with any government), especially robbery or criminal violence on the sea. The term can include acts committed in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the actor (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used to refer to raids across land borders by non-state actors. 

Piracy should be distinguished from privateering, which was a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors, authorized by their national authorities, until this form of commerce raiding was outlawed in the 19th century.

Pirates have been around as long as people have used the oceans as trade routes. The earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the Aegean and Mediterranean in the 13th century BC.  Seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue today (with estimated worldwide losses of US $13 to $16 billion per year), particularly in the waters between the Red sea and Indian Oceans, off the Somali coast, and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore, which are used by over 50,000 commercial ships a year. A recent surge in piracy off the Somali coast spurred a multi-national effort led by the United States to patrol the waters near the Horn of Africa. While ships off the coasts of North Africa, Iran and the Mediterranean Sea are still assailed by pirates, the United States Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard have nearly eradicated piracy in U.S. waters and in the Caribbean Sea.  

When people think of pirates, they usually think of the Golden Age of Piracy, spanning from the 1650s to the 1720s and covering three separate outbursts of piracy: 

1) the buccaneering period of approximately 1650 to 1680, characterized by Anglo-French seamen based on Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific

 2) the Pirate Round of the 1690s, associated with long-distance voyages from Bermuda and the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea

3) the post-Spanish Succession period, defined by Marcus Rediker as extending from 1716 to 1726, when Anglo-American sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the American eastern seaboard, the West African coast, and the Indian Ocean.

Information from Wikpedia 2009

Answer the questions to this quiz and the pirate name generator will tell you what your pirate name is with a short explanation.

Names are available for both male and female pirates.

Corsairs were French privateers (corsaire in French). Since the corsairs gained a swashbuckling reputation, the word corsair is also used generically as a more romantic or flamboyant version of the word privateer, or even of the word pirate. The barbary pirates of north Africa were sometimes called "Turkish corsairs". The name "corsair" derives from the commissioning document received from the king, the Lettre de Course ("racing letter" or "racing commission"). The "race", la course, was a euphemism for chasing down foreign merchant shipping. The Lettre de Course was known in other countries as a letter of marque and reprisal (in French Lettre de Marque). the French often preferred the different term of Lettre de Course but the document was the same in substance.

A privateer was a private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Strictly, a privateer was only entitled by its state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime. Privateers were part of naval warfare of some nations from the 16th to the 19th century. The crew of a privateer might be treated as prisoners of war by the enemy country if captured. The costs of commissioning privateers was borne by investors hoping to gain a significant return from prize money earned from enemy merchants.

Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that developed in the 16th century to describe rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It is based on a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler".

A raider is a person who commits robbery at sea. With use of raid tactics, the raiders uses the naval strategy of attacking an opponent's commercial shipping rather than contending for command of the sea with its naval forces. The raiders destroy supplies of the enemy instead of engaging the combatant themselves. When the raiders are at war, they break into towns and plunder.

The Brethren or Brethren of the Coast were a loose coalition of pirates and privateers active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.  They were a syndicate of captains with letters of marque and reprisal who regulated their privateering enterprises within the community of privateers and with their outside benefactors. They were primarily private individual merchant mariners of Protestant background usually of English and French origin.  In keeping with their Protestant and mostly Common Law heritage the Brethren were governed by codes of conduct that favored legislative decision-making, hierarchical command authority, individual rights, and equitable division of revenues.  Henry Morgan is perhaps the most famous member of the Brethren and the one usually noted with codifying its organization.

Information from Wikipedia 2009

Pirate

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Henry Avery (Henry Every)

Henry Every was a pirate famous for using marooning as a punishment.  He had several aliases including Long Ben and Benjamin Bridgeman.  He is one of the few pirate captains to retire without being captured or killed in battle.

T-shirts with Henry Avery Flag

Henry Avery's pirate flag consisted of the side view of a skull wearing a kerchief and earring with crossed bones on either a background of black or red.

Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet is a pirate from Barbados, sometimes called the Gentleman Pirate because he was a wealthy landowner before he turned to piracy due to marital problems.  Stede Bonnet worked with Edward Teach, the famous Blackbeard for a few years.  He was one of the few pirates famous for making people walk the plank.  He was eventually hung for his crimes.

T-shirts with Stede Bonnet Pirate Flag.

Stede Bonnet's pirate flag consisted of a skull with a bone under it, showing a dagger on one side and a heart on the other to symbolize pirate justice.

Christopher Condent

Christopher Condent is an English pirate, the first in the Golden Age of Piracy.  After success as a pirate he sailed to the island of Bourbon where he and his crewed were pardoned for their crimes.  Christopher Condent married the governor's sister-in-law and settled in Brittany as a wealthy merchant.

T-shirts with Christopher Condent Pirate Flag.

Christopher Condent's pirate flag consisted of three sets of jawboneless skulls and crossbones side by side.

Edward England

Edward England, nee Edward Seegar, was an Irish Pirate who sailed the Pearl (which he renamed the Royal James) and the Fancy.  Known as the Merciful Pirate because he refused to kill unless necessary, he was marooned by his crew who mutinied because he refused to kill the crew of the Cassandra.  He was able to build a raft and sail to Madagascar where he lived as a pauper until he died of natural causes.

T-shirts with Edward England Pirate Flag

Edward England's pirate flag is the most famous jolly roger, consisting of skull  and crossed thigh bones.

Walter Kennedy

Walter Kennedy was an Irish pirate who mutinied and took a sloop to go into piracy.  Later he joined Black Bart's crew.  When Black Bart and several crewmen chased another ship for the booty, he left Walter Kennedy in charge of his ship the Rover.  Kennedy took the opportunity to declare himself captain and sail for Ireland.  However, he was not a good navigator so he landed in Scotland.  Several of his crew were captured and hanged as pirates, but Kennedy managed to escape and opened a brothel in London, England.  One of his prostitutes accused him of theft & when he went to prison he was tried and hanged as a pirate.

Walter Kennedy's pirate flag featured skull and crossbones with a man holding a sword and an hourglass beside it to symbolize time running out for his enemies.

Edward Low

Edward Low was an English pirate at the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.  He became a pirate shortly after his wife died in childbirth.  He had a fleet of ships, and was famous for brutally torturing his victims before death.  Historians aren't sure of the details of his end.  Some say he sailed to Brazil where he lived out his days, some say his ship went down in a hurricane, others say he was tried and hanged by the French.

T-shirts with Edward Low Pirate Flag

Edward Low's pirate flag consisted of a red skeleton on a black background.  He also had a green flag with a yellow trumpeter to call the captains of his fleet for a meeting.

Christopher Moody

Christopher Moody was an English pirate famous for having the "no quarter" policy, which means he spared no life.  He started with Black Bart before being captain of his own crew.

T-shirts with Christopher Moody Pirate Flag

Christopher Moody's Pirate flag was called the "Bloody Red" because when his victims saw the atypical red flag they knew their lives were over.  The winged hourglass symbolizes their time slipping away, the arm with a dagger shows their intent, and the typical skull & crossbones of the pirate.

John Quelch

John Quelch was an English Pirate who lasted in piracy for only one year before he was tried and hanged for his crimes.  He was the first pirate to be tried under Admiralty law rather than by jury.  When he went to the gallows he showed no remorse, only removed his hat and bowed to the crowd warning them that they should take care how they bring money into New England because they could be hanged for it.

T-shirts with John Quelch's flag.

John Quelch used the Flag of St. George on his ship, but pirate mythology also attributes the "Old Roger", or the first Jolly Roger to him.  It is said that his flag is described as that shown above by

John Rackam (Calico Jack)

John Rackham, known as Calico Jack for the clothing he wore, was an English Pirate Captain in the early 18th century.  Calico Jack was famous for having two female pirates among his crew, Mary Read and Anne Bonny.  He was hung for his crimes, then tarred and caged and displayed at Port Royal, Jamaica, as a warning to other pirates. 

T-shirts with Calico Jack Flag

John Rackam's jolly roger consisted of a skull with two crossed cutlasses.

Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart)

Bartholomew Roberts was a Welsh pirate who was the most successful during the Golden Age of Piracy, having captured 470 ships.  It is interesting that he did not drink rum like his counterparts but preferred tea, and marooned or killed any pirate who raped a woman.  He was famous for dressing himself in his finest before battle - rich crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his hat, a gold chain round his neck with a diamond cross hanging on it, a sword in his hand and two pairs of pistols slung over his shoulders.  Roberts said that "a merry life and a short one" would be his motto.  He was killed by grapeshot (loosely packed slugs in a canvas bag shot from a cannon with an effect like a shotgun) during a battle with the Royal Navy.  He was buried at sea wrapped in the ship's sail before the Royal Navy could board the ship.  His body was never found.

T-shirts with Bartholomew Roberts' 1st flag or 2nd flag

Bartholomew Roberts' first flag shows him and death holding an hourglass. 

After being attacked by some ships from Barbados where 20 of his crew died and then being chased by two sloops from Martinique, Roberts made a second flag after he swore vengeance on them depicting himself standing on two skulls - one labelled ABH

Edward Teach (Blackbeard)

Edward Teach or Edward Thatch was a famous pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy known as Blackbeard.  He is known for wearing his tricorn hat and for lighting matches woven into his beard to intimidate his enemies.  He accepted a pardon under the Royal Act of Grace and retired with his loot, but the Governor of Virginia wanted to get rid of him so he offered a reward.  Blackbeard was hunted down, decapitated, and his head hung of the bowsprit of the ship and later put on a pike at the Hampton River in Virginia as a warning to other pirates.

Blackbeard T-shirts

Blackbeard's pirate flag consisted of a devil horned skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear or dart in the other that is piercing a heart with three drops of blood.

Thomas Tew

Thomas Tew was known as the Rhode Island Pirate. He was famous for pioneering the Pirate Round route from the western Atlantic around the southern tip of Africa, stopping at Madagascar and then on to targets such as the coast of Yemen and India to find the East India Company ships.  He was killed in battle during his second pirate cruise, disembowelled by a cannon ball.  The treasure chest of Thomas Tew is the only sea chest that can be traced back to a pirate.

Thomas Tew Pirate Flag T-shirts

Thomas Tew's pirate flag is an arm holding a sword symbolizing his readiness to kill his victims.

A pirate code is a code of conduct invented for governing pirates. Generally each pirate crew had its own code or articles, which provided rules for discipline, division of stolen goods, and compensation for injured pirates.  

In the second half of the 17th century, buccaneers began operating under a set of rules variously called the Chasse-Partie, Charter Party, Custom of the Coast, or Jamaica Discipline. These eventually became known as Articles of Agreement, or the pirate's code. Pirate articles varied from one captain to another, and sometimes even from one voyage to another, but they were generally alike in including provisions for discipline, specifications for each crewmate's share of treasure, and compensation for the injured.

Each crew member was asked to sign or make his mark on the articles, then swear an oath of allegiance or honor. The oath was sometimes taken on a Bible, but legend suggests that other pirates swore on crossed pistols, swords, or axes, or on a human skull, or astride a cannon. This act formally inducted the signer into the pirate crew, generally entitling him to vote for officers and on other "affairs of moment," to bear arms, and to his share of the plunder. The articles having been signed, they were then posted in a prominent place, often the door of the grand cabin.

Buccaneer Henry Morgan

After a piratical cruise began, new recruits from captured ships would sometimes sign the articles, in some cases voluntarily, in other cases under threat of torture or death.

For famous pirate codes, see Bartholomew Roberts' articles, Captain John Phillips's articles, Articles of Edward Low and George Lowther, and Articles of Henry Morgan and other buccaneers

Information from Wikipedia 2009

According to Summers, the day is the only holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury. He has stated that during a racquetball game between Summers and Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of "Aaarrr!", and the idea was born. That game took place on June 6, 1995, but out of respect for the observance of D-Day, they chose Summers' ex-wife's birthday, as it would be easy for him to remember.

At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when John Baur and Mark Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002.  Barry liked the idea and promoted the day.   Part of the success for the international spread of the holiday has been attributed to non-restriction of the idea or trademarking, in effect opening the holiday for creativity and "viral" growth.

Information from Wikipedia 2009

*The hat included with the costume will differ from shown.