Piracy

Abstract

The pirate has been called ‘the enemy of the human race’. In Webster’s Dictionary we find him described as a ‘robber on the high seas, one who by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas’. The haunt of the pirate was the narrow waterway where shipping thronged; and that his malevolent aim was directed against valuable and unprotected cargoes on frequented routes which bent their courses where land barriers facilitated ambuscade.

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Filed under: Atlantic | Antiquity | Baltic | English Channel | Medieval | American Revolution | Mediterranean | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Pirates | Indian Ocean | Caribbean | Other (location)
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Manpower & Life at Sea | Merchant Marines | Navies | Pirates, Corsairs & Privateers