Young Writers Society

In what time in history was piracy most popular?

And also, what important information about pirates should I know before writing a story that includes them? What should I absolutely not leave out/know about them?

There have always been pirates, since medieval times even to now. Hear about the pirates that attacked a cruise ship and hijacked cargo ships lately?

So what you have to know would depend on the time period that the pirates were operating in. I don't know much about pirates beyond Pirates of the Caribbean and the fact that they've got much more high tech weaponry nowadays.

Hopefully someone with more pirates knowledge hangs out here, or you could always try Google.

The "Golden Age" of piracy was in the later half of the 1600s and the first couple decades of the 1700s. especially 1715-1725. You should read some nonfiction books about piracy. I recommend The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard. It is really interesting. Also if you search for information online I’m sure a lot of stuff will come up.

-They mostly functioned as democracies (which was unusual at the time, of course). The captain would be elected by a vote, and could be voted out of office at any time. They voted on all major decisions, except during battle, when that wouldn't be practical. During battle the captain could make all the decisions. There were also other officers. Pirate crews split their plunder equally, except the officers would get a share and a half or a share and a quarter or something like that. I think sometimes the captain would get two shares, but never (or rarely) more than that. The crews often had constitutions that listed their laws. You can probably find a sample of these on the internet or in many pirate books.
-They were usually short, due to bad nutrition.
-They drank a lot.
-They sometimes forced people on the ships they plundered to join them, but usually only people who had special skills that were needed (such as doctors).
-Usually crews included people from tons of different countries. They didn't always necessarily even speak the same language as each other.
-It is estimated that about 25-30% of Golden Age pirates were black. Different sources seem to disagree with each other about whether or not different races were treated equally on pirate ships but it seems that there was less discrimination among pirates than there was among most people at the time.

J. wilder's time period is probably what your looking for. You need to remember that being a pirate isn't something that people envied (despite what pirates of the caribbean say, very few dreamed about them) they were hated, hunted and nobody liked them. they were cruel and bloody thirsty, if you were on a pirate ship by choice, you probably were not a very good person. though that's the historically accurate version. nobody will came and behead you if you make them hero's, people like that .(look at Jesse James) Hero pirates are more popular these days, but they make excellent villains.

Hope i could help

I, myself, don't know a whole lot about piracy, but I tried writing a story including them once, and it, for lack of other words, epic failed. Know why? Because there is too much to know! It's so difficult to include/remember the politics of a ship and which end is the stern, and which side port is and what caulking means and generally ten billion things which, we, as modern day people, aren't acquainted with at all. (Assuming that you don't sail or anything.)

So, what I would recommend, if you're really determined to go through with this, is spend a lot of time researching and learning about sailing and ships and all the terminology that goes with it. Also, if you want to have your pirates sailing in the New World figure out what time period exactly you want and find out which countries hated each other/were at war/were allied, because that changes all. The. Time. And, one last thing. Be ready for some surprises. Most of us romanticize a pirate's life, when really, most of the time it wasn't so great.

Good luck!

-Maggie

Pooka wrote:You need to remember that being a pirate isn't something that people envied (despite what pirates of the caribbean say, very few dreamed about them) they were hated, hunted and nobody liked them. they were cruel and bloody thirsty

According to one or two nonfiction things I've read, some (though certainly not all, and probably not most) people at the time did envy pirates or think of them as heroes. Although some were extremely cruel and tortured their victims (for example--Charles Vane, Edward Lowe), it seems many avoided cruelty (for example--Sam Bellamy, Edward England).

Some pirate constitutions had laws against rape and mistreatment of prisoners, though I don't know whether or not the rules were followed. It was stated in the constitution for Captain Bartholomew Roberts's crew that if any member raped a woman he would be put to death or marooned. However, some other crews definitely committed rape (for example--Henry Every's crew after the capture of the Ganj-I-Sawai).

Some things I forgot to mention:

-Pirates didn't usually have to use force when taking over a ship. Their reputation preceded them and most ships in the Golden Age of Piracy surrendered to pirates without a fight when they saw the flag.
-According to a lot of sources, there is no record of pirates making anyone walk the plank, although I read somewhere that Stede Bonnet did at some point.
-There is also barely any record of pirates burying treasure--I think generally they spent it quickly.
-I think most were sailors already before becoming pirates. Many of them had been in the navy before; one of the reasons piracy became so common at that time period is that a war had ended between England and Spain so there were tons of navy guys who were no longer needed to fight. Also there were a ton of privateers who decided to become pirates.

I agree with the last person that boats and ships are really complicated to write about, assuming you don't know how to sail. I want to write something about modern kids who run way to be pirates, but I'm waiting until I learn more about boats. (I'm thinking about trying to see if I can work in exchange for sailing lessons.)

http://www.inkyfingers.com/pyrates/terms/index.html <- website on how Pirates talk, like sayings and stuff. Don't ask how I found it...

I think you should work on a certain code of behavior amongst them. Like how they can't get into fights on the ship so they won't be missing hands, how they communicate with each other... You can make them family-like, or you can emphasize the each for his own part. Your call.