Piracy
Piracy is robbery carried out through attacks on vessels or coastal places. People who undertake it are called pirates. Maritime raiding can involve the seizure of goods as well as threats or force against the people transporting them.[1]
Pirates and privateers
A privateer operated with a government's commission to attack enemy shipping. Such permission distinguished privateering from unauthorised piracy, although a captain could move from one activity to the other. Buccaneers were associated particularly with raiding in the Caribbean; the term could describe pirates or privateers.[2][3]
A period of Atlantic piracy
The expression Golden Age of Piracy is often used for increased activity from the 1680s to the 1720s. Raiding affected the Caribbean and the east coast of North America, with other operations off West Africa and in the Indian Ocean. Stolen cargoes were sold through coastal trading networks. Naval campaigns and offers of pardons helped reduce these activities during the 1720s.[3]
History and stories
Pirate stories mix history with fiction. Early newspapers and the influential 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates helped shape later portrayals, but also exaggerated events. Popular images therefore need to be checked against the evidence rather than taken as literal descriptions of pirate life.[3]
Some pirate characters are explicitly fictional, including Gunpowder Gertie, whose Kootenay adventure is presented as an invented story.[4]
References
- ↑ Whitenton, Brian (20 September 2012). The Difference Between Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers, part 1. The Mariners’ Museum and Park.
- ↑ Whitenton, Brian (4 October 2012). The Difference Between Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers, part 2. The Mariners’ Museum and Park.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Royal Museums Greenwich. History of pirates: the Golden Age of Piracy. Accessed 9 October 2026.
- ↑ McTaggart, Carolyn. Gunpowder Gertie. Discover Nelson. Accessed 9 October 2026.