BA3a - Week 3 Summary - Creative Practice

BA3a - Week 3 Summary - Creative Practice

While I ended up spending a lot of time on the task this week I got a lot of research done about Pirates.The follow research are the result of watching numerous documentaries and websites with information regarding pirates. My sources will be provided at the bottom of this page.

Pirates

Pirates in general is a very broad subject, the act of piracy itself is what defines a pirate and is a word that describes the act of robbery or criminal violence from ship or other water based vessel upon another ship or coastal area. The very first act of piracy that has been documented was in 14th century BC and piracy is still an act that is happening in current time. The act of piracy can also be happening on land or an airborne vehicle but I will not be focusing on these.

In my research I will be writing about the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean since that’s the setting my pirates cove will be taking place.

The Golden Age of Piracy

The Golden Age of Piracy took place during the 1650s to the 1730s. The main factor of the huge increase of piracy during this period was the rise of quantities of valuable cargoes being shipped to Europe by sea.

Portugal and Spain worked with the Pope > Drew a line across the map and decided to conquer all of north America and south America, which includes the Caribbean. Way larger amount of land than they expected. This treaty was called “Treaty of Tordesillas”

Spain conquered the Aztecs (1521) Incas (1537) and most of the Mayan civilization (1546) The whole area is now known as the ‘Spanish Main’ which lasted from 1492 – 1800.

Image of the Spanish Main

They captured riches worth billions of dollars worth in gold and silver.

The Spanish deployed wild life in their new found land to make it easier to have access to food. This attracted people from France, England and Holland that had no jobs or were bandits to work on a ship and when they have reached the destination point they would live there and live of the wild life that the Spanish deployed to live on.

Asset idea: Buccan or Boucan is a wooden framework which acts sort of like a barbeque, was invented by the new adventurers. ‘Jerky maker’ this later got transformed into the word buccaneer which means pirate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buccan

Image displaying buccaneers using a buccan

The island called Hispaniola becomes an unofficial home for the buccaneers where they trade this jerky to passing ships and occasionally robs the ships/take them.

When the Spanish got told about that these ‘Buccaneers’ lived of their wild life they killed off all of the life stock they deployed on their new lands and had to find a new way of feeding themselves.

This created a chain reaction where the buccaneers now didn’t have anything to do a living from so instead of hunting animals they now started to turn into sea robbery instead, specifically Spaniard ships.  This how the piracy in Caribbean mainly started and the golden age of piracy has begun.

1654 Oliver Cromwell lord protector of England set his eyes on Hispaniola and sent a massive invasion fleet which included 18 warships, 20 transporter vessels and around 3000 men.

On Christmas day this British force sets off towards the island of Hispaniola to conquer this new land. It takes them over a month to reach their destination. The British invasion of Hispaniola failed due to bad weather delayed their attack which left the Spanish enough time to spot the English and prepare for an ambush. The British invasion fleet now instead of heading back to England went to conquer Jamaica which was a less defended island and made this their base of operations.

Due to the long travel between England and Jamaica they hired the buccaneers of Jamaica to defend the island instead of sending message for more people from England. They also used the buccaneers to attack the Spanish ships. This way England could quickly build up a new fleet without a massive cost and the time it would take to send men and ships all the way from England.

This is how privateering started which is also known as a letter of mark. Privateering means the ability to raid the enemy during a time of war where you have to bring the ship and prices back for everyone to get a share. They do this under a legal agreement but of course these legal requirements were very ‘loose’ and often didn’t get followed.

Example of a letter of mark

Many people who were ‘Privateers’ basically were pirates with a document that says they are allowed. Captain Morgan was the most well-known and successful Privateer from England. Privateers were also known as “Sea-Dogs”

The most famous privateer was Sir Francis Drake. He was a privateer from 1540 – 1596 and was the first English Circumnavigator. He was a hero to the English and a pirate to the Spanish.

Treaties

After the treaty of the Hague (1673) and the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) the war had settled between England, Spain and the Dutch which resulted in that the time of privateering have now officially ended due to there not being a time of war. This did not stop the “Privateers” from continuing their raiding of ships but they were now considered “Pirates” because without an official license to back them up their raids were now highly illegal.
During the 1700’s pirates started to sail with the jolly roger as their flag which was knows as the “Black flag of death”.

The flag known as Jolly Roger

War of the Spanish succession

During 1701 – 1713 yet another war established in the Caribbean which meant that many of the pirates could now turn back into privateers because it was now a time of war. In this war over 53 000 men signed up into the navy but by the end of the war only a quarter of them were still standing. The war ended in 1715 and with their services no longer needed many of the sailors and soldiers joined different pirate crews.

Woodes Rogers

After the war the British did now make an attempt of controlling the piracy by making the former privateer Woodes Rogers into a governor and offer pardons to pirates in exchange for them helping to build up a lawful colony. Any pirate that would not accept this pardon would be considered an outlaw and face eradication.

Illustration of Woodes Rogers (To the far right)

The Pirate Round

Because of this new threat many of the pirates that did not accept the pardon given by Woodes Rogers travelled to the Indian ocean where they raided slave camps along the coast of Africa. This was the strongest period in the Golden age of Piracy. This was the period where the famous pirates such as Blackbeard, Barth Roberts and Anne Bonny ruled the ocean. Around 1720 there was around 2000 pirates sailing the seas of the Caribbean and north America.

Blackbeard illustrated in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag

The end of piracy

Between 1720 and 1736 the different nations were focusing on brining the era of pirates to an end. During this time Pirates had to focus more on their own survival than raiding enemy ships and treasure. Between 500-600 pirates were hanged over this period of time and from the peak of piracy in 1720 pirates were almost extinct by the end of 1736 and this was considered as the end of piracy.

The life of a pirate

Captains were usually allowed a higher share but at the same time were more generous with their possessions such as rum, food etc.

Quartermaster – Was due to take control of command if pirate captain was killed. He was the captains right hand man and also the voice of the rest of the crew. Also in charge of water and food supply.

Sailing master – Navigate and pilot the ship. Some had to do this without a map. (Some maps were highly inaccurate) This job payed well on merchant and navy ships so if you turned into piracy you were usually a rather poor sailing master.

Gunners – Small group of the crew who were in charge of the cannons of the ship, this role could take years to master. Each cannon usually required up to 5 men to handle. Swab, load and fire the cannon as quick and accurate as possible.

Doctors – Most pirate ships didn’t have a doctor, they were very sought after and most of the time if there was a doctor on a ship he was usually there against his own will. Amputation was a very common way of solving medical issues due to their lack of proper medicine on the ship.
Carpenter – Dealing with the repairs of the ship.

Cook – The chef on the ship, preparing the food supplied by the quartermaster. If a ship had a “Kitchen” it was called a “Galley”.

The daily tasks of the common pirates were significantly easier than the ones that had the same station on merchant ships. This was because merchant ships to cut cost had very little crew meanwhile pirate ships usually had as much as 7 times higher amount of men on their ships.

The reason pirates drank lots of rum was because this was a lot easier to get your hands on then clean water at the time and during their raiding of merchant ships this was one of the more common wares on board.

Pirates were known for being rather lazy people who spent their winnings very quickly and consumed their supplies rapidly. The average age of the pirate at this time was 27 years old. There are documentation of pirates spending from 2-3000 pieces of eight in one night which would take a normal person about a year to earn. When pirates reached the shores they usually spent most of their winnings immediately in gambling, women and drink. This was because they knew that their life expectancy was not very long so they made the best of the moment.

Sources
It's History – The Golden Age of Piracy | Pirates | Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zccqt99BQ4A
It's History – Lazy and generous - A pirates life | Pirates | Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554DTa0gf-g
The Golden Age of Piracy Terror at Sea Documentary
True Caribbean Pirates, A documentary by History Channel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy
http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/golden-age-piracy