Portal:Piracy
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Introduction
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Flag_of_Edward_England.svg/640px-Flag_of_Edward_England.svg.png)
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding.
Historic examples of such areas include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. The term piracy generally refers to maritime piracy, although the term has been generalized to refer to acts committed on land, in the air, on computer networks, and (in science fiction) outer space. Piracy usually excludes crimes committed by the perpetrator on their own vessel (e.g. theft), as well as privateering, which implies authorization by a state government.
Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. In the 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue, with estimated worldwide losses of US$25 billion in 2023, increased from US$16 billion in 2004. (Full article...)
Selected biography - show another
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Gibbs_carrying_the_Dutch_Girl_on_board_his_Vessel.jpg/320px-Gibbs_carrying_the_Dutch_Girl_on_board_his_Vessel.jpg)
Charles Gibbs (November 5, 1798 – April 25, 1831) was the pseudonym of an American pirate, born James D. Jeffers. Jeffers was one of the last active pirates in the Caribbean during the early 19th century, and was among the last persons to be executed for piracy by the United States.
His career, like many others during this time, was marked by violence and brutality. Shortly before his execution, Jeffers admitted to have been involved in the killing of as many as 400 victims. His confessions during his imprisonment and trial, detailing his career, were recorded and published following his death and remained popular reading throughout the mid-19th century. However, given the sensationalistic nature of these accounts, historians have questioned the veracity of Jeffers's confessions. (Full article...)Selected article - show another
Did you know?
- ... that Saudi Arabian broadcaster beoutQ pirated and resold beIN Sports programmes during the Qatar diplomatic crisis?
- ... that the developers of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number suggested that Australian customers pirate their game?
- ... that HMS Redpole, one of the aptly-named coffin brigs, sank in an action with a pirate vessel in August 1828?
- ... that Black Sheep Radio dedicated its first day of programming to a fallen pirate?
- ... that since 1904 the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, has featured a pirate-themed parade?
- ... that indigenous Australian artist Daniel Boyd has depicted colonial figures including Captain James Cook and Governor Arthur Phillip as pirates?
- ... that red Jolly Roger flags were the most feared of all; all prayed they never encountered the "Bloody Red," which boldly declared that no mercy would be shown and all victims would be killed?
- ... that there is only one account of walking the plank?
- ... that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?
Selected quotations
“ | Coming up to them, there has passed some common shot between some of our fleet and some of them; and as far as we perceive, they are determined to sell their lives with blows. | ” |
— Francis Drake to Admiral Henry Seymour, after coming upon part of the Spanish Armada. |
General images
- Image 2Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
- Image 4Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
- Image 8The work of the Mercedarians was in ransoming Christian slaves held in Muslim hands, Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires, 1637 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 10Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
- Image 11A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 12The crew of the merchant vessel Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on their health and welfare. The Belize-flagged cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, was seized by pirates 25 September 2008 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali Coast. The ship is carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 13Pirate treasure looted by Samuel Bellamy and recovered from the wreck of the Whydah; exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 2010 (from Piracy)
- Image 14Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
- Image 16Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, c. 1800 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 18Pirate Anne Bonny (disappeared after 28 November 1720). Engraving from Captain Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates (1st Dutch Edition, 1725) (from Piracy)
- Image 20The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
- Image 21Bartholomew Roberts was the pirate with most captures during the Golden Age of Piracy. He is now known for hanging the governor of Martinique from the yardarm of his ship. (from Piracy)
- Image 22British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 23Bartholomew Roberts' crew carousing at the Calabar River; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837). Roberts is estimated to have captured over 470 vessels. (from Piracy)
- Image 25Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
- Image 26Armed pirates in the Indian Ocean near Somalia. After the picture was taken, the vessel's crew members opened fire on U.S. Navy ships and the ship's crew members returned fire. One suspected pirate was killed and 12 were taken into custody (see engaged pirate vessels). (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 27A person costumed in the character of captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp's lead role in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (from Piracy)
- Image 29A fight between Filipino pirates, Bugis trading ship, and Dutch mariners. (from Piracy)
- Image 30An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 31Time series of maritime traffic crossing the Indian Ocean showing the effect of piracy and its progressive decline in re-routing ships. Each sub-plot shows 6-month colour-coded trips, red southbound and green northbound, using Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) historical data. Operational authorities requested an increase of LRIT reporting frequency from ships in 2009 and 2010 in order to better track them remotely in the High Risk Area. The increase of tracking points can be erroneously perceived as an apparently higher volume of traffic with respect to other periods. (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 33A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
- Image 36British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
- Image 37Coat of arms of the town of Almuñécar, granted by King Charles V in 1526, showing the turbaned heads of three Barbary pirates floating in the sea (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 39Anti piracy operations by Indian Navy's INS Tabar, in the Gulf of Aden on 18 November 2008 (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 42Barbaria by Jan Janssonius, shows the coast of North Africa, an area known in the 17th century as Barbaria, c. 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 43"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California (from Piracy)
- Image 45The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves (from Piracy)
- Image 47Modern reconstruction of skull alleged to have belonged to 14th century pirate Klaus Störtebeker. He was the leader of the privateer guild Victual Brothers, who later turned to piracy and roamed European seas. (from Piracy)
- Image 49Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
- Image 50A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
- Image 52The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
- Image 53Henry Every is shown selling his loot in this engraving by Howard Pyle. Every's capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai in 1695 stands as one of the most profitable pirate raids ever perpetrated. (from Piracy)
- Image 54Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
- Image 55Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 58Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 59Castle of Ulcinj in the 1890s (from Albanian piracy)
- Image 60A pirate skiff in Baltiysk, Russia — captured by the Russian Navy (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
- Image 62A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008 (from Piracy)
- Image 63Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718 depicting the battle between Blackbeard and Robert Maynard in Ocracoke Bay; romanticized depiction by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris from 1920 (from Piracy)
- Image 64Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean. (from Piracy)
- Image 65International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
- Image 67Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 68Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
- Image 69U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
- Image 71An Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 72A merchant seaman aboard a fleet oil tanker practices target shooting with a Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun as part of training to repel pirates in the Strait of Malacca, 1984 (from Piracy)
- Image 77The Barbary pirates frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 78Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
- Image 79Henry Morgan who sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671 – the second most important city in the Spanish New World at the time; engraving from 1681 Spanish edition of Alexandre Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America (from Piracy)
- Image 80Painting from 1772 depicting British and French sailors at battle with Dulcignottes (Ulcinj pirates). These pirates were defeated on 5 September 1772. (from Albanian piracy)
- Image 85Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray (from Piracy)
- Image 86A private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)