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Corsair
Pirate Ship:
With its square-rigged foremast
and fore-and-aft sails on its main mast,
the brigantine was fast, easy to
maneuver and had twice the cargo space
of a sloop. No wonder it became the
favorite vessel of pirates of the
Caribbean. A typical brigantine carried
as many as 100 pirates and mounted
enough cannon to intimidate any possible
target.
Privateers:
Piracy in the Caribbean came out
of the interplay of larger international
trends and the use of privateers was
especially popular. The cost of
maintaining a fleet to defend the
colonies was beyond national governments
of the 16th and 17th centuries. Private
vessels would be commissioned into a
'navy', paid with a substantial share of
whatever they could capture from enemy
ships and settlements, the rest going to
the crown. These ships would operate
independently or as a fleet and if
successful the rewards could be great
—this substantial profit made
privateering something of a regular line
of business; wealthy businessmen or
nobles would be quite willing to finance
this legitimized piracy in return for a
share. The sale of captured goods was a
boost to colonial economies as well.
Buccaneers:
Specific
to the Caribbean were pirates termed
buccaneers which arrived in the 1630s.
The original buccaneers were escapees
from the colonies; forced to survive
with little support, they had to be
skilled at boat construction, sailing,
and hunting. These skills transferred
well into being a pirate. They operated
with the partial support of the
non-Spanish colonies and until the 1700s
their activities were legal, or
partially legal and there were irregular
amnesties from all nations.
Traditionally buccaneers had a number
of peculiarities. Their crews operated
as a democracy: the captain was elected
by the crew and they could vote to
replace him. The captain had to be a
leader and a fighter—in combat he was
expected to be fighting with his men,
not directing operations from a
distance.
Spoils were
evenly divided into shares; when the
officers had a greater number of shares,
it was because they took greater risks
or had special skills. Often the crews
would sail without wages—"on
account"—and the spoils would be built
up over a course of months before being
divided. There was a strong esprit de
corps among pirates. This allowed them
to win sea battles: they typically
outmanned trade vessels by a large
ratio. There was also for some time a
social insurance system, guaranteeing
money or gold for battle wounds at a
worked-out scale.
In combat they were considered
ferocious and were reputed to be experts
with flintlock weapons, but these were
so unreliable that they were not in
widespread military use before the
1670s.
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