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They took care of their own.
Pirates were often maimed in the course of their endeavors. As part
of the articles they all signed, payment for loss of an eye or a
limb was agreed upon ahead of time. What a way to fund your
retirement!
They were only deemed a pirate if
they stole from the wrong people. A privateer-one bearing a
Letter of Marque—might commit the very same acts as a pirate,
seizing goods and ships, with the blessing of his Sovereign so long
as he shared the booty with the Crown. However, if he made the
mistake of attacking the wrong ship, even the Letter of Marque
couldn’t save him. Captain Kidd mistakenly attacked a British vessel
and though he possessed a Letter, it wasn’t enough to save him from
the noose and the gibbet.
They didn’t just hang a convicted
pirate. They made an example of him. First, he was hung with a
short rope, so his neck wouldn’t break. A pirate hanging was a long,
protracted public strangulation. Then his body was left to be
covered by three tides, then tarred and put on display in a gibbet
as a warning to other seafaring men who might be tempted to piracy.
Such hangings were treated as holidays by the public and there was
much jostling to secure the best place from which to view the
spectacle. These people seriously needed cable TV.
They didn’t all fly the Jolly-Roger.
Each pirate captain devised his own version of the skull and
cross-bones in an effort to appear as fearsome as possible. But if
he really wanted to scare the living lights out of his prey, he’d
run up a solid red flag. It was a signal that he’d neither give nor
accept quarter. He intended to kill every soul on board.
They
didn’t bury their treasure. A few pirates might cache their
goods from time to time, but they’d never leave a map to indicate
where, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Besides, pirates were more
likely to spend their ill-gotten gains in riotous living than to
salt it away for their unlikely retirement. There were very few old
pirates. “A merry life and a short one” was their motto.
Which just goes to prove what I
suspected all along. Pirates just wanna have fun!
If you wanna have some fun, pick up a
copy of PLEASURING THE PIRATE. It’ll have you saying
“Shiver me timbers!” in no time!
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