Portal:Piracy

The Piracy Portal

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Introduction

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...)

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Surcouf c. 1820

Robert Surcouf ([ʁɔ.bɛʁ syʁ.kuf] 12 December 1773 – 8 July 1827) was a French privateer, businessman and slave trader who operated in the Indian Ocean from 1789 to 1808 during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Capturing over 40 prizes, he later amassed a large fortune from a variety of commercial activities, such as ship-owning, privateering, slave trading and owning land.

Surcouf started his maritime career as an officer on the ships Aurore, Courrier d'Afrique and Navigateur. Having risen to the rank of captain, he illegally engaged in slave trading onboard the slave ship Créole. Surcouf then captained the merchantman Émilie, on which he engaged in commerce raiding despite lacking a letter of marque. He preyed on British shipping, capturing several merchantmen including the East Indiaman Triton, before returning to the Isle de France where his prizes were confiscated. Surcouf then returned to France, where he obtained prize money from the government. Returning to the Indian Ocean, Surcouf captained the privateers Clarisse and Confiance, raiding British, American, and Portuguese shipping. He captured the East Indiaman Kent on 7 October 1800. Returning to France, Surcouf was awarded the Legion of Honour and settled down as a businessman. (Full article...)

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The Sulu and Celebes Seas, a semi-enclosed sea area and porous region that covers an area of space around 1 million square kilometres, have been subject to illegal maritime activities since the pre-colonial era and continue to pose a maritime security threat to bordering nations up to this day. While piracy has long been identified as an ubiquitous challenge, being historically interwoven with the region, recent incidents also include other types of maritime crimes such as kidnapping and the trafficking of humans, arms and drugs. Attacks mostly classify as 'armed robbery against ships' according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as they occur in maritime zones that lie under the sovereignty of a coastal state. Incidents in the Sulu and Celebes Seas specifically involve the abduction of crew members. Since March 2016, the Information Sharing Centre (ISC) of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) reports a total of 86 abductions, leading to the issue of a warning for ships transpassing the area. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that since 1904 the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, has featured a pirate-themed parade?
... 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 indigenous Australian artist Daniel Boyd has depicted colonial figures including Captain James Cook and Governor Arthur Phillip as pirates?

... that in 2011, pirates were reported as raiding along the Danube River in the center of Europe?
... that there is only one account of walking the plank?
... 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?

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Selected quotations

“

I am sorry to see you here Jack, but if you had fought like a man, you need not be hanged like a dog.

”

— Anne Bonny

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General images

The following are images from various piracy-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Iban war prahu in Skerang river (from Piracy)
Image 2Painting 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 3Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan (from Piracy)
Image 4The Quattro Mori ("Four Moors") by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy (from Barbary pirates)
Image 5Time 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 6A fleet of Vikings, painted mid-12th century (from Piracy)
Image 7Map of Dalmatia in 1715 by Guillaume Delisle (from Albanian piracy)
Image 8Anti 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 9British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 10The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves (from Piracy)
Image 11Capture 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 12Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
Image 13Barbaria by Jan Janssonius, shows the coast of North Africa, an area known in the 17th century as Barbaria, c. 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 141890 illustration by Rafael Monleón of a late 18th-century Iranun lanong warship. The Malay word for "pirate", lanun, originates from an exonym of the Iranun people (from Piracy)
Image 15Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray (from Piracy)
Image 16Henry 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 17The traditional "Jolly Roger" flag of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 18Map of Vlorë in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 19The Barbary pirates frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 20Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 21A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthonisz, c. 1615 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 22An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 23The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
Image 24A fight between Filipino pirates, Bugis trading ship, and Dutch mariners. (from Piracy)
Image 25Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 26Battle of Preveza, 1538 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 27Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 28International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 29A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 30An Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary pirates)
Image 31Incidents of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 32Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy (from Piracy)
Image 33Map of Durrës in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 34A 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 35An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2 (from Piracy)
Image 36The 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 37Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
Image 38Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean. (from Piracy)
Image 39Henry 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 40Pirate 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 41Pirate 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 42A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008 (from Piracy)
Image 43Double-barrelled lantaka cannons, kalasag shields, armor, and various swords (including kalis, panabas, and kampilan) used by Moro pirates in the Philippines (c. 1900) (from Piracy)
Image 44"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by Grigory Gagarin (from Piracy)
Image 45The Prisoner by Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ after Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1871 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 46A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 47Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
Image 48Coat 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 49Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 50Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, c. 1800 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 51Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 52British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
Image 53Slave market in Algiers, Ottoman Algeria, 1684 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 54Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 55Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 56Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 57Sixteenth century Japanese pirate raids (from Piracy)
Image 58"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 59Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
Image 60The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
Image 61U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
Image 62The 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 63Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 64Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 65Bartholomew 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 66Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (from Barbary pirates)
Image 67A pirate skiff in Baltiysk, Russia — captured by the Russian Navy (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 68A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
Image 69Map of Ulcinj in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 70A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 71Castle of Ulcinj in the 1890s (from Albanian piracy)
Image 72A mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia (from Piracy)
Image 73Modern 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 74Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century. (from Piracy)
Image 75A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
Image 76Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary pirates)
Image 77A 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 78Bartholomew 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 79Armed 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 80Photomontage of Somali pirates on the MV Faina (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 81Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 82Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
Image 83A private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 84French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 85Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 86A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary pirates)