Portal:Piracy

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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 per year in 2004. (Full article...)

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Sayyida al Hurra, as imagined by a Modern artist.

Sayyida al Hurra (Arabic: السيدة الحرة), real name Lalla Aisha bint Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami (Arabic: للا عائشة بنت علي بن رشيد العلمي) (1485 – 14 July 1561), was Hakimat Titwan (Governor of Tétouan) between 1515–1542 and a Moroccan privateer leader during the early 16th century. She became the wife of the Wattasid Sultan Ahmad ibn Muhammad. She is considered to be "one of the most important female figures of the Islamic West in the modern age".

The life of Sayyida al-Hurra can be understood within geopolitical and religious contexts, particularly the struggle between Muslim and Christian empires during her lifetime. The Muslim Ottomans had captured Constantinople in 1453, marking the end of the Roman Empire. Al-Hurra was two years old when the Portuguese started their colonial conquest by capturing some ports at the western coast of Morocco, starting the year 1487. A few years later, Granada fell into the hands of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and forced conversions of Muslims in Spain followed. (Full article...)

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Walking the plank was a method of execution practiced on special occasion by pirates, mutineers, and other rogue seafarers. For the amusement of the perpetrators and the psychological torture of the victims, captives were bound so they could not swim or tread water and forced to walk off a wooden plank or beam extended over the side of a ship.

Although forcing captives to walk the plank has been a motif of pirates in popular culture since the 19th century, few instances are documented. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that the developers of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number suggested that Australian customers pirate their game?
... that Saudi Arabian broadcaster beoutQ pirated and resold beIN Sports programmes during the Qatar diplomatic crisis?
... 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 since 1904 the Gasparilla Pirate Festival in Tampa, Florida, has featured a pirate-themed parade?

... that in 2011, pirates were reported as raiding along the Danube River in the center of Europe?
... that, unlike traditional Western societies of the time, many pirate clans operated as limited democracies, demanding the right to elect and replace their leaders?
... that there is only one account of walking the plank?

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Selected quotations

“

Nobody but myself and the devil knows where my treasure is hid, and the longer liver will take all!

”

— Blackbeard, November 17, 1718

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General images

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

Image 1A pirate skiff in Baltiysk, Russia — captured by the Russian Navy (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 2Bartholomew 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 3Map of Tripoli in 1561 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 4A French Ship and Barbary Pirates by Aert Anthonisz, c. 1615 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 5A fleet of Vikings, painted mid-12th century (from Piracy)
Image 6Henry 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 7The Quattro Mori ("Four Moors") by Pietro Tacca; Livorno, Italy (from Barbary pirates)
Image 8Views of Ulcinj in 1718 bz H. C. Bröckell (from Albanian piracy)
Image 9The Barbary pirates frequently attacked Corsica, resulting in many Genoese towers being erected. (from Barbary pirates)
Image 10Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey of Algiers, c. 1800 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 11A contemporary flyer depicting the public execution of 16th-century pirate Klein Henszlein and his crew in 1573 (from Piracy)
Image 12Conquest of Tunis by Charles V and liberation of Christian galley slaves in 1535 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 13Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 14The 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 15Coat 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 16Modern 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 17An Algerine pirate ship (from Barbary pirates)
Image 18A 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 19Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (from Barbary pirates)
Image 20Anti 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 21Mural representing the attack of Charles Windon to San Sebastián de La Gomera (1743) (from Piracy)
Image 22Pirate Anne Bonny (1697–1720). Engraving from Captain Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates (1st Dutch Edition, 1725) (from Piracy)
Image 23A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 24International Maritime Organization (IMO) conference on capacity-building to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 25Sixteenth century Japanese pirate raids (from Piracy)
Image 26A man from the Barbary states (from Barbary pirates)
Image 27Map of Vlorë in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 28The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the Baltic sea in the Middle Ages because of the Victual Brothers. (from Piracy)
Image 29The 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 30Iban war prahu in Skerang river (from Piracy)
Image 31Four Chinese pirates who were hanged in Hong Kong in 1863 (from Piracy)
Image 32Incidents of pipeline vandalism by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, 2002–2011 (from Piracy)
Image 33Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny (from Barbary pirates)
Image 34Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555 (from Piracy)
Image 35French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral Dupperé, 13 June 1830 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 36Map of Shkodër with the Buna river in 1571 by Giovanni Francesco Camocio (from Albanian piracy)
Image 37British Royal Navy Commodore gives a presentation on piracy at the MAST 2008 conference (from Piracy)
Image 38Pirate 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 39A 19th-century illustration of an Iranun pirate (from Piracy)
Image 40A French ship under attack by Barbary pirates, ca. 1615 (from Piracy)
Image 41A fight between Filipino pirates, Bugis trading ship, and Dutch mariners. (from Piracy)
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 43Map of Durrës in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 44Somalia's coral reefs, ecological parks and protected areas (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 45Lieve Pietersz Verschuier, Dutch ships bomb Tripoli in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates, c. 1670 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 46British captain witnessing the miseries of Christian slaves in Algiers, 1815 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 47Double-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 48Map of Dalmatia in 1715 by Guillaume Delisle (from Albanian piracy)
Image 49A private guard escort on a merchant ship providing security services against piracy in the Indian Ocean (from Piracy)
Image 50Hanging of Captain Kidd; illustration from The Pirates Own Book (1837) (from Piracy)
Image 51An LRAD sound cannon mounted on RMS Queen Mary 2 (from Piracy)
Image 52The Prisoner by Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ after Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1871 (from Albanian piracy)
Image 53A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs by Laureys a Castro, c. 1681 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 54Aerial photograph of the Niger Delta, a center of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 55Bartholomew 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 56Puerto del Príncipe being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan (from Piracy)
Image 57Castle of Ulcinj in the 1890s (from Albanian piracy)
Image 58Map showing the extent of Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels between 2005 and 2010 (from Piracy)
Image 59Slave market in Algiers, Ottoman Algeria, 1684 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 60Dan Seavey was a pirate on the Great Lakes in the early 20th century. (from Piracy)
Image 61Pirates attacking a French ship (from Albanian piracy)
Image 62"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson Haunted Adventure Fremont, California (from Piracy)
Image 63Henry 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 64Kent battling Confiance, a privateer vessel commanded by French corsair Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Garneray (from Piracy)
Image 65A 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 66Born to a noble family in Puerto Rico, Roberto Cofresí was the last notably successful pirate in the Caribbean. (from Piracy)
Image 67"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by Grigory Gagarin (from Piracy)
Image 68Capture 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 69Battle of Preveza, 1538 (from Barbary pirates)
Image 70Painting 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 71An action between an English ship and vessels of the Barbary Corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 72Armed 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 73The traditional "Jolly Roger" flag of piracy (from Piracy)
Image 74Spanish warships bombarding the Moro Pirates of the southern Philippines in 1848 (from Piracy)
Image 75A mosaic of a Roman trireme in Tunisia (from Piracy)
Image 76Map of Ulcinj in 1573 by Simon Pinargenti (from Albanian piracy)
Image 77Suspected Somali pirates keep their hands in the air (from Piracy)
Image 78U.S. naval officer Stephen Decatur boarding a Tripolitan gunboat during the First Barbary War, 1804 (from Piracy)
Image 79The cemetery of past pirates at Île Ste-Marie (St. Mary's Island) (from Piracy)
Image 80A collage of Somali pirates armed with AKM assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and semi-automatic pistols in 2008 (from Piracy)
Image 81The Bombardment of Algiers by the Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1816 to support the ultimatum to release European slaves (from Piracy)
Image 82Battle of a French ship of the line and two galleys of the Barbary corsairs (from Barbary pirates)
Image 83Photomontage of Somali pirates on the MV Faina (from Piracy off the coast of Somalia)
Image 84Time 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 85Amaro Pargo was one of the most famous corsairs of the Golden Age of Piracy (from Piracy)
Image 861890 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)