[MR] Piracy in period

[David Chessler]

Caribbean piracy was period. I said nothing about Mediterranean or Irish
piracy, or Huguenot piracy in European waters.  It was not just for loot, but
it was part of the religious and other wars. Costumes were 16th C, not 18th C
as in "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Captain Blood". In the 16th C, most
pirates supported one nation or nationality. Thus, there were Huguenots,
Dutch, English, and Portuguese. The Jews identified with one or more of these.
Many of the "Portuguese" were Jewish or Moorish Spanish.

The pirates had land bases, of which Jamaica was the most important. For the
16th C and part of the 17th, Jamaica was run by the Columbus family, and was
friendly to Jews and Pirates. This was true, even after England took it over
in the mid-17th C. The merchants on land supported the pirates.

The big goal was the semi-annual Spanish silver fleet. Several times the
English tried to way-lay it off the Azores, but couldn't get their act
together. The Dutch did succeed once, and paid off their national debt.

------ Original Message ------
Received: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:33:01 PM EST
From: "Richard Fitzgilbert" <RichardFitzgilbert at jcsussman.org>
To: <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
Subject: Re: [MR] Piracy in period

> I'm confused, what is your contention?  Is it your contention that piracy
is
> period?  That is true without a doubt.  Piracy is a problem in the
> Mediterranean at least as far back as the Roman Empire. 
>
> Or, is it your contention that the Hollywood pirate persona is period? That
> is an entirely different (insert silly pirate cliché of your choice here).
>
> In particular, I'd love to see an indication that a 16th century pirate (of
> any nationality or religion) used a gun powder weapon of any sort.

Take a look at either of those books. In the late 16th C the ships were well
armed with various cannon. Some arquebuses are also documented. Recall that
the English stopped using the longbow in the late 16th C, replacing it with
arquebuses.

--

YIS

Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa
Erudit de l'Academie de Espee de Atlantia
Storvik (rapier)
Roxbury Mill (other things)

>
> Richard Fitzgilbert
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
> [mailto:atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of David
> Chessler
> Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 2:28 PM
> To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
> Subject: [MR] Piracy in period
>
> Despite the popularity of pirate persona, it is generally recognized
> that the great period of Caribbean piracy was in the late 17th C, and
> into the 18th C--that is, definitely "out of period."  However, this
> is not  to say that there were no pirates in the 16th C. Indeed, for
> most of her reign, Queen Elizabeth used piracy as a source of income
> and as a tool of foreign policy. Only at the very end of her reign
> did she have enough of a national navy so that she could phase out
> the letters of marque and the great English pirates.
>
> Moreover, during most of the 16th C, the Dutch and Portuguese used
> piracy against the Spanish. Many of these pirates were Jewish, or
> Jewish merchants provided "intelligence" to the actual raiders, some
> of whom were also Jewish.
>
> A couple of sources (available in the Montgomery County, MD public
library):
>
> Edward Kritzler
> Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a generation of swashbuckling
> Jews carved out an empire in the New World in their quest for
> treasure, religious freedom--and Revenge
> New York, Doubleday, 2008
> ISBN   978-0-685-51398-2
> $26.00
>
> Susan Ronald
> The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, her Pirate Adventurers, and the
> dawn of Empire
> New York, Harper Collins, 2007
> ISBN 978-0-06-082066-4
> $26.95
>
> Btw, the phrase "the British Empire" was first used by Dr. John Dee,
> in "The Petty Navy Royal," from "General & Rare Memorials," August 1577
>
> --
>
> YIS
>
> Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa
> Erudit de l'Academie de Espee de Atlantia
> Storvik (rapier)
> Roxbury Mill (other things) 
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