This page is mainly on pirate ships, however, I will add information/tales of pirates and as always, links where the reader may obtain more information. The information I plan on providing on the pirates will be information that is often times not currently known unless you are a pirate enthusiast. For example, contrary to popular belief, many pirate captain had fleets of ships verses the single ship. Another unknown fact is that some pirates were very religious and took solace in reading the Bible and prayer books; some fleets carried a chaplain. |
Picture by Don Maitz |
During the 18th century pirates were in their golden age. There is a plethora of information out on the pirates themselves, but what about the ships they sailed? Did pirates have their own type of ship or did they commandeer whatever ship they could conquer from their prey?Pirates did not have shipyards where the crew could build the ultimate "hunting and attack" ships. Instead pirates commandeered the ships of their prey. The ships that did not suit their needs were usually sunk; the ships that would suit their needs were kept. Once the pirate commandeered a ship the "new Captain" would have her altered and outfitted to their specifications.What type of ships suited a pirate? |
Schooners were often used by pirates in North America and the Caribbean. The schooner, distinguished by two masts for and aft, could reach speeds up to 11 knots. Schooners could carry a crew of 75 men, house 8 cannons, and 4 swivel guns.
Another feature that endeared the schooner to the pirates was her shallow
draft. This enabled pirates to navigate in shoal waters.
Many people do not realize that, like other sailing fleets, pirates often had
more than one ship, and some pirates had flagships in their fleets. The
Square-Rigger was often times used for a pirate flagship. Her size, often times
110 feet long on the main deck, allowed her to carry up to 200 men. In addition,
her capacity to carry cargo "made her an excellent transport for the
collected swag of a pirate flotilla."(1)
The choice of ships by smugglers. "A rapier-like bowsprit almost as long
as her hull enabled her to mount a parade of canvas that made her even more
nimble than the schooner or brigantine."(2)
A sloop can carry 75 men and 14 cannons.
The workhorse, was the preferred combat vessel by pirates. The brigantine sported two masts and was very versatile in various sea conditions. The Brigantine could carry a crew of 100 and mount 10 cannons.
"Wooden ships were damp, dark, cheerless places, reeking with the stench of bilge water and rotten meat."(3) Wooden ships always leak and the inside of a wooden ship is difficult to dry. As a consequence the pirates often suffered from illnesses brought on my wet damp conditions and no dry attire. In addition, a pirate ship often times doubled the manning capacity of a ship. Men were packed in like sardines; one captain referred to the arrangement as "kenneling like hounds on the deck."
Try as they might wooden sailing ships were never clean. Pirates tried their best by washing down the decks with brandy (if there was plenty of it). Below decks the pirates would try and fumigate by burning pitch or brimstone. It was never enough. There were too many places for filth to accumulate and rodents to breed. As a result many times a pirate crew would loose half of its members to disease during a long voyage. One disease, among pirates, that was considered a curse was venereal disease. Crews affected with venereal disease often times were more interested in ransacking the a captured vessels medicine chest to treat the disease, looting came second.
In the 1700's about half of the pirates were of Welsh decent. However, there were French, British, American, Dutchmen, Swedish, and men from India. Where as American would become the melting pot on land, a pirate ship is the melting pot of the sea. "...when a pirate ship was hailed in mid-ocean by another passing ship, and asked who she was and whence she came, the traditional pirate reply was: "From the Seas."4
Many of the pirates were from the crews of merchant ships, either forced into service or volunteered to keep their neck. Some were deserters of the Navy or ex-military men looking for employment. Many pirates and pirate ships came into existence through mutiny. Even on established pirate ships, pirates would break off and use a captured ship to "go pirating" in. From month to month, it was not uncommon for a pirate ship to have a different crew, both in members and size.
Why so many pirates? Why endure the hardship of being a pirate, especially since being a pirate was punishable by death -- hanging? Life aboard a merchant ship or in the Navy was brutal. Discipline was harsh and severe. The more known punishments aboard ships were keelhauling (being scraped across the barnacles on a ship's bottom), walking the plank, going through a gauntlet, hanging, being dunked in the sea or towed from the yardarms flogged with a rawhide whip or beaten with a cane. In some cases an officer might dip a rope in tar and flog the sailor. Other punishment that sailors endured that is not spoken of much is eating bugs, such as cockroaches, physical beatings, jamming a sailors mouth with iron bolts. All this created a hatred for authority, the common bond of pirates.
In a time of brutality world wide, where approximately 80 percent of the population was poor, where stealing the smallest of items meant prison, which often times equaled death the life aboard a pirate ship sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime.
Under Construction -- off to do the research!!!!!
Henry Every
Stede Bonnet
John Rackam (Calico Jack)
Howell Davis
Charles Vane
Edward England
Bartholomew Roberts (the greatest pirate of his day)
Edward Teach (Blackbeard)
William Kidd (Captain Kidd)
Picture by Clyde Caldwell
Last Updated on Sunday, February 09, 2003 15:39
by
Debbie Davis
This page has been visited 15159 times since August 18, 1999.
1. Botting, Douglas., The Seafarers. The Pirates, (Alexandria: Time Life Books, 1978), 33.
2. ibid, 34.
3. ibid, 44.
4. ibid, 28.