Pirate Lore

[Zedd]

Is it true some pirates worked with the gorverment as a spy? And though...Get better fast

[King Of Hearts]

What are teh arrangements between Corsairs and their patron sovereigns, can they be called upon to defend a territory or are their sovereign supposed to bail them out if they are attacked by a foreign power?

[thegayhare]

Is it true some pirates worked with the government as a spy? And though...Get better fast

What are the arrangements between Corsairs and their patron sovereigns, can they be called upon to defend a territory or are their sovereign supposed to bail them out if they are attacked by a foreign power?

actually both these questions are pretty smiler.  since I'm guessing by spies you mean government agents Zedd.

The word Corsair is the Italian word to describe a Private citizen who had a commission form there government, basically a legal pirate.  The English term would be Privateer.  Letters of Marque would be issued to a captain, these letters would then allow the caption to attack and seize ships of a hostile nation.  Merchants attacked by privateers could approach there Sovereign (the Governor or issuer of the letters) to seek recompense for lost life and cargo.  later on the issue of letters of marquee became a quick and cheap way of attacking there enemies with out the cost of building or maintaining a standing navy.

The corsairs were expected to keep detailed records of all ships attacked and cargo seized, the captured cargo would then be turned over to the admiralty court.  there it would be assessed and the sovereign would get a percentage, and then the owner of the ship, and finally to the captain and crew.

The term Corsair was more common off the coast of Africa, often corsair captains from Muslim nations would be authorised to attack Christian ships.

Corsairs, and privateers were technically immune from prosecution for crimes of piracy since they were recognised as legitimate government agents.  How ever there was rampant abuse of the system leaving them no more then licensed pirates. 

Since privateers and corsairs were private citizens they didn't have any sort of duty to protect there sovereigns territory but it was in there best interest.  A privateer was simply tasked to attack ships from nations hostile to the sovereign,  and not to harm there allies.  The sovereign got a cut of any plunder and in return protected the Corsair from prosecution, and gave them safe haven in all ports under there control, as well as those f there allies.

[EvilIguana966]

And now, a serious analysis of piracy in the 21st century.



I rest my case.

[thegayhare]

very true..
which is why modern pirates don't target military ships, they target cruise lines, yachets, and cargo ships

I've heard cargo ships tend to uses electrified barb wire fences to repel boarders,  I haven't checked into those sonic cannons but they sound cool

[Paladin Sheppard]

What was the most common cannon type used by pirates?

[thegayhare]

What was the most common cannon type used by pirates?

Cannon of the time were crude affairs made of cast iron, pron tooverturning or exploding if not carefull.  On board ship they were mounted on small wooden carrages with small sturdy wheels.  Each cannon on a ship required a crew of 4 men to properly load, aim, and push it back into place after each shot (from the powerful recoil).  The cannon you'd find on board a pirate ship might be a hodgpodge taken from where ever they could get the guns but in most cases this would probably be in the 8-10 pounder range (as in the wieght of the shot fired the cannon it self weighed close to 2000 lbs)  they could fire a wide assortment of shot though. 

Ball shot which was a solid lead slug
Bar or Chain shot Two small balls with a length of chain, or a metal bar between themm, the shot would spin after it was fired and shread any sails or riggin it tangled in
Bundle shot  a tightly packed bundle of short metal rods,  made for clearing decks and killing crew.  once the shot was fired the bars would spread,  and once a bar hit something it would start to tumble.  Imagine the havock of as the air was filled with bouncing spinning mettel rods
Grape, or Canister shot a bundle of small 3 inch lead shot wrapped in sacking.  once fired the sack would disintgraet and the balls would spread.  basicly a shot gun for ships.  also for killing crew and sweeping decks.
and finaly anything you can grab.  in an emergancy they would load anything metal into a cannon to fire at the enemy, pots, pans, spoons, knives, chains, nails, and even as a last last resort gold coins.  there acre actualy reports from naval surgeons of having to cut gold coins out of the bodies of corpses

some ships also had small swivil guns these are small cannons that could be slipped into rotating mounts on the railing of the ship.  generaly they were loaded with grapshot before battle and then stowed on deck,  just before the ships closed they would be fitted in there sockets and ready to fire on the enemy crew.

now some ships carried much larger cannon then these up to the large 24 pounders,  but those were ship sinkers and a pirate doesn't want to sink there targets if they don't have to so most didn't risk it. There were even larger cannons on land to protect the forts.

[The Lurking Dragon]

Ball shot had the disadvantage of being more destructive to the ship being hit, but could potentially dismast a vessel with a lucky/unlucky hit. It had the advantage of adding clouds of long jagged splinters to all the other nastiness flying about in a ship to ship fight. Needless to say the shot itself would hurt too if you were unlucky to get hit by it.