Sea piracy, like any era, had its period of maximum prosperity, giving rise to such living legends as Bartholomew Roberts, Blackbeard and Henry Avery. The Golden Age actually lasted a little less than 80 years. It began in 1650 and ended in 1726. The last decades were very turbulent, because it was during the War of the Spanish Succession and an active period of privateering, when private individuals used warships to capture the ships of other powers.

The Golden Age of Piracy is interesting, first of all, for the reason that it was from it that the modern image of a sea robber came into popular culture.

Why is the age of pirates here?

There are several reasons that contributed to the development of piracy in the second half of the 17th century:

• significantly more valuable cargo began to be transported to Europe by sea;
• the military presence of European powers in certain regions has weakened;
• a large number of well-trained and experienced sailors appeared; The British Royal Navy became a real source of personnel for pirates;
• many leaders of foreign colonies, sent by the governments of their countries, turned out to be inept administrators; The colonial powers were at war with each other, so there was no opportunity to organize a coordinated fight against piracy, although individual attempts were made.

In general, due to the discovery and beginning of the development of the New World, the world suddenly expanded so much that states no longer had enough strength and attention to do everything at once. They divided the colonies and removed treasures from them, fought and established new trade channels. During this turbulent period, there was also a place for free pirates.

Three stages

The Golden Age of Piracy is a term coined by historians much later than the events that took place. The contemporaries of Henry Morgan and Edward Teach never used this name, although they could have guessed that the incredible scale of the outrages of the pirates would be preserved in the memory of their descendants.

Researchers tend to divide the Golden Age of Piracy into three stages.

1. Buccaneering (1650-1680). Settlers from France and England who were engaged in the development of Jamaica and Tortuga became buccaneers. For many of them, the profit from hunting and other relatively legal ways of earning money was not enough, and they switched to robbery. Buccaneers attacked ships in the Caribbean Sea and on the other side of the Isthmus of Panama - in the eastern Pacific Ocean. However, they were not limited to marine fishing. Buccaneers regularly made land raids and plundered the Spanish colonies.
2. Pirate circle (1690s, minor activity in 1719-1721). We are not talking about some kind of advisory body, but about the sea route that the pirates used. With the advent of the Pirate Circle, maritime robbery took shape as a global phenomenon. Pirates made their way from the western Atlantic around Africa to India, with intermediate stops (for example, in Madagascar), which in many places crossed the routes of merchant ships. The most desirable prey for them were Mughal pilgrims and ships of the East India Company sailing to Muslim shrines.
3. In the wake of the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1726). The war itself lasted from 1701 to 1714 and turned out to be a major European conflict in which a huge number of people were involved. After the signing of the Utrecht Peace Treaty, thousands of sailors were left without work and retrained as pirates. These well-trained and experienced sea wolves scattered across the east coast of America, the west coast of Africa, the Caribbean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Decline

At the beginning of the 18th century, European countries finally realized that piracy was causing too much damage and needed to be fought. The Peace of Utrecht, which opened a series of several non-aggression treaties and fixation of the results of the war, became a double-edged sword for piracy. On the one hand, the freed sailors seriously strengthened the ranks of sea robbers. However, not everyone went to rob and kill. European countries began to strengthen fleets that escort merchant ships and catch pirates. The trained sailors who retained their honor went to serve on these ships, and soon they became a real curse for the robbers.

In the 1720s, piracy declined. First, European countries increased their naval forces. Secondly, the strengthening of colonial administrations deprived the pirates of a safe base. In 1715, Henry Jennings and his gang were not received by the governor of Jamaica, although he was carrying a cargo of gold and was going to spend it on the island. Jennings had to create a new base in the Bahamas, but it lasted only three years until Governor Woods Rogers arrived on the islands.

The third reason for the decline was the disappearance of the main bait - Spanish gold and silver. Spain by that time had removed the main treasures from the plundered colonies.

The surviving pirates became fugitives from justice. Most of them went to the west coast of Africa, where another interesting object for capture appeared - slave ships that did not have good protection. But that, as they say, is a completely different story.

In the Middle Ages, not only did it not subside, but it began to flourish wildly, quickly spreading throughout the world. In the early Middle Ages it struck the northern part of Europe. The most famous and most terrible of them were the Scandinavian pirates - Normans, they are Nurmans, Vikings, and also, although the latter is not entirely true, because Varangian- is a hired warrior of the northern tribes, not necessarily in Scandinavia. The coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula, indented by deep fjords, was ideal for establishing pirate bases and provided excellent protection from prying eyes.

The Normans captured the entire coast of Europe from the North Cape to the Strait of Gibraltar. They conquered the Slavic and Finnish tribes, conquered part of France, founded states in Ireland and the Hebrides, took possession of the Shetland Islands, took Sicily from the Saracens, southern Italy from the Greeks and Lombard princes, and more than once threatened Constantinople. The prayer was heard everywhere: “God save us from the fury of the Normans!”.

The German emperor waged a vigorous fight against the Normans, creating a system of permanent defense of the coast of his state. Lacking the strength to fight the well-trained troops of the empire, the Vikings sent their longships against England and, starting in 793, began to carry out regular raids.

In the 30s of the 9th century, after the fall of the military power of the Carolingian monarchy, the Normans resumed raids on the Frankish coast. Moreover, having captured the mouths of the largest rivers, such as the Rhine and Seine, they began to move deeper into the continent. In May 841, the Normans captured Rouen, in June 843 - Nantes, in May 845 - Paris, etc. In 911, the Normans conquered part of the coast of France, which has since been called Normandy. It was from here in 1066, under the leadership of the Duke William the Conqueror they invaded England again, and the Duke of Normandy became King of England under the name William I.

When the Crusades began, Venice and Genoa were unable to satisfy the request, the crusaders had to hire ships from pirates. But this entailed only a temporary stop to the Norman sea robberies. It can be said that essentially no external measures or countermeasures could eradicate the pirate activities of the Normans. It stopped completely only in the 15th century and was associated only with the aggravation of the internal problems of Scandinavia.

The Vikings created a pirate society with its own unique ethics. They severely persecuted all robbery and violence within their own community. Cheating in the division of spoils was considered a serious crime. Traitors and deserters were executed. Zealously observing their rights, the Normans left a bloody memory in the history of many nations.

In the 11th century, Rugian, Pomeranian and other Slavic pirates appeared in the Baltic, and the Danish state waged a merciless fight against them.

Increasing robbery on land and sea routes forced the merchants of northwestern Europe to unite to protect their common interests and the security of trade.

In 1241, an agreement of alliance and defense was signed in Lübeck between Lübeck and Hamburg, marking the beginning of a powerful German merchant organization called Hansa. During its heyday at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, the Hanseatic League united several hundred cities. The voyage routes of the ships of the Hanseatic merchants are shown on the map.

The most common type of merchant ship in Northern Europe and, in particular, in the Hanseatic League, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea in the 12th-15th centuries. was cogg.

The Hansa successfully fought against pirates, including one of the most powerful pirate organizations in the Baltic - "Vitaliers" who called themselves "friends of God and enemies of the world." However, during wars, the Hansa did not disdain to use the help of its enemies, so in 1389 Lubeck turned to the head of the Vitaliers Störtebecker with a request to come to the aid of the defenders of Stockholm besieged by the Danes. The Vitaliers provided effective assistance in breaking the blockade and delivering provisions. Also in 1389, the Queen of Denmark and Norway Margarita called on the crusaders to fight the pirates, and in 1401, after long and stubborn naval battles, the main bases of the pirates were defeated, and their leaders, including Störtebecker, were executed.

There is a legend about the death of Störtebecker. It says that his last request was fulfilled: to save the lives of those of the Vitaliers, whom he managed to run past after his head was cut off... Störtebecker ran beheaded past eleven of his comrades and fell only when the executioner put his foot on his body.

The Vitaliers, like all pirates of that time, were also merchants. They traded in looted goods, sometimes selling them even where their rightful owners were supposed to deliver the goods. Within their organization they maintained strict discipline. Apart from captives, there were no women among them. Disobedience to the captain was punishable by death.

The Russian Tsar also contributed to the development of piracy in the Baltic Sea Ivan IV the Terrible, who recruited the Danish into his service Carsten Rohde, whose duties included the protection of merchant ships of the Moscow State.

During this period, Polish and Swedish privateers, according to the Russian chronicler, “Ships are broken by the custom of robbery and the way to our trading people from many lands is blocked”. Thus, by the will of circumstances (the lack of his own navy and the lack of time to build it and train people), the Moscow Tsar was forced to resort to the help of privateers to protect himself from privateers. Here, by the way, is another evidence that the pirates did not experience any friendly feelings towards each other and very willingly exterminated their fellow craftsmen.

Karsten Rohde, a professional privateer, was given a safe conduct by the Tsar, which defined the tasks of the new “chitaman” and guaranteed his safety:

“... to take the enemies by force, and to find their ships with fire and sword, to hook and destroy according to our Majesty’s letters... And to our commanders and clerks, that ataman Karsten Rohde and his skippers, comrades and assistants in our havens at sea and on earth in care and in honor to keep.”

Arriving in Narva, Rode equipped and armed a single-masted ship with a displacement of 40 tons with several small cannons and set off to sea. After some time, he already leads a squadron of 17 ships captured from the enemy. He reliably protected ships going to Narva. However, Russia was forced to sign a three-year truce in 1570 and leave Narva. Roda was forbidden to engage in privateering, and he again became a pirate, continuing at his own risk to rob and capture not only Polish and Hanseatic ships, but also his compatriots the Danes. The Danish king was outraged by this Frederick II prohibited Rode's ships from entering the straits of his country. In the fall of 1570, the pirate was arrested, and his further fate is unknown.

In the second half of the 16th century, in addition to overseas expeditions equipped by various governments to conquer new lands or trading companies for commercial purposes, private individuals also embarked on long voyages - according to the terminology of that time, "adventurers"- simultaneously engaged in maritime robbery and smuggling trade, often with the knowledge of the authorities and with their secret patronage, contributing a significant part of the booty to the treasury.

The English pirates especially “distinguished themselves” at this time, undermining the monopoly Spanish power on the seas with sudden attacks on caravans of ships returning to Spain with valuable cargoes of gold, silver and all kinds of colonial goods, and desperately bold raids on small harbors and forts scattered along the coast Central and South America. At the same time, the adventurers either died or became incredibly rich, then sharing their booty with nobles, ministers and with Queen Elizabeth herself, who took an unspoken part in equipping pirate expeditions.

The main base of British pirates in England in the 16th-17th centuries was the port of Plymouth. From here, one after another, flotillas of “sea dogs” came out into the vastness of the Atlantic, from which the decrepit Spanish lion could not live. The city lived with maritime robbery, the huge harbor was crowded with a crowd of large and small ships, the warehouses were bursting with valuable goods of various origins. Cloves, silk, Brazilwood, amber, old Spanish wines, sugar - all the goods of both Indies were traded wholesale and retail by Plymouth merchants - shareholders of joint-stock pirate companies (today they would say “sponsors”). In dark shops near Plymouth harbor one could buy gold rings taken from murdered Spaniards, velvet and silk dresses and camisoles with poorly washed away traces of blood at reasonable prices.

The pirate trade fed hundreds of oners, factors, and small buyers of stolen goods. Innkeepers, keepers of cheerful houses and dens of thieves, prospered and grew rich. Demand creates supply, so nowhere in England were there so many inveterate murderers, whom the noose had long missed. At night, city streets were more dangerous than the Bengal jungle.

A tramp who begged on the road, a thief caught pickpocketing, or a murderer who coveted the belongings of a random passer-by were tried and sent to the gallows, but judges and sheriffs often treated the famous masters of the pirate trade with respect. Still would! The kings themselves were often on friendly terms with them, elevated them to the dignity of nobility, appointed them to the membership of the Royal Society, and elevated them to the category of national heroes for their distinction in wars.

Since the 16th century, sea robbery off the coast of the West Indies has developed greatly: here the pirates formed a fairly strong organization, later called the “Brotherhood of the Coast.” Initially, these were French privateers who plundered Spanish settlements and ships. But after France concluded peace with Spain in 1559, they lost state support and turned from privateers into pirates.

The French privateers were replaced by English ones, who were no less active. So, Drake in 1586 he sacked and destroyed Santa Domingo; Raleigh captured Trinidad in 1595; Shirley took possession of Jamaica in 1597, plundered and razed its capital, Santiago de la Vega, etc.

Beginning in 1620, another state hostile to Spain, Holland, successfully developing its colonial activities, waged an active privateer war. Dutch privateers launched a successful attack on Puerto Rico in 1624-1625.

During this period, s (sometimes s) and s appear in the Caribbean Sea, coming from the ranks of French sailors or shipwrecked s and pirates. The island of Hispaniola becomes the main base of the buccaneers.

The Buccaneers got their nickname from the word "bukan"(in Indian “smokehouse”), which were used to prepare canned meat. The buccaneers supplied the crews of pirate ships with this long-storable product. The smokers themselves often joined the ranks of pirates. In 1639, after a major Spanish punitive expedition, the buccaneers moved from Hispaniola to the neighboring island of Tortuga, which belonged to France, where they formed a real pirate base.

Managed by experienced pirate craftsmen, the small colony of buccaneers turned into a formidable force, which England and France willingly attracted to their side.

The inhabitants of the island began to call themselves filibusters. This name comes from the Dutch word "vriipuiter", which means "pirate". The English part of the population of Tortuga caught in its sound the words “free” - free, “booter” - robber. Immigrants from France converted it into "filibuster", and in this form this word has survived to this day.

In 1654, the Spaniards again carried out a major punitive expedition and devastated the pirate nest in Tortuga. Then, with the permission and patronage of England, the filibusters moved to the city of Port Royal on the island of Jamaica. In accordance with the royal decree, a fee was established for obtaining an official certificate giving the right to rob Spanish merchant ships. The captain of the pirate ship paid twenty pounds to the English royal treasury (a very large sum at that time), promised to bring the loot to Port Royal, giving the fifteenth part in favor of the king, and officially (in the face of the law) was considered not a pirate, but a privateer.

In 1671, pirates under the command Henry Morgan passed the entire Isthmus of Panama, captured and plundered the city of Panama, which allowed the pirates to spread their operations to the entire Pacific coast from California to Chile.

In 1683, pirates under the command of a Dutchman Van Hoorn plundered the city of Veracruz, and in 1684 several cities in Peru; at the same time, a group of pirates under the command of a Frenchman Grammon caused significant devastation in Mexico.

The last major pirate expedition in the West Indies was an attempt by pirates to sack Cartagena (now Colombia) in 1697. The pirates managed to capture the city, but they were soon attacked by the approaching Anglo-Dutch fleet and were scattered after a fierce battle. Their settlements in Haiti became part of the French colony of Saint-Domingue. After the Peace of Utrecht (1713), France took on the role of guardian of Spain, and at the beginning of the 18th century, piracy subsided somewhat in Spanish America and Europe, but then reappeared, although the golden days of Morgan's Panama adventure were a thing of the past.

The extent to which piracy was developed even in the 19th century in such a vast basin as the Atlantic Ocean can be judged from the following extracts from maritime newspapers for May, June and July 1838.

“On May 15, the ship Eliza Lock from Dublin (Ireland) was pursued near the island of Madeira for two days by some suspicious schooner of unknown nationality.

On May 19, a Portuguese packet boat (mail and passenger ship, name not specified), sailing from the Azores Islands, was boarded by a pirate brig with a large crew on the fifth day passing the island of Tenerife. The pirates took the anchor chain, cable spool, food and spare sails from the packet boat.

On June 20, the ship Full was attacked by a brig flying red and white flags; the deck of the pirate ship was full of people, mostly blacks; the sea was very stormy, the cargo inspected by the pirates was little tempting for them, so the brig fell behind.

On June 25, the ship "William Mills" was boarded by a pirate schooner with a displacement of approximately 150 tons, flying the Brazilian and Portuguese flags with 50-60 crew. Only two barrels of provisions were taken from the William Mills.

On July 4, the American brig Ceylon was boarded by a pirate schooner flying the Portuguese flag. Several barrels of fresh water, wine and provisions were taken from the Americans, as well as various ship supplies: canvas, cable, etc.

On July 5, the ship “Katerina-Elizabeth” was boarded by a schooner flying the Spanish flag, which had a crew of about 50-60 people. Provisions were taken from the ship: corned beef in barrels. After which the schooner uncoupled from the captured ship and left.

On July 5, the ship Isabella was boarded by a pirate brig flying the Spanish flag. The following items were taken from the attacked ship: a set of spare sails, cables, new canvas and sail threads. The pirates then pulled out their grappling hooks and left.

On July 29, off Key West, an American schooner (the name of the ship has not reached us) was boarded by an unknown schooner without a flag. Various things totaling about $400 were taken from the Americans.”

The above examples may give the false impression that pirates were, in general, quite good-natured people and took only what they needed, but newspapers of that time (in the age of the absence of radio communications) could not give other examples. In those cases when the pirates behaved differently, robbed, with their bottoms deliberately pierced, and often also set on fire, the ships disappeared, “went missing” with the entire crew, and there was no one to tell newspaper reporters about the horrors the crew experienced. Disappearing, the ships took with them to the bottom of the ocean the tragedy of their death.

However, from time to time there were cases when ships set on fire or riddled with holes by pirates, with some of the killed, some of the crippled crew, were miraculously saved from death, or a ship that accidentally saw them managed to take off the surviving people, and then the world learned such terrible stories that forced passengers even large and well-armed or guarded ships, have difficulty sleeping at night and anxiously peer into the horizon during the day...

On this, in fact, I will finish my story. Of course, piracy has not disappeared, it still exists today, but this is a different time. There are still very few documents and facts here, but there is a lot of fiction, fables and rumors, cleverly presented as the pure truth from a “source who wished to remain anonymous.” That is, “OBS” - one grandmother said. I wanted to tell you about the history of piracy.

Were there pirates in Rus'? The answer suggests itself - piracy is only possible with a fairly well-developed fleet, which Russia did not have before Peter I. However, not all so simple.

In 1558, during the Livonian War, Russian troops captured Narva, which soon became a rather bustling port. Ships of foreigners with various goods rushed here, seekers of a happy lot and adventurers rushed here. This could not cause much joy among Russia's neighbors. They began to organize privateering ships, the captains of which received letters of safe conduct from governments, high-ranking nobles, which gave them full right to capture and plunder all ships going to Russia. To combat this element, Ivan the Terrible did not find anything better than to form his own privateer flotilla, since the creation of a strong fleet required both a long time and a lot of money, which Russia, exhausted by the war and terror, did not have. And there were not many experienced sailors.

Carsten Rohde

Enough hunters were quickly found to respond to the king’s call. One of the first to appear at the royal court was an experienced sea tramp who had seen a lot at sea. His name was Karsten Rode, and he was Danish by birth and an out-and-out pirate, an adventurer by vocation. It was he who received a safe conduct from the tsar and received the official title of “royal sea chieftain.” The ataman was ordered to “... take the enemies by force, and find, hook and destroy their ships with fire and sword, according to our Majesty’s charter... And to our governors and clerks of that ataman Karsten Rohde and his skippers, comrades and assistants to our refuges at sea and on earth, in care and honor, keep reserves or whatever they need, as soon as the bargaining raises, sell and not offend.” Thus, Karsten Rode and his brothers found themselves in the service of the formidable Moscow Tsar and received the right to take refuge in Russian ports and in the ports of friendly countries such as Denmark. The first privateer ship was not large - it did not exceed 40 tons with a displacement and had several cannons on the side. But the experienced corsair Karsten quickly replenished his fleet, taking 16 ships from his rivals. The ships were based on Bornholm and in Danish ports. It seems that on board the privateer ships, in addition to foreign pirates, there were Russian Pomors and Moscow gunners. And one must assume that the flotilla of the royal “gentlemen of fortune” justified its purpose, since the authorities and rulers of hostile states staged a real hunt for Roda. And despite the fact that Russia was unlucky in the Livonian War, Karsten Rohde acted successfully. True, greed and piratical nature took their toll, and the corsair did not disdain the ships of Muscovy’s allies - his Danish compatriots - as a prize. The Danish king Frederick II in 1570 ordered the arrest of the irrepressible pirate. He was captured and placed first in the royal castle in Gala, then transported to Copenhagen, where his traces were lost. After some time, the king remembered his admiral and in 1576 sent a message to the Danish king, which said: “For five years or more, we sent Karsten Rode to the sea on ships with military men for the robbers who were breaking our guests from Gdansk to the sea. And that Karsten Rohde smashed those robbers at sea. He caught 22 ships, and came to Bornholm, and then the people of the king of Sweden drove him away. And those ships that he caught, and our ships were caught from him, and the price of those ships and goods was five hundred thousand Efimkov. And that Karsten Rohde, hoping for our agreement with Frederick, fled from the Svei people to Kopnogov (Copenhagen). And King Frederick ordered him to be caught and put in prison. And we were quite surprised by this."

Stepan Razin

Stepan Razin was no less worthy of the title of the largest Russian pirate of the seventeenth century. Razin began his career on the Don and Volga, where, at the head of a large Cossack fleet, he robbed merchant and royal ships. But his most famous operation, not inferior in scope to the campaigns of Drake and Morgan, was the Persian campaign. At that time, Razin commanded an army of 1,200 people on 30 plow ships. Entering the Caspian Sea, the Cossacks first devastated the shores of what is now Dagestan and Azerbaijan, and then, having ravaged several Persian cities, moved to Astrabad. The Cossacks attacked Astrabad, massacred all the men, plundered the city and took with them more than 800 women, who, after a three-week orgy, were all destroyed. After this, the Cossacks went on plows to Astrakhan, where they defeated the royal army and plundered several monasteries, throwing the archimandrite and the governor from the bell tower. Only when Razin undertook his famous campaign against Moscow was he defeated by the tsarist troops and executed in Moscow.

Charles XII

The early eighteenth century was the dawn of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Around 1712, numerous and active Madagascar pirates came up with the idea of ​​legalizing their freemen by coming under the protection of some European power. The power had to be strong and militant enough and, at the same time, distant so that an alliance with it would not threaten pirate interests in the Indian Ocean. For seven years, pirate envoys tried to win the favor of the Swedish crown. The matter proceeded with varying degrees of success - in June 1718, Charles XII signed a letter of safe conduct for the pirates and equipped an expedition to Madagascar to organize a trading post and geological surveys, which was nevertheless canceled after his death. In 1721, Ulrika Eleonora equipped a second expedition under the command of Adjutant General Ulrich. Disguised as merchant ships, they headed south and soon dropped anchor in the Spanish port of Cadiz, where they stood for several months, waiting for a pirate envoy. Ulrich could not calm down the quarrels that flared up between the officers every now and then, and therefore, without waiting for the pirates, he hurried back to Sweden, where he was put on trial for disrupting the expedition.

Peter the First

Around this time, Peter the Great became aware of the pirate kingdom, who had long sought to find a way to India. Rear Admiral Wilster, a professional mercenary and experienced sailor, told Peter about the connections between the Swedes and Madagascar pirates. Peter sends the Swede Narcos to London with the task of making contact with representatives of the pirates, and after the news of the failure of Ulrich’s expedition, Peter orders Wilster to prepare an “extract” - a summary of all the information about the pirates and their relations with the Swedish court, which he presents on June 4, 1723 of the year. On November 3, 1723, the head of the Revel squadron, Fan-Goft, received an order from Peter to urgently equip and arm for long-distance voyages two new frigates, just built in Amsterdam: “Amsterdam-Galley” and “Dekrondelivde”, on which government commissioners were appointed - Lieutenant Commander Myasnoy and captain-lieutenant Koshelev. True, even they should learn about the purpose of the voyage only in the Atlantic Ocean from Wilster. Admiral General Apraksin, the only person in Russia other than Peter and Wilster, privy to the secret, was supposed to oversee preparations for the departure.
The expedition gathered in a mad rush and in December the ships were ready, however, only formally. On December 22, Wilster wrote to Peter that it was difficult to believe “that the sea man sent them.” So much sand was poured into the holds that there was nowhere to load supplies. Apraksin also understood this. But no one dared to contradict Peter, who was in a hurry to depart as if the fate of the state depended on it. The result was predictable: during the first storm, the Amsterdam-Galley leaked so much that the pumps barely had time to pump out the water. When trying to tilt it, it lay on its side and sank. Sixteen sailors died on the lower decks. However, Peter does not cancel the expedition, but passes through Apraksin a new order: to prepare the Prince Eugene for sailing or to select a suitable frigate in the port of Revel. The ships were chosen, but it turned out that they were not lined with wool (in those days it was believed that this was the best protection against shellfish in warm seas). There was no wool in the Revel warehouses; we had to look for it in neighboring towns. January 1724 passed in these worries. In February, Peter’s new order came: to cancel the expedition “until another favorable time.” Most likely, Peter received information from his intelligence in London that the pirate kingdom in Madagascar was a bluff. Perhaps Peter was also convinced by General Ulrich, the commander of the failed Swedish expedition, who met with Peter at that time. Soon Peter died and with him the ambitious project of the Russian-pirate kingdom in Madagascar ended.

Admiral Sinyavin

In the nineteenth century, during the war with Napoleon, Admiral Sinyavin, on behalf of and with the permission of the Russian authorities, issued letters of marque to the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands to fight the French. However, after the end of the Crimean War, the Maritime Convention abolished privateering. Nevertheless, privateers were remembered one more time, in 1878, when the Voluntary Fleet was created. In case of war, his ships could easily be converted into auxiliary cruisers used against England.

In general, the most famous pirates in history were male pirates, although in fact women were also quite successful corsairs. They were distinguished not only by their intelligence, but by their excessive cruelty towards their enemies. They struck fear into the most powerful empires. We offer 10 of the most famous and fearless female pirates.

Sadie Farrell was a famous river pirate in the 19th century. She spent her childhood on the streets of New York, engaged in vagrancy and theft, and she received her nickname for her habit of head-butting her enemies. After she lost her ear in one of the fights with her enemy Gallus Mag, Sadie ran away from New York and organized a gang of robbers, which soon began to trade in piracy. The gang traveled along the Hudson and robbed farms, houses, and kidnapped people and then demanded ransom. Sadie returned to New York later and made a truce with Meg.

9. Queen Teutha of Illyria

One of the earliest known female pirates is Teutha, queen of Illyria, who lived in the 3rd century BC. e. The ruler of the Ardiaean tribe extended her power to the entire Adriatic Sea, attacking Roman and Greek ships. The Romans tried to negotiate with the militant queen, but all negotiations were in vain. During one of the negotiations, the queen killed the ambassadors, which resulted in a war that lasted from 229 to 227 BC. Theuta was defeated in the war, although she was allowed to continue to rule Illyria, but was prohibited from sailing.

8. Grace O'Malley

Also known as Granual, Grace O'Malley was a hereditary pirate. In the 1560s, she became the leader of the Irish pirates and became a real headache for British and Spanish merchant ships. In 1574 she was captured by British troops. Grace spent 18 months in prison; after her release, she returned to piracy. She was captured again, but by order of Elizabeth I, Grace received her fleet back. Grace died in 1603.

7. Jacotte Delahaye

Jacotte Delahaye was born in the 17th century and was a famous pirate. She chose this job because she had to raise her brother herself after the death of her mother, who died in childbirth. In order to disappear from the sight of the authorities, Jacotte Delais faked her death and changed her appearance, becoming like a man. After some time, she returned to piracy and became a threat to merchant ships in the Caribbean, paired with another female pirate, Anna, nicknamed "God's Will". Jacotte Delahaye was killed while defending the island she had captured.

6. Rachel Wall

Rachel Wall, one of the first American female pirates, was born Rachel Schmidt in the 1760s. She married George Wall and began piracy with several of his friends. Their base was an island in the Gulf of Maine. Pirates captured ships and killed sailors. After the death of her husband and his friends in a shipwreck, Rachel returned to Boston and worked as a maid, occasionally stealing. During one of the robberies she was caught and hanged in 1789. She became the last woman to be hanged for crimes in Massachusetts.

5. Saida al-Hurra

A pirate queen and ally of the Turkish pirate Barbarossa, Saida al-Hurra was the ruler of the Moroccan city of Tetouan. By the way, Saida al-Hurra is a title, but the real name of this woman is not known. From 1515 to 1542 it controlled the western Mediterranean. She became a pirate to take revenge on the Christian rulers. She later married the Moroccan king, who was soon dethroned by his son-in-law. Nothing further is known about her fate.

4. Jeanne de Clisson

Known as the Lioness of Brittany, Joan was the wife of nobleman Oliver III Clisson and the mother of five children. She became a pirate to take revenge on Philip VI, King of France, for the death of her husband. Jeanne de Clisson sold all her property and acquired three warships. Her pirate crew terrorized the English Channel, capturing French ships and killing sailors. She retired in 1356 and later married Lieutenant Sir Walter Bentley.

3. Mary Read

A female captain, Mary Read was Anne Bonny's companion. She was known for her art of dressing up as men and posed as her brother Mark for years. Reid joined the British Army and fell in love with a soldier. After his death, she went to the Caribbean and became a sailor. There she fell into the hands of pirates and joined their ranks. That's how she met Anne Bonny and became a member of Calico Jack's gang. Only a few people knew that she was a woman. In 1720, Reed and Jack were arrested by the English army. Although she managed to avoid execution, she died in prison a few years later from fever.

2. Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny was the daughter of an Irish lawyer. After she married the pirate, James Bonney, she moved to the Bahamas in 1718. Here she fell in love with Calico Jack and separated from her husband. Having remarried, she became a member of her new husband's team. Paired with Mary Reed, they kept the Caribbean at bay. In 1720, Calico Jack and his crew were arrested by English troops and executed. Anne and Mary escaped execution because they were pregnant. Anne's fate is not fully known.

Often called the most feared female pirate in history, Jing Shi was a Chinese pirate who dominated the waters of the China Sea in the early 19th century. In the past she was a prostitute. In 1801, she was kidnapped by pirates and married captain Zheng Yi. Jing Shi leads the Red Flag fleet after her husband's death and attacks British and Chinese ships. Its fleet grew rapidly. The Chinese government was forced to negotiate and make peace with her in 1810. She ran a brothel until her death in 1844.

Sea battles, treasure hunts, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum - hundreds of stories have been written about the romance of pirate life. Their canonical hero is an unkempt fellow, one-legged and one-eyed, with a saber at the ready in one hand and a bottle of rum in the other. He is inseparable from his partner, a huge green parrot, who constantly makes dirty jokes. We decided to find out how far this stereotypical character is from a real sea wolf.

MYTH 1:
Pirate - one-eyed, with a hook instead of a hand and a wooden leg

Amputation was a good “prevention” of gangrene and infections, and therefore pirates who were missing limbs were actually encountered. But the ship's doctors - and often this role was taken on by the cook, who professionally wielded a knife - did not know how to cope with the bleeding, and the wounded often died from blood loss. Even after surviving the operation, the patient without a leg hardly remained a valuable member of the team - the pirate’s sea career was ending, and he, having received compensation, went ashore. Pirates with hand injuries had a higher chance of staying on the ship. However, they did without hooks - there is no historical evidence of such a body mod.

A black eye patch was indeed used, but not to hide the injury, but to ensure that one eye was always adapted to the darkness of the hold. And the gold earrings, so beloved by pirates from the drawings of Howard Pyle and Newell Wyeth, were worn for pragmatic reasons: for example, they could guarantee a decent funeral in the event of sudden death.

MYTH 2:
Parrots- eternal companions of pirates

Still from the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

The image of the parrot, the prompter of every captain, like most other myths, grew out of pirate novels: the motley bird accompanied Captain Flint on his voyages, and in the stories of Arthur Ransome, Uncle Jack's parrot chattered “a little more than a pretty girl.”

In the 17th - early 18th centuries, a general fashion for exotic animals began in Europe, which was immediately noticed by enterprising sailors who met many tropical birds on the shores of Africa and the Caribbean islands. But they were transported in cages, because keeping a parrot on your shoulder is risky - the feathered first mate does not always successfully control vital processes.

But pirates willingly adopted cats: they were believed to bring good luck. Multi-toed cats (with extra toes) were especially valued - their extraordinary “climbing” abilities helped deal with ship rodents.

MYTH 3:
Piracy- the lot of white thugs and fugitives

Artist: Howard Pyle

The crew of the pirate ship is mostly black men, former slaves. Often, honest sailors in their early twenties also became pirates: the terms of the “labor contract” were more attractive than in the civil service, not to mention the fact that during the Golden Age of Piracy (approximately 1650–1730), people joined the British Navy more under duress than by free will. Sailors recruited against their will received less than volunteers, and in the port they were even tied to the deck so that they would not escape. Combined with tropical diseases, starvation and the unforgiving elements, three-quarters of the sailors ended up living on the ocean floor within the first two years. It is not surprising that they preferred an adventurous life among the sea wolves to an inglorious death.

MYTH 4:
- exclusively men

There were also women among the pirates: captain Zheng Shi gathered an army of several hundred ships and became the Chinese thunderstorm of the seas, and Anne Bonny exchanged the quiet everyday life of the daughter of a rich planter for a pirate life full of adventure, becoming friends with another pirate, Mary Read. However, women on board were not liked, and therefore they often wore men's clothing.

MYTH 5:
Pirates were obsessed with gold

Still from the film "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"

The treasure map with the treasured red cross is another fantasy that grew out of Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” Real pirates highly valued soap, provisions, navigation equipment and medicines necessary for survival at sea: gold is gold, but no one wanted to go to feed the fish. If among the loot there was still a couple of pesos, the pirates immediately spent the money in the nearest port on grog, the drink of a true corsair (and not pure rum!), and reliable young ladies.

If they managed to accumulate a lot of gold, the pirates did not bury it for a rainy day: the life of a sea wolf was too unpredictable and short to dream of a carefree old age. There are only three known cases of pirates hiding treasure: Captain William Kidd wanted to use the location of his treasure as a bargaining chip in negotiations, but failed and was executed; in 1573, Francis Drake built a temporary storage facility, unable to carry away all the loot at one time; The bloodthirsty corsair Roche Brasiliano split during torture, talking about his treasure. The rest of the pirates, if they hid treasures, did not do so for long, believing that they needed to live and spend money here and now.

Pirates, of course, are superstitious people, but half of the omens are the imagination of writers. The Black Mark, which migrated into the Pirates of the Caribbean films, was invented by Robert Stevenson. The mark foreshadowed the captain's imminent deposition - Billy Bones and John Silver received it. Real corsairs, dissatisfied with the captain, solved the problem more quickly: they could easily shoot the leader in his sleep or send him overboard - the possibility of peaceful re-election was not always in honor.

MYTH 6:
Pirate ship- galleon under the Jolly Roger

Artist: Willem van de Velde the Younger

Colorful descriptions of rigging and sails, a carved wheel and mermaid bas-reliefs are found in almost every pirate novel. In films, such details are rarely paid attention to, so filmmakers use size - and giant galleons appear on the screens. In addition, it is not easy to accommodate large camera equipment on a small ship. Real pirates preferred maneuverable schooners and sloops for their voyages - so they could quickly appear and quickly leave with the loot.

There was always a flag flying at the top of the mast - but not always the iconic Jolly Roger. The images ranged from an hourglass to a hand holding a saber. And on Blackbeard’s flag a whole scene was depicted: a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand as a symbol of the transience of time, and with the other clutching a spear, ready to pierce the bloody heart.

MYTH 7:
Pirates were bloodthirsty thugs

Artist: Howard Pyle

There are many legends about pirate torture and executions. The most famous pirate execution, the “walk the plank,” although known since the 18th century, was not very popular among pirates. More often, captives were simply sent overboard to feed the fish or tortured: they were forced to run around the mast until completely exhausted, or burning candles were shoved between their fingers. But all this was done only when absolutely necessary, unless, of course, the captain was particularly cruel.

Myths about Blackbeard

Most of the legends are associated with the pirate Edward Titch, nicknamed Blackbeard. Despite his worldwide fame, his career as a sea robber was surprisingly short - only two years, from 1716 to 1718 - and not particularly successful. Contrary to the legends, he was not bloodthirsty and was not crazy. It is believed that Edward Titch set his beard on fire. In fact, he simply attached lighted musket fuses to his hat.

They say that Blackbeard had 14 wives. This is partly true - pseudo-marriages took place more than once on the deck of Queen Anne's Revenge. But Mary Ormond was his only “real” wife - the young people were married under the auspices of the governor of North Carolina himself.

Blackbeard's death is also embellished: according to legend, his body floated around the ship three times, which, however, was not said in the report of Lieutenant Maynard, who deprived the pirate of his head. And it’s hard to believe that after five bullet wounds and a couple of dozen stab wounds, a person can swim.

MYTH 8:
Pirates motto- anarchy and robbery

Artist: Howard Pyle

Fighting, and in some cases gambling and even alcohol, were prohibited on board. The pirates were quite humane for their time: they often took care of captives, and divided the booty according to strict rules - all this was prescribed by the Code of Conduct in force on the ship. And on land, pirates tended to organize themselves: archaeologists have found traces of small settlements in Madagascar, Tortuga and the Bahamas - they were not pirate states, but guaranteed protection for the robbers.

The pirates spent a lot of time on land, with their families. There were benefits from the sea robbers: Captain Kidd helped with the construction of the Trinity Church in New York and even paid for the family pew, and the corsairs supplied gold and silver coins to the cities of North America, as well as exotic food and luxury goods, which were in short supply.

MYTH 9:
The era of pirates is over

Today, the damage from piracy is estimated at $13–16 billion. Today's sea robbers, like their predecessors, rob, kidnap and mutilate their victims. The hottest spots are the Indian Ocean, East Africa and the Far East; They also wrote about a couple of cases on the civilized Danube. Instead of eye patches there are now night vision goggles, and instead of sabers and hooks there are Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket launchers. There is even a Somali pirate exchange where sea robbers can buy the necessary equipment.

* * *

Everything we know about pirates is a figment of the imagination of Defoe, Stevenson and Ransom. The image they invented replaced the true story. But there was one thing in common between real and fictional pirates: a love of the sea and a thirst for freedom. True, we should not forget that this craving claimed many lives - both the robbers themselves and their victims.