Yar! Pirates!

19 Responses

1. I cannot believe you forgot the best outer space pirate comedy of all time!

   ICE PIRATES!

2. you guys didn’t mention sir francis drake, a very famous privateer. my girlfriend is apparently a direct descendant of him.

3. you guys didn’t mention sir francis drake, a very famous privateer. my girlfriend is apparently a direct descendant of him.

4. An interesting thing about pirates is that they weren’t all the bad guys that many people think them to be–in fact, most pirates didn’t really have too much of a choice. The British Royal Navy press-ganged many of it’s sailors into serving. Basically, a guy would be forced to join (by being kidnapped, or drugged and/or liquored up) and wake up to find himself a member of the Navy, whether he liked it or not (and whether or not he had a family–didn’t matter). Being a lower-class officer in the British Royal Navy *sucked* by most accounts. There were a lot of deaths from diseases, beatings, etc, and keel-hauling was actually a punishment used by the BRN up until 1720. So in the instance of a pirate ship overtaking a navy vessel, its no surprise that some of the officers onboard were more than happy to switch sides. A conference that I attended last year discussed this topic and pointed out that the American revolution was, at least in part, a repercussion of press-ganging and that pirates were one of the driving forces behind the revolution as well as credited with contributing to it’s success.

   BTW, I love the show. Keep up the great work.

5. An interesting thing about pirates is that they weren’t all the bad guys that many people think them to be–in fact, most pirates didn’t really have too much of a choice. The British Royal Navy press-ganged many of it’s sailors into serving. Basically, a guy would be forced to join (by being kidnapped, or drugged and/or liquored up) and wake up to find himself a member of the Navy, whether he liked it or not (and whether or not he had a family–didn’t matter). Being a lower-class officer in the British Royal Navy *sucked* by most accounts. There were a lot of deaths from diseases, beatings, etc, and keel-hauling was actually a punishment used by the BRN up until 1720. So in the instance of a pirate ship overtaking a navy vessel, its no surprise that some of the officers onboard were more than happy to switch sides. A conference that I attended last year discussed this topic and pointed out that the American revolution was, at least in part, a repercussion of press-ganging and that pirates were one of the driving forces behind the revolution as well as credited with contributing to it’s success.

   BTW, I love the show. Keep up the great work.

   1. I think you mean impressment contributed to starting the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War.

      1. Chew: No. I meant the Revolutionary War. Though pirates influenced the War of 1812 as well.

         http://www.piratesinfo.com/cpi_piracy_and_america_american_pirates_916.asp

         1. Piracy? I was referring to impressment.

6. Yeah. And I meant that piracy *resulting* from impressment was a factor in the Revolutionary War as well as the War of 1812.

7. Yeah. And I meant that piracy *resulting* from impressment was a factor in the Revolutionary War as well as the War of 1812.

   1. Ohhhhh. Now I understand. Thank you for the fascinating history lesson!

      1. …you’re welcome? I’m not sure if you’re trying to be sarcastic or something, especially since I wouldn’t really call my comment a history lesson (I just found it really interesting and wanted to contribute to the topic). Either way, have a great day 🙂

         1. No sarcasm intended. You never know what will tickle people on their fancy and that certainly tickled mine. Plus, as a Pastafarian, I can now clearly see the link between the American Revolutionary War and Global Warming.

         2. I think that we can all agree it seems that the vast majority of seafarers are assholes…… Thanks for the shout out Ashley (assuming that you’re not a sailor – pirate or navy or otherwise, of course).

8. Pingback: Three Non-Bookish Podcasts for Bookish People | BOOK RIOTThree Non-Bookish Podcasts for Bookish People - BOOK RIOT

9. A book I once read on the history of sea piracy introduced me to Ching Shih, one of the most successful and infamous pirates of all time- A Chinese female pirate leader who, “commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates. Another estimate has Cheng’s [alternate spelling] fleet at 1800 and crew at about 80,000”

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

   Of particular interest on that page is the Pirate Code they lived by.