Pirates

Piracy under international law is the crime of robbery on the high seas . Piracy is considered to be a universal crime and offenders are punishable by any state in its own courts . A pirate is denied the usual protection of the state of which he is a national of if he is caught abroad . Piracy is as ancient as maritime commerce itself and was known to the Phoenicians well as well as to their Mediterranean successor . In the 17th century it became an increasingly profitable occupation as world trade increased without a parallel

development of effective police power on the high seas . Operators on shore purveyed the booty sometimes under scarcely veiled state patronage . The Barbary pirates sailed from North African ports and raided shipping in the western Mediterranean as late as 1830 , when their strongholds were for the most part destroyed by the U .S . Navy . Chinese pirates in Indochinese waters and Persian Gulf buccaneers also operated well into the 19th century on a profitable basis . The most fertile grounds for pirates were the Spanish Main between the years 1650 and 1750 . In the waters around the Spanish West Indies shipping was active , waters calm , navel forces weak and officials not all that inhospitable . At its height the creation of a pirate state at Tortugas , on Turtle Island sheltered the most famous pirates who lived in and worked the waters such as Captain Kidd Black beard ' and Long Ben . Long Ben is the focus of this (Carse , 1965

Author Daniel Defoe (1660-1731 ) a British journalist was fascinated by piracy and wrote many books and articles on the subject . Much of how we view pirates comes from his writings . In several of his works there are pirate heroes and in others he has piracy as the main theme . In Robinson Crusoe , published in 1719 , the hero is captured by a Sale rover and a mutiny helps his escape from the island . He then authored General History and it was presented as a biography of recent pirate captains and soon after he wrote volume two which added Madagascar pirates active during the 1690 's . For these books Defoe drew his own knowledge of maritime trade as well as newss stories , official reports and trial records . He also consulted with sea captains that had explored the Indian Oceans . However the books include several fictional biographies and it adds imaginary speeches and conversations and is a colorful mix of fact and fiction (Smith , 1996

Henry Every sometimes named Benjamin Bridgeman whose pirate nickname was Long Ben ' was a British pirate that was active in the Atlantic and Red sea . His escapades of piracy were most active during the years between 1692 and 1695 . Every captured an Indian treasure ship and managed to escape with the loot . Although other pirates took more booty , his robbery endangered the British East Indian Company and caused a large amount of public interest . To many authors they portrayed him as a hero one author Daniel Defoe coined...