THIS IS A VERSION OF THE RECORDED PODCAST HISTORY ON THE RUN
A full audio version of this podcast can be found on itunes called History on the Run. It is also available here. This is part 2 of a 5 - part series called Violence for Profit. Enjoy.
The other half of this podcast and blog post will come out next week.
Hello, and welcome to History on The Run! For this episode we’ll be discussing piracy. I’ll try my best to sum up the entire history of piracy into one episode, and then we’ll discuss some theory concerning piracy. So, let’s not waste any time and jump into the history of piracy.
The pirate historian Angus Konstam writes in Piracy: a Complete History that piracy, “has been around since man first took to the sea, a maritime scourge that appeared before the building of the Egyptian pyramids”. The Egyptians dealt with this threat since the 14th century, and the pirates almost ended Egyptian civilization. At the battle of the Nile in 1175 the “sea peoples” tried to raid Egypt under Ramses the 3rd. They were a scattered group of peoples from the fringes of society in Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Sardinia who the Libyans, enemies of the Egyptians, had hired to attack Egypt. The Egyptians won this and it was the oldest ever recorded sea battle.
Pirates have always been a scourge on society. They wiped out the Mycenaean civilization in Greece and the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor. They treated the Mediterranean Sea like desert nomads do the desert and would move from place to place and descend like a plague on anyone they met. As Empires like the Athenian and Persian Empires sprang up piracy was quelled in the ports they controlled, but groups like the Aetolian League would wage economic war on their enemies by sending out ships on raiding missions. Along the Adriatic pirates found a secure home where they could have a secure base near major trade networks. Julius Caesar was actually captured by pirates when he was young. He was astonished by the low price they put up for his release. When he was released he said he would hunt down the pirates and have them all killed. When Caesar got back he got together a fleet and found his ex-captors and had them hung. These bases would be cleansed by Pompeii during the Roman Empire, but after the fall in 476 the Dalmatian coast would once again become a base for pirates and would raid the extensive trade network of the Venetians.
After the collapse of Rome the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire took over the job of piracy prevention and remained the bastion of order in the east. However by the late 12th century the Byzantines had been pushed back by Frankish Crusaders from the west and the Turks from the east. On their attempt to rescue the holy land the crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204 which limited any ability the Byzantines had left to stop piracy. Piracy popped up in the old places in Crete and elsewhere in the Aegean. The new guy in town also contributed to piracy in the Aegean. The Turkish navy was a mix of private and public vessels to compose their navy. The private forces were basically privateers, and they would often supplement their income with occasional stints of piracy. Also, after the 7th and 8th centuries the entire coast of North Africa fell under Muslim control. During the 15th and 16th centuries local rulers from the region began to encourage corsairs to use their ports. Eventually, the Barbary States became pirates themselves. Now the Barbary Pirates are a fascinating part of piracy history, and sadly we don’t have enough time to spend on all of them. They could easily be a lecture series all on their own. While I won’t give you everything on them I’ll give you a general history and a focus on one of these pirates.
Ok, first the general history, and then the pirate. The local beys (governors) of the North African coast encouraged pirates in their ports because they were able to tax the pirates to use their base. By the 16th century it was the corsairs who directly elected the local rulers. This means that these ports were basically pirate havens with a loose allegiance to the Ottoman states. The Caribbean pirates we’ve all grown to know and love would have killed to have their own states in this way. All they ever had was states that barely tolerated them. In the Ottoman world they were at the top of the political food chain and directly ruled the cities they used as bases.
From the end of the Reconquista in Spain these states had a mortal enemy: Spain. The Spanish resisted both Muslim threats on their territory and fought massive battles against Muslim forces such as Lepanto. Eventually it wasn’t the Spanish who brought the Barbary States to their knees, but rather a combined force of European States and America. The Dutch and English scored a series of victories, and the Americans launched an attack on the Barbary States instead of paying for the safe passage of their ships. Eventually, the Europeans all wanted colonies and the Barbary States were at their weakest. Each of them was gobbled up during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The first great, and probably the most interesting set of Barbary Corsairs were the Barbarossa Brothers. Barbarossa brothers….has a certain ring, does it not? As it goes Aruj and Hizir….I don’t think I’m pronouncing it right, but let’s just go with it. Ok Aruj and Hizar were born on the island of Lesbos during the 1470’s. The beginnings of their lives are more rumor than fact, but one way they grew up Aruj was made a slave for Christians. After freeing himself he went to the Emir Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri promising vengeance on the Christian barbarians. Is the story true…….meh. It is a cool beginning to a great career however.
The Barbarossa Brothers began by capturing trading galleys, freeing the Muslim galley slaves, and expanding his fleet. They moved out west where targets were available, then, off the island of Elba they ran into two papal galleys, rich with goods. It was here that they got the name Barbarossa. In the Mediterranean there weren’t many bright red beards, so they were called Barbarossa, after their red beards. They were basically the red Muslim version of our favorite pirate Blackbeard. After capturing more ships hundreds flocked to his banner. They were some of the richest men in the Mediterranean area, and they even brought more family into the business. Ishak, another Barbarossa Brother joined Aruj and Hizir in their search for booty and revenge. The brothers were asked to come to the aid of Algiers as the Spanish had taken Bougie and Oran in 1509 which are on either side of Algiers.
The Barbarossa Brothers turned their attention on Bougie, but they had tragically overreached. Aruj lost an arm in the struggle, and even when they attacked again a few years later they were unable to take back the town from the Spanish. Now, I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like the guys that hacked my arm off. The Barbarossa Brothers became a force to fear for the Spanish. They attacked Spanish ships, raided Spanish ports and towns, and they even attacked the Spanish Coast. Then, in 1516, the Barbarossa Brothers gained a new seat of power to attack the Spanish with. A revolt in Algiers led to chaos and Aruj and his brothers were able to kill the bey of Algiers and take power. He swore his loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and was officially the bey of Algiers. Not only this, but this pirate was established as the beylerbey of the entire North African Coast. Basically he was the top dog of all the Barbary Pirates.
The good luck of the Barbarossa Brothers would not last forever and their rise would hit a few snags. The main “snag” was that Charles V, the Hapsburg Emperor, king of Spain and ruler much of Europe was personally leading an army to crush the Barbary Pirate problem once and for all. Aruj struck first before Charles could get to Algiers. His goal was to destroy a smaller part of Charles’s army consisting of native Arabs before it could link up with the rest. Unfortunately everything did not go as planned and The Barbarossa Brothers were trapped by the Spanish in the town of Tlemcen. 10,000 Spanish troops defeated the Corsair force of 5,000 pirates and 1,500 regular Ottoman troops. While these were not the numbers of men you’d see in some of the larger battles you can see the importance of the event by the fact that the Emperor considered the pirates such a threat that he personally attacked them. Aruj and Ishak were killed, but Hizar would go on to surpass his brother.
Hizir was passionate in his complete and utter hatred of the Spanish. He terrorized the Spanish more than his brother had. He captured Nice off the coast of France and Reggio in Italy. He participated in the battle of Prevesa and helped defeat the combined Christian fleets. He personally battled against the armies of Charles V and helped sack the island of Rhodes.
This brings me to an important point I really really really need to stress. These pirates consisted of armies of not dozens, but thousands. Their armies were massive and their fleets were able to defeat professional navies. This is something that you can’t even imagine nowadays. Imagine pirates sacking New Orleans or San Francisco.
The Barbary pirates’ power would begin to decline as power shifted away from Spain toward England and France. Unlike the oar powered ships and weak cannons the Northern Europeans brought in large sailing ships that blasted the Barbary Pirate ships out of the water. The Barbary Pirates also benefited from Turkish power which would help them fight off the European navies. As the Turk disappeared from Europe the respective power of the pirates of the African coast was put in jeopardy and they were conquered by Europeans with France getting Algeria, Spain getting Morocco, and Italy getting Tunisia.
In Northern Europe we already covered the main pirate threat: the Vikings. While you might not think that the Vikings would be in the same category as men like Henry Morgan and Blackbeard they are really very similar. Most pirates were also raiders and the Vikings weren’t adverse to attack boats at sea. They ravaged the coastlines of Northern Europe and Britain and even set up their own kingdoms, something no other pirate succeeded to do to the same level as the Vikings. This is why an entire episode was given to these Scandinavian barbarians. Other pirates that operated in Northern Europe include a personal favorite of mine. A very distant ancestor of mine named Klaus Störtebeker was one of the most famous German pirates. Like any pirate he needed a base of operations and he found that in Helgoland, a tiny itsy bitsy island about 20 miles away from the base of the Elbe. It was perfectly situated to take advantage of the massive amount of trade that passed through Hamburg, and it was far enough away to be defendable. Klaus Störtebeker’s name meant “emptying his mug with one gulp”. Apparently the Germans enjoyed drinking then as much as they do now! His flagship, The Colorful Cow was finally captured in 1401. Klaus Störtebeker was captured along with 71 of his men. As the legend goes his captors said they would spare as many men as Klaus could walk by after they cut off his head. He is supposed to have walked past eleven of his men when he was tripped by the executioner.
Meanwhile in the Caribbean piracy once again takes root as nations clash. The conflict began with the Spanish saying that they were the only ones who could trade with their colonies. To get in on all the riches the other nations had only one option: piracy. The English launched pirate voyages in the very same way that small time companies are put together today. A group of investors would buy the ship and supplies needed for an attack and they would put forth a piracy venture. Although it would be called a privateering venture by these investors. A privateer is a pirate ship that only attacks enemies of a certain country. In this case, for English investors it was often Spain. That’s not to say that privateers didn’t attack European cities, quite the opposite in fact. The important thing was that privateers were attracted to gold like a fly to light. In the Caribbean, far from potential reinforcements and filled with New World gold, treasure ships were common and awfully good looking targets. The constant warfare of the Europeans soon proved that there were always targets.
Francis Drake was one of the first of these privateers to go off in search of gold, guts, and glory along with other salty sea dogs like John Hawkins. English privateers were quite numerous. Between 1589 and 1591 some 236 privateers were at sail for just the English. Most came from London or Devon, and 16 of them displaced 200 tons or more which was a formidable ship. Their ventures could be incredibly profitable with one ship holding 80 pounds of gold, and 14 chests filled with silver which totaled 26 tons. That’s right….tons. Tons of silver. Just the 80 pounds of gold would fetch a little over two million dollars and the silver would be a veritable fortune. Back then it would have amounted to around 200,000 English pounds. And this was only 3 percent of the stuff Phillip of Spain took in in one year. Sadly after Elizabeth died James l made peace with Spain and privateering stopped in England. These men behaved more like soldiers than pirates, and they could easily transition to new jobs.
Just because the English stopped being pirates doesn’t mean that piracy stop! Quite the opposite instead. This time it would be the Dutch who would carry the banner of resistance to Spanish rule in the New World. They attacked the Spanish and they also attacked the Portuguese colonies in Brazil. This also was the beginning of other powers creating their own settlements. St. Croix and St. Martin were colonized by the Dutch, the English got St. Kitts, and the French got Barbados. This was not according to the plans the Spanish had for the region, so the Spanish attacked St. Kitts. While the English on the island agreed to go back to Europe the French weren’t so ready and fled to the island of Tortuga. This island would become the next main pirate base in the Caribbean and would be the center of many a pirate story. One of the greats of Tortuga was the pirate L’ollonnais. L’ollonnais is more what you’d expect in a pirate. Bloodthirsty, cruel, and driven simply by the scent of gold he would become the terror of the Caribbean. In 1667 L’ollonnais gathered together a crew of about 20 men and set sail from Tortuga. He would go out, capture a ship and return to pick up more crew members. Disaster struck when L’ollonnais’s ship was struck by a storm and stranded on an island. The crew decided to attack the town despite being severely outnumbered. L’ollonnais only survived by playing dead. L’ollonnais and the survivors were able to sneak aboard a ship and L’ollonnais came back with a fury. He built up his forces and by late 1667 he had over 400 men. This was truly a force to be afraid of. He sacked towns with a brutality never before seen in the region. One time he was led into a trap by a guide, and in a fit of rage L’ollonnais took his cutlass, cut open the man’s chest, and then went in with his hands and ripped out the man’s heart. He began to knaw on the life pumping muscle and then threw it at the other guide, telling him not to make his comrade’s mistake. Eventually, L’ollonnais’s luck would again run out and after having been beaten by the Spanish in a fight L’ollonnais attacked a native village. These natives were more than a match for L’ollonnais and he and his crew were killed in the fight.
Tortuga eventually fell from the number one spot for pirate havens, and it would be replaced by none other than the infamous Port Royal. Port Royal is basically Kingston Jamaica, but it was destroyed in an Earthquake during its heyday and never recovered. During Cromwell’s rule the fiercely Protestant ruler wanted to hurt those Catholic Spaniards in any way possible, so he decided to launch an invasion of the Spanish New World. The result of the expedition was the island of Jamaica. Jamaica was better situated than any of the other non-Spanish colonies to intercept Spanish vessels and privateers flocked to the region which gave safe harbor to any private venture against the Spanish. Henry Morgan was by far the greatest of the Port Royal pirates, although there were tons of them.
Morgan probably came over on that initial invasion fleet. He moved up the ranks in privateer ventures against the Spanish and eventually got his own command where he proved himself to be one of the finest privateers, if not the finest, in all of the Caribbean. He used his relationship with the Governor of Port Royal to have a base, and Modyford used Morgan and his buccaneers to protect the island because….England was a very long way away from Jamaica. They sacked Puertro Principe, now Camagüey in Cuba, Porto Bello, the port that took all the Spanish gold out of Panama, and they even sacked and burnt to the ground Panama City itself. From Morgan’s attack on Porto Bello his crew of 500 men shared 14 million modern US dollars between them. The sack of Panama City yielded 90 million dollars although this time it was divided between 1,500 pirates. And these were the days before millionaires and billionaires around. In fact, 3/5ths of all the wealth today was created after 1980. These men were rich beyond their wildest imagination.
Morgan operated during the 17th Century. The beginning of the 18th Century would lead to, what many pirate historians have labeled “The Golden Age of Piracy”. The number of pirates from this time was massive, and they were all created by, ironically, peace. When the 17th century ended there was a period of peace in Europe, and all of the privateers were suddenly out of work. Britain alone had 6,000 letters of marque (basically a paper that says you may attack our enemies and have protection in our ports). Previously, most privateers limited their attacks to the Spanish, but now, for this new breed of pirates, all targets were fair game. I don’t think I have enough time to go over even the most remarkable of these pirates, but I’ll list a few famous names and then go over one. Some of the famous names of this time are men like Black Bart, Captain Kidd, Calico Jack Rackam, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Blackbeard himself. Other, not so famous pirates were men such as Henry Jennings, Charles Vane, and the crazy Edward Low. Maybe I could do a series on some of these men and women, but I’ll just give a brief overview of one of these famous pirates.
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