When were the earliest pirates?
There have been pirates for as long as there have been boats. Certainly the Viking raiders that assailed Britain and France in the 9th Century would qualify as early pirates, and since a similar time pirate activity has been in operation around Africa and was near constant from then on, notably with the short-lived Emirate of Crete. Perhaps the first true buccaneers were the Barbary Corsairs, Muslim pirates who were primarily slave traders, who roved the Mediterranean from out of North Africa for over 800 years. However despite the great hostilities generated by the Crusades, Muslim pirate activity in the Mediterranean was always fairly low, at least until the 15th Century. With the growth of the Ottoman Empire, in 1487 came the privateer admiral Kemal Reis, who signalled the beginning of a true menace to European Christian shipping.
A Barbary pirate, Pier Francesco Mola, 1650
The corsairs would continue to assail the Mediterranean (and sometimes as far afield as Ireland and Iceland) until the 19th Century. In the early 1600s, the Barbary pirates regularly attacked English sailing vessels, and local parishes would often have to hold fundraisers to pay the ransom for some local person or persons taken hostage, and England became familiar with captivity narratives.In the 1630s, England signed peace treaties with most of the Barbary powers, and prior to the American Revolution, this treaty extended to American vessels. Once the revolutionary war had been declared, it was open season on any American ships sailing the Mediterranean. However following the American victory of 1776, the following year the Sultan of Morocco formally recognised the USA as a sovereign nation and declared American ships were under his protection and could enjoy safe travel. This makes the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship the USA's oldest (non-broken) allegiance pact. However in 1784, Morocco became the first Barbary power to seize a US ship since the country achieved sovereignty. During the Napoleonic Wars, the corsairs ruthlessly attacked American merchant vessels, and forced the USA to pay tribute to allows its ships safe travel through Barbary territory. This threat was the direct cause of the formation of the United States Navy in 1794, which the US used to conduct two Barbary Wars in the first part of the 19th Century. The wars brought an end to the American practice of paying tribute to the pirate states and helped mark the beginning of the end of piracy in that region, which had been rampant in the days of Ottoman domination (16th–18th centuries). Within decades, European powers built ever more sophisticated and expensive ships which the Barbary pirates could not match in numbers or technology.
There were a pair of brothers who became prominent Barbary pirates in the 16th Century, Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis. Confusingly, both of these pirates were known as Redbeard. Even more confusingly, neither one actually had a red beard. Hayreddin, the younger brother, inherited the title from Oruç who was killed in a battle with the Spanish in 1518. Oruç himself acquired the name quite accidentally, as he was known as Baba Oruç (Father Oruç) in North Africa when he transported large numbers of Moriscos refugees from Spain to North Africa. This became corrupted into Barbarossa, the Italian for red beard. Hayreddin, along with the other muslim corsairs, raided the islands of the Mediterranean as well as the Spanish main throughout the 16th Century taking thousands of prisoners and slaves.
Christian pirates joined the ranks of the Barbary corsairs in around the 14th Century. Many Europeans, most of them from Catalonia, began to rove the Mediterranean and attack the North African coastal cities such as Tunis, Oran and Algiers. The Europeans quickly took to the fore when they came onto the stage, having constructed the original frigates: Light, fast, manoeuvrable galleys designed to run down the corsair slave ships. Other measures included coastal lookouts to give warning for people to withdraw into fortified places and rally local forces to fight the corsairs. This latter goal was especially difficult to achieve as the corsairs had the advantage of surprise; the vulnerable European Mediterranean coasts were very long and easily accessible from the north African Barbary bases, and the corsairs were careful in planning their raids.
Jack Ward
Other than the Barbarossa brothers, perhaps the most prominent Barbary corsair was an Englishman. Captain Jack or John Ward, nicknamed Birdy, was once called "beyond doubt the greatest scoundrel that ever sailed from England" by the English ambassador to Venice. Ward was pressed into the Navy in the first years of the 17th Century, and became a privateer for Queen Elizabeth during her war with Spain. Ward and about 30 of his colleagues deserted, and stole a small barque from Portsmouth Harbour in 1603. Ward was elected captain of the new crew, one of the earliest examples of pirate democracy. From there Ward's crew captured successively bigger ships, eventually acquiring a 32-gun warship which he renamed The Gift, and attacked merchant seamen for the next two years. At the end of the war, Ward wrote to James I to ask for a pardon that he might return to England and retire, but the king refused and Ward and his crew settled in Tunis converted to Islam. Ward changed his name to Yusuf Reis, took a new wife while continuing to send money to his Christian wife in England. An English sailor who saw him in Tunis in 1608 described Ward as "very short with little hair, and that quite white, bald in front; swarthy face and beard. Speaks little and almost always swearing. Drunk from morn till night...The habits of a thorough salt. A fool and an idiot out of his trade."
Ward was an immensely rich and successful pirate who had introduced heavily armed square-rigged ships to use instead of galleys, to the North African area, a major reason for the Barbary's future dominance of the Mediterranean. He died of plague in 1622, aged 70. A ballad was written about him, Captain Ward and The Rainbow. Ward is the likely inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow.
Hope you enjoyed this week's update folks, pirate facts here every Wednesday. - Captain
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