[Reader-list] More of Sea Piracy

[Alexander Keefe]

Dear all,
For those interested in this issue and/or new media cartography, the live
piracy map:
http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=89
Peace and love in 2009,
Alex


On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 7:28 AM, Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:

> dear All,
>
> Following on Sanjay's post on the somialian pirates, i am mailing a
> series of readings on the same.
>
> warmly
>
> Jeebesh
>
>
>
> "The Floating Dungeon: A History of the Slave Ship"
>
> To find the ghost and let them live again Marcus Rediker
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2xGTXB8tc&NR=1
>
>
>
> Off the coast of Somalia: 'We're not pirates. These are our waters,
> not theirs'
>
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/off-the-coast-of-somalia-were-not-pirates-these-are-our-waters-not-theirs-1017962.html
>
> To foreign ships, they're a scourge but Daniel Howden and Abdinasir
> Mohamed Guled discover that Somalia's pirates see things very
> differently
>
> Friday, 14 November 2008
> Two boats from HMS Cumberland intercept a suspected pirate vessel in
> the Gulf of Aden after Russian and British forces repelled an attack
> on a cargo ship
>
> When Bile Wadani is not counting his money, he counts his wives. So
> far he has three – but he promises there will be more to come. "I
> didn't ever dream I would marry three wives but I have that dream now
> because I can get as much money as I want."
>
> As he speaks, waves can be heard crashing in the background. Bile is
> speaking by mobile telephone from the deck of a captured ship
> somewhere off the mountainous coast of northern Somalia, near the tip
> of the Horn of Africa. His words are interrupted by the crackle of
> gunfire.
>
> Bile will not reveal his exact location or identify the captured
> vessel as he claims he is being hunted by foreign warships.
>
> He is one of the new generation of pirates who have turned the Gulf of
> Aden into the most dangerous shipping lane in the world. The success
> of their rough and ready tactics has been such that insurers are
> warning that shipowners may have to use alternative routes, which
> would have tremendous ramifications for global trade and commodity
> prices.
>
> International governments are committing millions of pounds to
> fighting the pirates. The Royal Navy's HMS Cumberland joined forces
> with a Russian frigate to kill three pirates as they attempted to
> seize a Danish vessel in the latest incident on Tuesday.
>
> Despite the fact that warships from Denmark, France, Russia, Japan and
> the US have joined the Royal Navy in patrolling the gulf, little
> attention has been paid to the roots of the problem.
>
> Both the risks and the rewards of Bile's chosen career are colossal.
> And along with an increasing number of his compatriots in the anarchy
> of Somalia, he has chosen to embrace them. The lure of vast sums of
> money is transforming the coast of this country and turning the
> pirates into the heroes of a shattered land.
>
> Millions of dollars in ransoms are being paid by desperate ship owners
> – an estimated $30m (£20.5m) so far this year. That is one and a half
> times the annual budget for authorities in the northern region of
> Puntland. One captured vessel can fetch up to $2m.
>
> The epicentre of this piracy is the port town of Eyl, in the Nugal
> region. It is off limits to the outside world, a safe haven for the
> pirates and a base for their attacks. It now functions, according to
> residents, almost completely on the proceeds from piracy.
>
> Much of the rest of Somalia has been destroyed by the seemingly
> endless wars that have washed across the country in the two decades
> since it last had a functioning government. The capital, Mogadishu,
> lies mostly in ruins.
>
> In Eyl, the streets are lined with new buildings and awash with
> Landcruisers, laptops, satellite phones and global positioning systems.
>
> Almost everyone in Eyl has a relative or husband among the pirates.
> Fatima Yusuf, who has lived her whole life in Eyl, describes the
> intense involvement of the whole community in the fortunes of the
> young men who set out in crews of seven or eight armed with AK-47s and
> rocket launchers to take on the tankers on the high seas.
>
> The planning is rigorous, Bile insists: "When we want to kidnap a
> ship, we go with not more than six or seven men because we don't want
> to be a mob, this is a military tactic."
>
> Fatima says the people will gather to pray for the pirates and that
> when they set sail sacrifices are made in traditional ceremonies where
> a goat will be slaughtered, its throat cut."
>
> An industry has grown up around the pirates, with restaurants to feed
> the kidnapped crews who as potentially tradable assets must be looked
> after. The pirates have become glamorous figures. Like most of the
> girls in Eyl, Sadiya Samatar Haji wants to marry a pirate. "I'm not
> taking no for an answer," she says. "I'll tie the knot with a pirate
> man because I'll get to live in a good house with good money."
>
> Twelve-year-old Mohamed Bishar Adle, in nearby Garowe, the regional
> capital of Puntland, knows what he wants to do with his education.
> "When I finish high school, I will be a pirate man, I will work for my
> family and will get more money."
>
> Beyond the bravado, Bile acknowledges that the danger is increasing.
> He will not say how many attacks he has participated in but he does
> claim to have been one of the pirates who clashed with French forces
> in April this year after the capture and ransom of a luxury yacht.
> French commandoes pursued a band of Somali pirates en route to Eyl
> after a ransom had been paid. Bile says nine of his compatriots were
> taken and that only he and one other friend were able to escape. Six
> of those caught face prosecution in Paris after being transferred to
> France.
>
> He also remembers the terror of his first mission. "You don't know if
> it's a warship. You have to open fire and if it doesn't respond you
> know."
>
> Bile did not grow up dreaming of being a pirate. He comes from a
> family of fishermen whose livelihood was destroyed, he says, by the
> arrival of industrial trawlers from Europe.
>
> At some 3,300 kilometres, Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa.
> With a fertile upswelling where the ocean reaches Africa's Horn, the
> seas are rich in tuna, swordfish and shark, as well as coastal beds of
> lobster and valuable shrimp.
>
> With the overthrow of Siad Barre's government in 1991, the territorial
> waters off Somalia became a free-for-all. Trawlers from more than 16
> different nations were recorded within its waters – many of them
> armed. EU vessels flying flags of convenience cut deals with the
> illegitimate authorities in Somalia, according to UN investigators.
>
> Clashes between large, foreign fishing interests and Somali fishermen
> in the late 1990s were the prelude to the upsurge in piracy.
>
> Bile, like many of the pirates, calls himself a "coastguard" and
> insists he has more right to these contested seas than the foreign
> forces now patrolling them. He says many of his friends' boats were
> destroyed in these battles and stocks of a fish known locally as
> "yumbi" have all but disappeared.
>
> Like many in Somalia, Bile is angry that outside powers are seeking a
> military solution to a more complex problem. He rejects the tag of
> "terrorist" and denies links to Islamic militias, like the Al-Shabab,
> which are in control of large areas of Somalia. He insists that the
> pirates would not give "one AK-47" to the Islamists.
>
> While admitting that the influx of foreign navies is making his life
> more dangerous, he remains defiant: "We will keep carrying out
> attacks. We are ready for long distance attacks as far as the coast of
> Yemen."
>
>
>
>  Pirates Turn Villages Into Boomtowns
> By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and ELIZABETH KENNEDY
> http://news.aol.com/article/pirates-turn-villages-into-boomtowns/253992
>
> AP
>
> MOGADISHU, Somalia (Nov. 19) - Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates
> are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying
> beautiful women — even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food
> for their hostages.
> And in an impoverished country where every public institution has
> crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they
> operate from because they are the only real business in town.
> Armed pirates guard a beach Oct. 16 in Hobyo, Somalia. Piracy is on
> the rise on Somalia, a result of the nation's extreme poverty and
> unstable government. Pirates have pumped $30 million into Somalia's
> economy this year, thanks to ransoms that owners pay to get their
> ships back.
>
> "The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them," said Sahra Sheik
> Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where a
> hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude was
> anchored Wednesday.
> These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia's
> violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the country's
> south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused criminals. There
> has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging
> this arid African country into chaos.
> Life expectancy is just 46 years; a quarter of children die before
> they reach 5.
> But in northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the
> pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from pirate
> ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.
> "There are more shops and business is booming because of the piracy,"
> said Sugule Dahir, who runs a clothing shop in Eyl. "Internet cafes
> and telephone shops have opened, and people are just happier than
> before."
> In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the looming
> oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless coast.
> Businessmen gathered cigarettes, food and cold bottles of orange soda,
> setting up kiosks for the pirates who come to shore to resupply almost
> daily.
> Dahir said she even started a layaway plan for them.
> "They always take things without paying and we put them into the book
> of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
> "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a lot."
> Residents make sure the pirates are well-stocked in khat, a popular
> narcotic leaf, and aren't afraid to gouge a bit when it comes to the
> pirates' deep pockets.
> Dangerous Waters
> Tian Yu 8: In this photograph supplied by the U.S. Navy, Somali
> pirates hold the crew of a Chinese fishing vessel hostage as the ship
> passes through the Indian Ocean on Nov. 17. The ship was seized Nov.
> 16 and was forced to anchor off the Somali coast.
> "I can buy a packet of cigarettes for about $1 but I will charge the
> pirate $1.30," said Abdulqadir Omar, an Eyl resident.
> While pirate villages used to have houses made of corrugated iron
> sheets, now, there are stately looking homes made of sturdy, white
> stones.
> "Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can
> say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-
> old mother of five in Haradhere.
> "Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic
> schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are
> happy."
> The attackers generally treat their hostages well in anticipation of a
> big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish
> and roasted meat that will appeal to Western palates.
> Somali Pirates Strike Again
> Pirates hijacked another cargo ship the coast of Somalia making it the
> 7th ship to be hijacked in less than two weeks. Shelia MacVicar reports.
> And when the payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls from
> the sky.
> Pirates say the ransom arrives in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped from
> buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto skiffs in
> the roiling, shark-infested sea.
> "The oldest man on the ship always takes the responsibility of
> collecting the money, because we see it as very risky, and he gets
> some extra payment for his service later," Aden Yusuf, a pirate in
> Eyl, told AP over VHF radio.
> The pirates use money-counting machines — the same technology seen at
> foreign exchange bureaus worldwide — to ensure the cash is real. All
> payments are done in cash because Somalia has no functioning banking
> system.
> "Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business connections
> with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other areas," Yusuf said.
> "So we send them money and they send us what we want."
> Despite a beefed-up international presence, the pirates continue to
> seize ships, moving further out to sea and demanding ever-larger
> ransoms. The pirates operate mostly from the semiautonomous Puntland
> region, where local lawmakers have been accused of helping them and
> taking a cut of the ransoms.
> For the most part, however, the regional officials say they have no
> power to stop piracy.
> Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos
> are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes.
> Residents also use their gains to buy generators — allowing full days
> of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.
> There are no reliable estimates of the number of pirates operating in
> Somalia, but they number in the thousands. And though the bandits do
> sometimes get nabbed, piracy is generally considered a sure bet to a
> better life.
> NATO and the U.S. Navy say they can't be everywhere, and American
> officials are urging ships to hire private security. Warships
> patrolling off Somalia have succeeded in stopping some pirate attacks.
> But military assaults to wrest back a ship are highly risky and, up to
> now, uncommon.
> Associated Press writers Mohamed Olad Hassan reported from Mogadishu
> and Elizabeth Kennedy from Nairobi, Kenya.
> Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the
> AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
> distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated
> Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
> 2008-11-19 10:24:20
>
>
>
> ALSO SEE: The Politics of Pirates (Should Johnny Depp be a Founding
> Father?)
>
>
> http://engagepodcast.blogspot.com/2008/05/politics-of-pirates-should-johnny-depp.html
>
>
> VIDEO ON PETER LINEBAUGH
>
> Magna Carta Manifesto 1 of 8
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDg2p3krPKQ&feature=related
>
>
>
> "The Floating Dungeon: A History of the Slave Ship"
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2xGTXB8tc&NR=1
>
>
>
>  Democratic Pirates
> The History of Decapitating Commoners
> by Nic Veroli
>
>  From the Oct 11 – Oct 17, 2001 issue
>
> The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden
> History of the Revolutionary Atlantic by Peter Linebaugh and Markus
> Rediker
> (Beacon Press) $18
>
> The history of the movement against neoliberal globalization did not
> start in 1999 in Seattle. It did not even start on January 1, 1994,
> that legendary day when "subcommandante insurgente" Marcos led an army
> of Zapatista indios down the slopes of Chiapas' mountains into battle
> against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). No, the war
> on neoliberal globalization began much earlier--on the afternoon of
> July 25, 1609, on an English ship.
>
> Such is the thesis of Peter Linebaugh and Markus Rediker, probably two
> of the most daring American historians writing today. Their new book
> chronicles the history of the first two centuries in the history of
> what they call "the Atlantic working class," from the birth of
> capitalism in the early 17th century to the aftermath of the American
> and French revolutions in the early 18th and 19th centuries. That is
> the "many-headed hydra" they invoke: a planetary monster with
> innumerable heads in all parts of the world, linked together by a
> diaphanous, almost intangible trunk.
>
> According to Linebaugh and Rediker, the revolt against capitalist
> globalization begins not simply as a struggle against property-title-
> clutching aristocrats, who in early modern times were trying to
> privatize lands held in common by English peasants. With a far more
> cosmopolitan vision than even Karl Marx, they argue that this revolt
> was also immediately global in scope, the product of transatlantic
> coalitions between European commoners, African slaves, and Native
> American societies.
>
> The different constituencies were often brought together and kept in
> contact with each other by ethnically heterogenous crews of sailors,
> who glided from one end of the world to the other on ships that
> recalled a prison chain gang rather than merry shipmates. Those
> sailors frequently mutinied, threw their officers overboard, or worse,
> and joyfully converted to the faith of the pirate: Eat well, drink
> well, and above all, make decisions on every aspect of life "in
> common" or, as we would say today, democratically.
>
> You'll have to read the book to find out what happened on that famous
> afternoon in July, 1609. Suffice it to say that neither then nor
> afterward did things always go smoothly for this "many-headed hydra"
> of a revolt. Indeed, the name itself was bestowed upon this multi-
> ethnic assemblage of peoples by elite intellectuals such as Francis
> Bacon and Walter Raleigh, who eagerly counseled their lords to
> decapitate the hydra whenever it reared one of its ugly heads.
> Apparently, then as now, these intellectuals were unaware of the
> mythical hydra's magical property: If ever one of its heads is cut
> off, it regenerates itself almost immediately.
>
> Today, the hydra is again under attack. The Republicans in the White
> House, on Capitol Hill, and in the various right-wing think tanks are
> out to get the democratic hydra. Taking advantage of the recent
> terrorist attacks--acts which speak as much of the twistedness of its
> perpetrators as they do of the desperation of hundreds of millions of
> dispossessed peoples around the world--these stone-hearted crocodiles
> are using the shock and grief of many of us here in the States to put
> forward an agenda that surpasses in folly even the most obnoxious
> fantasies of Dr. Strangelove. In less than a month, conservatives have
> managed to take back the lead in defining the issues on the public
> agenda. From talking about the sweatshops, unemployment, and the
> consequences of a recession for working people, we have all been
> brought into dismal speculations on the possibility of World War III,
> how many of our civil liberties we'd have to give up for "security" at
> home, and the effects of the recession on the wealthy.
>
> But neither a war abroad nor more police at home is going to make the
> problem go away: Global environmental degradation and poverty are not
> made better by uranium-depleted bullets or more phone taps.
>
> So has the anti-capitalist hydra been decapitated in one fell swoop?
> No, for as Linebaugh and Rediker put it: "The globalizing powers have
> a long reach and endless patience. Yet the planetary wanderers do not
> forget, and they are ever ready from Africa to the Caribbean to
> Seattle to resist slavery and restore the commons."
>
> The history of the movement against neoliberal globalization did not
> start in 1999 in Seattle. It did not even start on January 1, 1994,
> that legendary day when "subcommandante insurgente" Marcos led an army
> of Zapatista indios down the slopes of Chiapas' mountains into battle
> against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). No, the war
> on neoliberal globalization began much earlier--on the afternoon of
> July 25, 1609, on an English ship.
>
> Such is the thesis of Peter Linebaugh and Markus Rediker, probably two
> of the most daring American historians writing today. Their new book
> chronicles the history of the first two centuries in the history of
> what they call "the Atlantic working class," from the birth of
> capitalism in the early 17th century to the aftermath of the American
> and French revolutions in the early 18th and 19th centuries. That is
> the "many-headed hydra" they invoke: a planetary monster with
> innumerable heads in all parts of the world, linked together by a
> diaphanous, almost intangible trunk.
>
> According to Linebaugh and Rediker, the revolt against capitalist
> globalization begins not simply as a struggle against property-title-
> clutching aristocrats, who in early modern times were trying to
> privatize lands held in common by English peasants. With a far more
> cosmopolitan vision than even Karl Marx, they argue that this revolt
> was also immediately global in scope, the product of transatlantic
> coalitions between European commoners, African slaves, and Native
> American societies.
>
> The different constituencies were often brought together and kept in
> contact with each other by ethnically heterogenous crews of sailors,
> who glided from one end of the world to the other on ships that
> recalled a prison chain gang rather than merry shipmates. Those
> sailors frequently mutinied, threw their officers overboard, or worse,
> and joyfully converted to the faith of the pirate: Eat well, drink
> well, and above all, make decisions on every aspect of life "in
> common" or, as we would say today, democratically.
>
> You'll have to read the book to find out what happened on that famous
> afternoon in July, 1609. Suffice it to say that neither then nor
> afterward did things always go smoothly for this "many-headed hydra"
> of a revolt. Indeed, the name itself was bestowed upon this multi-
> ethnic assemblage of peoples by elite intellectuals such as Francis
> Bacon and Walter Raleigh, who eagerly counseled their lords to
> decapitate the hydra whenever it reared one of its ugly heads.
> Apparently, then as now, these intellectuals were unaware of the
> mythical hydra's magical property: If ever one of its heads is cut
> off, it regenerates itself almost immediately.
>
> Today, the hydra is again under attack. The Republicans in the White
> House, on Capitol Hill, and in the various right-wing think tanks are
> out to get the democratic hydra. Taking advantage of the recent
> terrorist attacks--acts which speak as much of the twistedness of its
> perpetrators as they do of the desperation of hundreds of millions of
> dispossessed peoples around the world--these stone-hearted crocodiles
> are using the shock and grief of many of us here in the States to put
> forward an agenda that surpasses in folly even the most obnoxious
> fantasies of Dr. Strangelove. In less than a month, conservatives have
> managed to take back the lead in defining the issues on the public
> agenda. From talking about the sweatshops, unemployment, and the
> consequences of a recession for working people, we have all been
> brought into dismal speculations on the possibility of World War III,
> how many of our civil liberties we'd have to give up for "security" at
> home, and the effects of the recession on the wealthy.
>
> But neither a war abroad nor more police at home is going to make the
> problem go away: Global environmental degradation and poverty are not
> made better by uranium-depleted bullets or more phone taps.
>
> So has the anti-capitalist hydra been decapitated in one fell swoop?
> No, for as Linebaugh and Rediker put it: "The globalizing powers have
> a long reach and endless patience. Yet the planetary wanderers do not
> forget, and they are ever ready from Africa to the Caribbean to
> Seattle to resist slavery and restore the commons."
>
>
>
> Everyone in favor, say yargh!
>
> Some of the world's earliest democracies flourished aboard pirate ships
>
>
> http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/05/11/everyone_in_favor_say_yargh?mode=PF
>
> By Joanna Weiss  |  May 11, 2008
>
> AS A CHILD, Peter Leeson was pirate-obsessed. He cherished the ruby-
> eyed skull ring he got at Disney World, after riding Pirates of the
> Caribbean. He took up a collection of coconut pirate heads. He lapped
> up the pirate themes in "Goonies." And when he grew up to be an
> economics professor, and started studying pirate society, he found a
> new excuse for admiration. Pirates, it turns out, were pioneers of
> democracy.
>
> Presidential candidates, take note: Long before they made their way
> into the workings of modern government, the democratic tenets we hold
> so dear were used to great effect on pirate ships. Checks and
> balances. Social insurance. Freedom of expression. So Leeson, an
> economics professor at George Mason University, will argue in his
> upcoming book, "The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates."
>
> Yes, those stereotypically lawless rum-chuggers turned out to be
> ardent democrats. And in their strange enlightenment, Leeson sees the
> answer to a riddle about human nature, worthy of "Lord of the Flies"
> or an early episode of "Lost." In the absence of government and law
> enforcement, what becomes of a band of men with a noted criminal
> streak? Do they descend into violence and chaos?
>
> The pirates who roamed the seas in the late 17th and early 18th
> centuries developed a floating civilization that, in terms of
> political philosophy, was well ahead of its time. The notion of checks
> and balances, in which each branch of government limits the other's
> power, emerged in England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. But by
> the 1670s, and likely before, pirates were developing democratic
> charters, establishing balance of power on their ships, and developing
> a nascent form of worker's compensation: A lost limb entitled one to
> payment from the booty, more or less depending on whether it was a
> right arm, a left arm, or a leg.
>
> The idea of enlightened piracy is strange swill to swallow for those
> steeped in a pop culture version of the pirate - chaos on the high
> seas, drinking and pillaging, damsels forced onto the plank. Sure,
> there's something about the independence of piracy that still speaks
> to people today. (Even the founders of International Talk Like a
> Pirate Day acknowledge that there is, in people who love to say
> "Aargh," a yearning for a certain kind of freedom.) But it turns out
> that pirate life was more than just greedy rebellion. It offers
> insights into the nature of democracy and the reasons it might emerge
> - as a natural state of being, or a rational response to a much less
> pleasant way of life.
>
> To Leeson, pirate democracy was an institution born of necessity. In
> one successful cruise, a pirate could take home what a merchant sailor
> earned in 50 years. Yet a business enterprise made up of the violent
> and lawless was clearly problematic: piracy required common action and
> mutual trust. And pirates couldn't rely on a government to set the
> rules. Some think that "without government, where would we be?" Leeson
> says. "But what pirates really show is, no, it's just common sense.
> You have an incentive to try to create rules to make society get
> along. And that's just as important to pirates as it is to anybody
> else."
>
> But Marcus Rediker, the author of the pirate histories "Between the
> Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "Villains of All Nations," sees
> pirate democracy less as a means for order than as a political
> statement, a pointed reaction to the working sailor's life. When
> pirates roamed the seas, Rediker says, it was the law-abiding merchant
> ships that were run like miniature tyrannies. Captains held absolute
> power. Floggings were routine and often deadly. When pirates recruited
> sailors from the ships they pillaged, they opened a window to a
> different kind of society - far from the one the working-class sailors
> would otherwise find on land or sea. Rediker argues that pirate
> democracy "is not about human nature at all. It's about the specific
> experience of sailors and the way that they wanted to imagine a better
> world."
>
> Piracy, says Rediker, a history professor at the University of
> Pittsburgh, was "a fascinating, almost utopian kind of experiment."
> Indeed, he says, pirate democracy was purer than what was practiced in
> Athens: The Greeks didn't give slaves the vote, but pirates offered
> the right to everyone, black or white. (It's probably also safe to say
> that pirates didn't have superdelegates.) Before each voyage, the crew
> elected a captain who could be deposed at any time, as well as a
> quartermaster whose main purpose was to make sure the captain didn't
> have too much power. A written charter outlined ship rules, which
> tended to prohibit theft and violence aboard and set strict rules for
> the presence of women. (Contrary to popular myth, Leeson, says,
> pirates usually set limits on drinking. "A drunken pirate crew," he
> points out, "would be less effective than a sober crew.")
>
> Pirates even conducted a version of a fair trial, Rediker says, when
> determining the fate of captured captains. If any pirate on board knew
> the man from his merchant ship days, he could testify about his
> treatment. A captain who turned out to be kind was sometimes spared
> his life. And in a precursor of our own democratic love of political
> satire, pirates wrote coarse, hilarious plays that mocked the upper
> classes' criminal justice system.
>
> Their mockery, and their gallows humor, reflected the risks they
> faced. The pirates' democratic experiment, like piracy itself, turned
> out to be short-lived. When the buccaneers of the late 1600s attacked
> Spanish trade ships, Rediker says, the British navy looked the other
> way. But when pirates began to attack British and American ships in
> the early 1700s, the British naval crackdown was swift and fierce. By
> 1730, the traditional pirate life was essentially done.
>
> And, scholarly treatises aside, some of its specifics have been lost
> in the popular imagination. The current image of the pirate is colored
> more by the Robert Newton movies of the 1950s, or the rantings of
> Captain Hook, or - to a newer generation - the Keith Richards stylings
> of Johnny Depp.
>
> Even in their own time, the pirates' democratic experiment was quickly
> forgotten, a culture washed away. It would be another half a century,
> Leeson says, before James Madison would start to devise a US
> Constitution. And there's no evidence, he says, that the forefathers
> of British and American democracy took any of their cues from pirate
> ships. "The Federalists never refer back to pirates," he says. "I've
> looked."
>
> Joanna Weiss covers TV and pop culture for the Globe. She can be
> reached at weiss at globe.com.
> (c) Copyright 2008 The New York Times Compan
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