Posted on 07/09/2006 6:51:04 AM PDT by SuzyQ2
"When you look at the golden age of piracy, 1692 to about 1725, pirates were considered what they in fact were -- ruthless brigands, murderers, thieves," says W. Thomas Smith Jr., co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates." "Robert Louis Stevenson's book romanticized pirates and made them very personable. That was taken a step further with the story of 'Peter Pan,' where Captain Hook was loosely based on the image of Blackbeard -- and as we all know, Blackbeard was a horrible guy."
So, Mr. Smith, who's your favorite pirate? "I would have to say, I guess, Blackbeard -- it's kind of fun to read about the really bad. He was so colorful, lighting the fuses with his beard, and there's the legend of when he was beheaded, the body swam around the ship several times. He was absolutely, utterly fascinating."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
LOL!
Pirated my interest.
My least favorite pirate would be the IRS.
"Nothing says "swashbuckling" like "Errol Flynn" -- the dashing British actor.."
Flynn was Australian.
My most favorite pirate would be....
Here's the bad news: it wasn't as good as the first. (Not that the first was all that great.) Now the good news: there will be a sequel.
Anyway, unless you have a 9 year old son, wait for the DVD.
Uluç Ali Pasha) - 16th century Muslim Ottoman admiral and privateer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluj_Ali
Aruj,: Turkish Oruç (c. 1473-1518), also known as Baba Aruj, Barbarossa (italian Red Beard) was an Ottoman-Turkish privateer and a governor of Algiers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruj
Barbarossa Khair ad Din Pasha (circa 1475-1546) was an Ottoman-Turkish admiral and privateer who served in the Ottoman Empire and in the Barbary Coast. He was born on the island of Lesbos, in today's Greece. He died in Beşiktaş in Istanbul, in modern-day Turkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarossa_Khair_ad_Din_Pasha
Jasim bin Jabir جاسم بن جابر, was a pirate from the 19th century in the Persian Gulf
Jasim had his base at Udaid, and attacked British ships in the gulf, with caravans carrying the booty inland. Khalifa, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, having gotten permission from the resident British authorities, attacked Udaid in May 1836 killing 50 men, and destroying the houses and fortification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasim_bin_Jabir
Rahmah bin Jabir Aljalahma رحمة بن جابر بن عتبة الجلهمي أو الجلاهمة was an Arab ruler and pirate in the Persian Gulf (1760? 1826). His first name means 'mercy' in Arabic. He was born in Qurain (modern day Kuwait) in the north of the Persian Gulf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahmah_bin_Jabir_al-Jalahimah
Murat Rais (or Murat Reis) was a Muslim Albanian pirate and Ottoman admiral in the 16th century. He was known for his boldness, even by corsair standards. Rais attacked Spain and Italy both on land and sea, he even captured the flag ship of the Pope. By the 1580's he was notorious for attacking Christian ships and towns. Rais was killed while laying siege to the city of Vlore in 1638. He was aged 103 when he died, which was very unusual for those times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Rais
Turgut Reis (1514-1565) Ottoman, Turkish corsair and admiral, as well as Bey of Tunis. Known in different languages with such names as Dragut or Darghouth, the original name in Turkey is Turgut Reis or Torgut Reis (reis = admiral)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turgut_Reis
John Ward [Warde], also known as Jack Ward and under his Muslim name Yusuf Reis, was a notorious English pirate around the turn of the 17th century who later became a Barbary Corsair operating out of Tunis during the early 1600s.
While many in Tunisia were angered by Ward's desertion of the Muslim sailors aboard the Reniera e Soderina, Uthman Dey offered Ward a safe haven. Ward however offered King James I $40,000 for a royal pardon which was refused and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. Uthman Dey kept his word and Ward was granted protection by Tunis.
During the next year ballads and pamphleteers condemned John Ward for turning corsair (which may have contributed to his later conversion to Islam). He changed his name to Yusuf Reis and married an Italian woman while he continued to send money to his English wife.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ward Oh yea Romance the pirateers what a wonderful thing
After the United States won its independence in the treaty of 1783, it had to protect its own commerce against dangers such as the Barbary pirates. As early as 1784 Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them. Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of twenty-one people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.
Thomas Jefferson, United States minister to France, opposed the payment of tribute, as he later testified in words that have a particular resonance today. In his autobiography Jefferson wrote that in 1785 and 1786 he unsuccessfully "endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, articles of a special confederation." Jefferson argued that "The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace." Jefferson prepared a detailed plan for the interested states. "Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association," Jefferson remembered, but there were "apprehensions" that England and France would follow their own paths, "and so it fell through."
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjprece.html
She can certainly shiver me timbers.
Arrrgh, Matey...she be hotter than the gun deck in old Redbeard's ship.
And we would do well to note the following:
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were ambassadors to Paris and London, respectively. Because America had suffered disruption and attacks on its ships by Muslim pirates, they met with and asked the representative of what is now modern day Libya, Sidi Haji Rahmand Adja, why the Muslims were doing this (they had been doing it against Christian shipping for centuries).
The following is a quote from the report issued to the Continental Congress by Jefferson and Adams:
(Adja said) "“…that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”"
I was an Errol Flynn fan. ;)
Aaarrrrr... Capt. RedJackFlint says, beware 
Pathos on the High Seas, below decks... on his ship the Quivering Thigh
ARRRRRR! Me Matey! Be havin' ye erehove t'th' site? 'Tis alot o' fun!
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html
Sven The Slovenly
That be a good one, Me Hearty! I like 't, ye scurvy dog!
Arrrr!
Dirty John Rackham
Mine is the UN.
aRRRRR, Dems dat die be the lucky ones.
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