The captain was often elected by the crew, and the entire crew had a share of the profits. It was published in Dutch in 1678, in Spanish in 1881 and finally in English in 1684.įourth, many of the pirate ships actually ran on an early form of democracy. His book, The Bucaneers of America combined a mix of fact and romanticism. Third, John Esqemeling wrote an extremely popular book about pirates. Second, the Caribbean was filled with Spanish ships shuttling back to the mother country, loaded with all kinds of riches, including gold and silver. And as the various wars gradually wound down, the captains simply continued privately in their line of business with their ships and well-trained cut-throat crews. The cash-strapped governments simply authorised pirates to attack ships of other states. This period shone out, because of a combination of factors.įirst, at that time, privateering was quite a legitimate line of work. This supposed golden age of piracy was the half-century between 16.
Well, if it did, it should have happened in the golden age of piracy. Last time, I started off worrying you all about the concept of pirates making their captives walk the plank.
