Yeah, that account seems to be the product of the imagination of the author--it is certainly not based on Captain Johnson, or any c0ntemporary records of which i know. I could write many paragraphs about what is wrong with that narrative. I once did a thread on pirates, which some members occasionally post to whenever something about sailing vessels comes up in the news. I linked it once in another thread (an early thread about piracy in east African waters), but the post was removed. For some reason, the moderators (or one of them who was a friend of the thread author, i never knew, of course) did not want me linking that thread in other threads. However, you might be able to find it if you search for a thread entitled "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?" Someone recently started a thread with a nearly identical title--mine was started about five or six years ago.
Most of the English-speaking world thinks Caribbean when the subject of pirates comes up, but in fact, Africa was the venue for most piracy by Europeans. All ships returning to Europe from the "spice islands" and India and China sailed via the Bight of Benin (also known as "the Slave Coast"), so pirates tended to hang out there to prey upon them. Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was killed while operating in those waters. In a brief career (most pirate's careers were brief, with the exception of some of the notorious pirates of the "golden age" of piracy in the Caribbean, when the Spanish were just not able militarily to deal with the problem), he is alleged to have amassed more plunder than any other pirate of the heyday of European piracy--it is said to have exceeded one million pounds sterling, which in the early 18th century was an astronomical sum. He took a frigate (allegedly-- French, i think, although its an incredible claim), and began to prey upon the east Indies shipping in the Bight of Benin, and whenever pirates got that bold, the Royal Navy (of either England or France, or both) made a point of hunting them down and putting them out of business. Robert's ship was being chased by a Royal Navy frigate (English), and with an incredible freak shot, the frigate's bow chaser decapitated Roberts as he stood on his quarterdeck. Blackbeard was hunted down and killed by the crews of two sloops commanded by a Royal Navy lieutenant, and provided by subscription of merchants in Virginia and the Carolinas. Blackbeard was one of the few pirate commanders who actually acted like a naval officer, and he fought the boarders until he was killed. It was alleged that he had 20 bullet wounds or cutlass wounds when his body was examined after the fight. Ironically, he was one of the least bloodthirsty--if a ship resisted, he killed everyone on board--but if they surrendered, he allowed no one to be killed, and saw to it that the crew were put in boats with food and water and a good shot at making a safe land-fall. This became quickly known, and he took most ships with ease. Henry Morgan and l'Olonnais preyed on the Spanish in the Caribbean, and, as i said, the Spanish were just overwhelmed by the English, Dutch and French piracy, and most pirates on the Spanish Main in the 17th century operated with virtual impunity. When Spanish prizes grew thin at the beginning of the 18th century, pirates began to attack French, English and Dutch shipping, and their navies quickly put almost all of the pirates out of business. After about 1720, piracy in the Caribbean was largely restricted to small vessels with small crews who operated from coastal waters on Spanish islands (usually from Cuba) and who preyed on local coast-wise shipping, avoiding murder and letting ships go when they had been plundered, so as not to attract the unwelcome attention of the English or French Royal Navies, which would have had no problem with landing on Spanish territory to extirpate a nest of pirates.
But in the 17th century, the really rich grounds for piracy by Europeans were the waters off the east coast of Africa (ironic old world, innit?), where the east India merchantmen could be taken, as well as the often rich prizes of Muslim nations. Captain Kidd was actually a respected privateer who took Adventure Galley--a fine new frigate built for his use--to the waters off east Africa and the Arabian peninsula, and was then (allegedly) forced to turn to piracy by his crew--which is not actually that unusual in the annals of privateering and piracy. John "Calico Jack" Rackham, who would have been eminently forgettable had he not hooked up with Anne Bonny, was originally the Quartermaster of a letter of marque, who was elected captain by a mutinous crew who decided their captain was "shy" (i.e., a coward, and therefore no money maker). Most pirates in the Caribbean and off the coast of North America were just looking for specie (gold and silver coin) and booze--wine was okay, but what they really wanted was rum. Blackbeard's log shows that he kept his crew happy by keeping them drunk, and when rum or wine ran low, mutinous grumbling usually broke out. Blackbeard was another privateer who allegedly turned to piracy when the war ended (in that case, the War of the Spanish Succession, which ended in 1713).
But the real money was in the east African waters, and some pirates lasted for years by concentrating on Muslim shipping, and only taking European shipping if it was known that two nations were at war, in which case they would raise the requisite colors and plunder their victim. The Muslim shipping was the real prize though--you could plunder a ship from Mecca bound for Basra, and then put into Muscat the next day, sell the entire cargo and sell the crew as slaves, and put to sea virtually without fear of punishment. The biggest danger to European pirates in those waters was other pirates--competition was keen and there were a lot of pirates chasing the available resources. Piracy in those waters by Europeans was not finally extirpated until the Wars of the French Revolution and the Wars of Napoleon, when both the English and the French kept relatively large squadrons on station there, and protected Muslim shipping in return for rights to port facilities and supplies. By the beginning of the 18th century, England, France and Holland had highly professional navies, even if much of their crew were pressed or convicts, and pirates simply couldn't deal with them. The waters off east Africa and the Arabian peninsula were the last area in the world where European pirates could operate with safety, and a good expectation of good booty. Piracy by locals (chiefly "Vietnamese", Malay or "overseas" Chinese) was sufficiently virulent that both the Dutch East India Company and the English East India company armed their vessels to the point that they were virtual frigates, although usually having, of course, smaller crews, and using "beamier" vessels meaning they didn't sail as well as a military frigate, but could carry large cargoes. East Indiamen were so well armed that both the Royal Navy and the French Navy of Napoleon commandeered them and used them as consorts for their frigates in the Indian Ocean.
Fascinatin' subject . . . but i'll leave off now.
The headline of
this BBC report might look a bit strange ...
... but it deals with the EU's anti-pirates concept:
Quote:The European Union has announced plans to train Somali security forces to tackle the pirates operating along the country's coast.
Might be of some interest: This site >
Pirates, Ports and Partners: Maritime Security in the 21st Century< provides free access to audiofiles and transcripts from a conference on maritime security jointly sponsored by the Atlantic Council and the U.S. Naval War College which took place in October 2009.
(Topics covered include incidents involving pirates off the coast of Somalia.)
