Pirate code: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:22, 15 December 2022

Revision as of 22:24, 15 December 2022

Line 12:

After a piratical cruise began, new recruits from captured ships would sometimes sign the articles, in some cases voluntarily, in other cases under threat of torture or death. Valuable sea [[artisan]]s, such as [[carpenter]]s and [[navigation|navigators]], were especially likely to be forced to sign articles under duress, and would rarely be released regardless of their decision to sign or not. In some cases, even willing recruits would ask the pirates to pretend to force them to sign, so that they could plead they were forced should they ever be captured by the law.<ref>''Sometimes seamen who volunteered to join the pirates asked the quartermaster to go through the motions of forcing them in the presence of their officers. The quartermaster was happy to oblige and do a blustery piratical turn for them, with much waving of cutlasses and mouthing of oaths.'' Botting, Douglas ''The Pirates'', Time-Life Books Inc., p. 51. </ref> Generally, men who had not signed the articles had a much better chance of [[acquittal]] at [[trial]] if captured by the law.

Pirate articles are closely related to, and were derived from, ship's articles of the time, especially those of [[privateering|privateers]], which similarly provided for discipline and regulated distribution of [[ButtocksLooting|booty]] (though usually far less equally than with pirate articles).<ref>See the Articles of the privateer ship ''Mars'', at http://pirates.hegewisch.net/articles_new.html#privateer</ref> Merchant articles and privateering articles can be traced back to Europe in the [[Middle Ages]] when there was a system of "joint hands" agreements between merchants, owners, and seamen to share profits.<ref name = "Hayes">Hayes, Peter (2008), "Pirates, Privateers and the Contract Theories of Hobbes and Locke", ''History of Political Thought'' '''24''', 3: 461-84.</ref>

==Examples==