Piracy of Yore vs. Piracy Today© Cindy Vallar
Aug 1, 2000
Piracy predates the pyramids of Egypt. Once merchants began to ship goods to other countries via the sea, others realized the profit to be made by stealing those goods and selling them themselves. The scourge of seafarers and passengers alike, pirates dominated the seas in different places at different times. Pirates captured a young Julius Caesar, and after his escape, he returned to crucify them. During the Ming Dynasty, the imperial government sent 3,100 warships and more than 30,000 men to subdue Chinese pirates. Once Europeans colonized the Americas, pirates plundered coastal towns and attacked Spanish galleons laden with silver and gold. The most well-known of the pirates-Blackbeard, Black Bart, and Stede Bonnet-sailed during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730). The wars of the 18th century gave rise to a legal form of piracy, privateering, but after the War of 1812, governments no longer tolerated sea robbery. As a result piracy ended, or so history leads us to believe.
Earlier this year four pirates boarded a sailboat off the coast of Honduras. After tying up the mother, they began shooting AK-47 rifles in an attempt to get the father and son to return to the boat. One bullet hit thirteen-year-old Willem van Tuijl, paralyzing him from the waist down. This resurgency of pirates isn't new. In 1979 pirates killed Lydia Tyngvald after she tried to prevent them boarding her yacht. In 1982 three pirates boarded the Halloways' boat and held the husband captive with a knife to his throat. His wife distracted the pirates with a pistol. He grabbed the gun and shot the one wielding the knife, then killed the other two. Keith Hedley wasn't so lucky. Four years ago he and three friends were asleep on a yacht anchored off Corfu. Four pirates came alongside in a speedboat. He fired at them, but they overpowered him and his friends and then ransacked the yacht. Greek police, alerted by the shots, came to investigate. In the ensuing gun battle, Hedley was killed and the pirates escaped. Merchant seamen also find themselves at the mercy of pirates. In November 1998, pirates hijacked the Cheung Son near Hong Kong. After binding and gagging the 23 crew members, the pirates shot them and weighted down their bodies before dumping them overboard. The ship and its cargo of iron ore disappeared. Then last December Chinese police arrested 38 pirates after discovering photographs of the pirates celebrating aboard the Cheung Son. In January, a court found six of the pirates not guilty, and sentenced 13 to death, one to life in prison, and the remainder received sentences of one to twelve years. Four days later, the 13 were executed.
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Arrr, Cindy! Them dastardly scrimshanks be a chestful of unskivvered scoundrels, they be! Those motherless free-bootin' ne'er-do-wells desarve nothin' less than a good keel haulin, or a quick as whisk
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Few people are aware that maritime piracy is a significant problem today. I wrote this series in hopes that more people would become aware of the problem facing mariners throughout the world.Glad
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When I saw your title, I thought the "piracy of today" would refer to electronic or computer theft in some way. I did not realize piracy on ships was still going on as you have described. Fascinating
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-- posted by suzannemhill
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