A brief history of pirates, with emphasis on the centuries-long rivalry between
the Cookes and the Hoods:
Piracy is as old as the art of transportation by water. The first Phoenician
boatmen feared pirates even more than they did resentful sea gods, vicious sea
monsters, and spiteful giant sea rocks who ganged up to crush ships—a common
nemesis, if Phoenician maritime annals are to be believed.
But it was not until the Sixteenth Century, and the onset of transatlantic
imperialism, that piracy entered the realm of common dinnertime topic.
“Imperialism,” in that day, meant countless Spanish galleons returning home
along the “Spanish Main” listing from tons of gold stolen (or, according to some
Spanish sources, received as part of fair business transactions) from the Aztecs
and Incas.
The growing number of sailors in turn stealing the stolen gold problem became
for all of the Colonial Empires. According to British Royal Navy, in 1563, there
were four hundred such pirates known to be sailing the Four Seas, and the number
was increasing daily. In naval service, as well as on merchant ships, pay was
poor and rations worse. The menu consisted solely of cold hardtack biscuits
accompanied by salt beef, salt pork or salt fish—called “Hairy Willy.” But it
was the puny ration of grog (rum diluted with water to stretch supplies) that
irked the men most of all, and ranked among their chief motivations for going
“on the account” (pirate for “pirating”
. Ironically, many of these men had
enlisted in the Navy in hope that the very same grog limit, as well as the job’s
regular hours and strenuous exercise, might provide an asylum for their alcoholism.
Then there were the conditions. Hard work was the least of it. On overcrowded
man o’ wars—frequently crewed by five hundred—space was so limited that a man
could scarcely move without brushing against another. Something as simple as how
a man gargled could, over time, so grate on a shipmate’s nerves that no one
would be shocked if the gargler “fell overboard” on a dark night, never to be
found. On the infrequent occasions the men were given the respite of sleep, they
had to do so in hammocks eighteen inches wide, to a lullaby of the snoring of
dozens of others who hadn’t bathed in months and were crammed side to side and
above and below one another. On hot nights, the hammocks proved veritable frying
pans. On cold, the men longed for the hot.
Many more sailors suffered—though they likely wouldn’t have put is as
such—psychologically. The frequent summons of “All hands witness punishment
ahoy!” sent a shudder through all but the stoutest of hearts. Incessant
floggings made many sailors feel like beasts, rather than men. And the long
lists of rules made the sailors who still felt like men feel like children. Most
man o’ war captains forbade the sordid game of draughts (checkers).
As consequence of all this, many a cold nasty night was warmed by tales of
pirate voyages to places where the weather was fair, the water easy and the
lasses both fair and easy. Furthermore, there was tobacco, grub aplenty, and
rivers of grog, and the only time quarters were cramped was because they were
stacked starboard to larboard with gold doubloons.
Others, for whom grub and lasses held less appeal, found themselves persuaded to
go on the account simply by the increasing occupational hazard of being an
honest sailorman. For instance, between 1569 and 1616, nearly five hundred
British ships were captured by the Barbary pirates, who cut the throats of those
captives deemed not worth the trouble of feeding and transporting to the slave
market. It is due to such practices, some historians theorize, that the term
“barbarian” came to mean more than simply a native of Barbary.
piratesofpensacola.com/id6.html
blog.tripod.lycos.com/
.......................................................................
www.chem.uni.wroc.pl/8_Trzec.htm
))
grype mialem wracam do swiata, zbliza sie teczka z ipnu,wiec napiecie rosnie..
ale bez przesady...w koncu sa pozytywne zmiany...
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