Articles of Piracy

Pirates, lived by codes. Articles were drawn up and the whole crew signed them in agreement, Captains were elected, and rules followed. Typically the Articles were a hold over from Privateering. See that section for an explanation between this fine distinction.

The articles were drawn up by the crew, and everyone would then sign the contract that bound the ship together. The following is an example of the Articles of Piracy. These were the articles used by the ship Revenge which was commanded by Captain John Phillips.

These articles are typical of the laws that pirate crews would agree to. In the movie The Black Swan, there is an episode where Tyrone Powers discusses articles. As in real life, the articles in the movie stressed primarily the division of Booty.

Article One Every man shall obey civil command; the captain shall have on full share and a half in all prizes. the Master, Carpenter, Boatswain, and Gunner shall have one share and quarter.

Article Two If any man shall offer to run away, or keep any secret from the Company, he shall be marroon'd with one bottle of powder, one bottle of Water, one small Arm, and shot.

Article Three If any Man shall steal any Thing in the Company, or game, to the value of a piece of Eight, he shall be Marroon'd or shot.

Article Four If at any Time we should meet at another Marrooner (that is, Pyrate) that man shall sign his Articles without Consent of our Company, shall suffer such Punishment as the Captain and Company shall think fit.

Article Five That a man that shall strike another, whilst these Articles are in force, shall receive Moses's Law (that is 40 Stripes lacking one) on the bare Back.

Article Six That Man that shall snap his Arms, or smoak Tobacco in the Hold, without cap to his Pipe, or carry a candle lighted without lanthorn, shall suffer the same Punishment as in the former Article.

Article Seven That Man that shall not keep his Arms clean, fit for an Engagement, or neglect his Business, shall be cut off from his Share, and suffer such other Punishment as the Captain and Company shall think fit.

Article eight If any man shall lose a joint in time of Engagement, shall have 400 Pieces of Eight: if a limb, 800.

Article Nine If at any time you meet with a prudent Woman, that Man that offers to meddle with her, without her Consent, shall suffer Death.

The Captain One thing for sure about pirates is they didn't like authority. The Navy ships of the various countries were usually commanded by the privileged class, not necessarily because of any inherent skill but just because that was the way it was done. Sailor in the regular navy were often treated miserably by their Captains. Pirates would have nothing to with this.

Contrary to the book Treasure Island, Most Captains didn't command by an iron fist, they commanded because of skill, daring, and the ability to win prize and booty. The Pirate ship elected its Captain through a vote. If the Captain fell in disfavor The crew were just as quick as quick to maroon their captain, or throw him overboard, or perhaps if he were lucky they would just let him off at the nearest port.

But it is safe to assume that if a Captain had a bad cruise with little to show for it and the end of it, it would be difficult for him to raise a new crew in the future.

In any event, the Captain never had the last say, except perhaps in the midst of battle. In fact at certain times, the Captain had no more power than every other pirate on board. When not in battle or preparing to fight, quite often the Quartermaster might actually be in charge of the ship.

Important matters such as where the ship might sail, or rather or not to put into port, or if a certain ship should be engaged and so on, were quite often not up to the Captain. These pressing details were decided by vote, with the majority ruling. If the Captain were to go against the vote, then he too would be in violation of the Articles of Piracy, and would most likely step down from command and new leader would be chosen.

  Quartermaster The Quartermaster, depending on the circumstance was the second in charge of a pirate ship. His main purpose was to distribute things. He distributed, rations, powder, work, prize, and punishment.

Pirate didn't trust authority and therefore saw no reason to let all the power of a ship rest on one man. Therefore they split the power between, the Captain, who led the ship in battle, and navigated the ship, and the Quartermaster, who usually led the way on any boarding party, and kept custody of all prize or booty. The Quartermaster also determined what prize was worth taking.

As expected all gold, silver, or coin was taken, but beyond that, it was the quartermaster who decided what else was worth taking. He made his decisions based on time on how much room the ship had. If the ship was already cramped, spices and exotic materials may be burned rather that stolen.

The quartermaster would also watch over the treasure until it was divided among the crew. It was also the quartermaster who did the dividing, with the crew's supervision. There was rarely a dispute about how the loot was divided, however.

The quartermaster was also the only man who could dole out punishment. Even then, any many instances the crew would take a vote first. The captain could order punishment but only the quartermaster could administer it, which made it the will of at least two before any punishment was given.

The quartermaster also settled individual quarrels and if need be, acted as a witness to any duels, to insure that duels were fair and just.

Finally, on some ships, except when in battle the quartermaster might actually hold a position above the captain, especially in matters of punishment and rations.

  First Mate On most ships, the First Mate is the officer who ranks just below the Captain of the ship and takes over in the event that the Captain can no longer perform his duties. Some pirate ships may have had first mates and most Privateers would definitely have a first mate but for the most part this function was filled by the quarter master.

  Boatswain (bos ´n) Among the crews were several skilled seamen who kept the ship afloat or kept the crew in place. The Boatswain was one of them. Boatswains are junior officers who handled specific tasks on board ship. A boatswain may be in charge of the ships rigging and another one may be in charge of the deck crews. Still another boatswain may be in charge of the anchoring of the ship. Depending on the size of the crew a boatswain may be in charge of several different tasks on board the ship. They answer to the captain and or the Quartermaster depending on the task at hand. Contrary to the movies they do more than blow a silver whistle

  Carpenter A ship's carpenter was the man who kept the ship afloat, making necessary repairs, filling holes if need be, and so on. Carpentry was an extremely useful skill onboard ship and good carpenters were highly valued.

  Gunner Gunners were skilled men who aimed the guns on a ship. In some instances a master gunner would give orders to other gunners on how to set their guns during a broadside. It took years of practice to become a good gunner.

  Surgeon Surgeons were highly valued among pirates and when pirates captured ships they would often press surgeons into service. A surgeon was typically the only person kept on board who was not required to sign articles. Depending on the nature of the crew some surgeons were paid even if they refused to sign on.

If a surgeon wasn't handy, then the crew would often elect someone with an inkling of knowledge to act as surgeon. On at least one account, the carpenter was elected the ship's surgeon, because the carpenter had the necessary tools needed to amputate limbs and knew how to cut quickly. At other times a cook might also be employed but cooks were normally considered less skillful at cutting than carpenters. (Cooks weren't butchers and had little training. Typically they were crew members assigned to work the galley who managed to make edible food.)

  Powder Monkey Powder Monkey was a British naval term used to describe the young boys who made up the gun crews. The term dates from the 1600s. Many powder monkeys were probably pressed into service, being kidnapped by press gangs and forced to serve aboard ship. Often the powder monkeys were young lads no more than eleven to thirteen years old. They mainly assisted the gun crews and learned most of the ships basics but were paid little (if anything), treated poorly, and were expendable. If they managed to live a few years, they might eventually make it to a position of more importance on the ship. Often, due to their harsh life, powder monkeys were quick to sign articles and desert a ship. On a pirate ship, new comers would serve the function of powder monkeys.

  Cabin Boy The cabin boy is typically a young boy of privileged birth who is sent to sea to learn the maritime trade. Typically the cabin boy waits upon the officers of the ship. In some instances he may act as the Captain's servant. The cabin boy will run messages and errands for the officers, prepare their uniforms, perhaps even fetches their dinner. Because he is an apprentice of sorts, he is also expected to learn all aspects of the maritime trade. The cabin boy works long hard hours. Even on pirate ships, the captain might employ a young energetic fellow as a cabin boy.

Battle Strategy

Some very basic concepts:

One thing to remember, Pirates did not attack man-o-wars with sloops. They attacked lightly armed merchants ships with sloops. Pirate did not attack unless they had the upper hand. If they didn't think they were going to win, they didn't engage.

The process of attack could be relatively simple. The pirates would come up from the bow or stern at an angle to prevent the merchants from engaging with the side guns and give a signal that if they were shot at, they would take no prisoners. It was then up to the merchant to determine if it was bluff or a serious threat.

Two sides of the same coin:
One reason a merchant would fight is if the pirates had a reputation of torturing the crew no matter if they fought or not. A reason they may not fight is because the pirates did not torture the crew unless they put up a fight.

If the merchant thought he out-gunned the pirates he may call their bluff and fight the pirates, which may lead to a pirate retreat or a slaughter of the merchant crew.

If the merchant knew he was outnumbered, he may allow his ship to be boarded in order to spare his crew. If the merchant captain feared a mutiny among his crew for engaging a fight with the pirates he may also back down and take his chances. Many things figured into why a merchant would not fight off the pirates. It is almost a given that if the pirates were outgunned, they would run and not attack. Pirates were looking for easy pickings, not an early death.

Remember that while the pirates may have had a sloop, they would also have a large crew and possibly more guns than the merchant ship they attacked.

You must also remember that the merchant crews were not necessarily well paid and may not care to fight for cargo that they did not own. Thus the captain may have a very unreliable crew when it came to fighting for his property.

The pirates relied more on fear and distrust than on cannons when it came to taking on their opponents.

Every inch of a sailing ship would be occupied with the necessities of the voyage and every item onboard would need to be carefully stowed to prevent the cargo from moving about. If the cargo were to shift, then a the ship could easily cap-size.

Let's start at the bottom of the ship and work our way up. Between the bottom of the deck and the hull would be a space that was partially filled with stone or ballast. This area was the bilge. No matter how well a ship is constructed, water always tends to seep in. That water works its way down to the ships lowest level (the bilge) and collects there. This water brings in micro organism which die and rot in the bilge. This causes the water to turn foul which in turn leads to a horrible sewage like odor. If it were allowed to remain there, it would so weaken the bottom of the ship, that it would rot out. Thus all ships have bilge pumps which try to remove all the water from the bilge. On occasions, such as rough seas or storms, the bilge pump would be manned constantly. If it were not manned, the water would eventually fill more than just the bilge.

Manning the bilge pump was not a fun job. On many ships it would have been given as a punishment detail or given to the junior most member of the crew. The same could be the case on a pirate ship. On some ships, the bilge may have been done in shifts. The seaman who were worked the bilge pump as punishment were called bilges or bilge rats. Today the word "bilgy" means worthless and can be traced back to what most of the crew thought of the persons assigned to the bilge pump.

The sailor also had plenty of stowaways onboard the ship. Rats, fleas, and poisonous spiders and scorpions were common interlopers on ships that traveled between the Spanish Main and Europe. Fleas were inescapable. They would live within the canvas, and hide within the cracks and crevices of the the ship.

Food had to be brought on board for passengers and crew. Grains and flour were often stored in the lower hold and the rats would often feed better than the sailors. A major problem with rats and mice is they breed quickly, so once the infestation begins, it is almost impossible to stop it. The rats gnaw on the wood of the ships, the ropes, the food, and even the sailors. It was not uncommon for sailors to go on rat hunting trips to try and kill the vermin. On at least one occasion, a Spanish galleon reported killing over 4,000 rats in just one voyage from the Caribbean to Europe.

Often fresh fruits and vegetables, would be brought on board for food en route. Bundles of wood, for fire, would also be brought along. All of these items would also bring spiders and scorpions with them. Much of the food would rot along the way, and would just add to the odors on board.

Livestock would also be brought on board to give the sailors some fresh meat on the way. Most of this meat would be reserved for the officers on regular vessels, but it would be shared among pirate crews. But this was not the common food of the day. Most of the time, the sailors would live on hard-tack and dried meat. Hard tack is a hard cracker made of water, and flour (and sometimes a little lard). The dried meat was usually smoked pork, horse, or beef. The typical ration was about 25 ounces (@700 grams) of hard-tack and 9 ounces (@250 grams)of meat for the entire day. (Imagine working 16 hours a day and only getting about 2 1/4 pounders hamburgers patties and a super-sized order of french fries. Now imagine that food being smashed as flat as possible and served cold. This is your entire breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day. It would be about the same amount of food, but it would still taste better than what the sailor was eating and would also have more nutrition!)

Water was usually on short supply. A sailor might get about 1 quart (1 liter) a day of water. It was not uncommon for the water to go bad. This is why there was so much beer and rum on board ships. It was to make the water taste better and last longer. Beer, ale, and mead would all last longer than water because of the alcohol. Rum would be added to the water to help kill disease. Sailors would actually be allowed to drink more rum and beer than than water.

Looking for a place to sleep? Sometimes, only the captain had a cabin and that meant only the captain had a bunk or bed. A sailor would look for anyplace on board to find a spot to sleep. Perhaps he would lay down on some sack of wheat or perhaps he'd just find a spot where water wasn't seeping through the timbers.

If that wasn't bad enough, eventually "nature" would call. Typically a sailor would use the "jardines" which was French for "gardens". Typically the jardines were near the bow of the ship. These were holes cut in a board. The sailor would lower his trousers and sit on the hole and deposit his waste in the sea. There was no privacy.

Of course everyone, even the most hardened sailor would have to visit the rail due to sea-sickness. Considering the food was often bad as was the water, most sailors would come down with food poisoning as well as other gastrointestinal ailments. If you didn't get sea-sick, you were the rare sailor.

All in all, life on board ship was harsh. If you weren't working hard you were bored beyond belief. Sailor would often sing shanties to pass the time while working or board. The songs often contained lyrics that were anything but politically correct. Many have been passed down through the ages and still exist today.

With such a harsh and dreary life, one may wonder why anyone would ever go to sea. The answer is quite simple. Many sailors were pressed into service. This is a nice way of saying drafted. In reality they were kidnapped in the middle of the night and forced to serve on a ship. For others, life on land was just as harsh and some times even more harsh than that on the sea. The sea life, at least offered the possibility of escape from the dreariness of the day to day routines.

Sailors would turn to piracy often in an attempt to further escape this miserable existence.