But first – a primer on sailing ships, from someone who knows absolutely nothing about them. Enjoy.
Barb and I will be on a sailing ship for part of this trip, really a yacht with five masts that can also sail. Technically, she is a staysail schooner. A stay sail “is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit, or to another mast.”
So that’s clear to all us non-sailors, isn’t it?
Here's a picture of stay sails (in red).
A schooner is a class of ship defined by it’s rig (it’s arrangement of masts, sails and rigging).
There is an incredibly large number of sailing ships of different types often defined by the number of masts and the type of sails. The most common sailing ships of the “Golden Age of Piracy” (think Pirates of the Caribbean”) were sloops, schooners, brigantines, English frigates and Spanish galleons. Naturally, the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean is none of those but a hybrid vessel. A combination of an East Indiaman and galleon, a type of ship that appears to only exist in Hollywood (but I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong about that.)
History of Piracy (on the high seas).
Usually when people think of piracy they think of a very specific place and time period; the Caribbean between 1630 and about 1722, but of course piracy existed in other places and well before the 1600’s.
The first recorded instance of piracy was in the 14th century BCE in the Mediterranean Sea. For a few centuries the Greeks considered piracy a legitimate profession. Apparently kidnapping women and children and selling them into slavery was OK, but Zeus forbid anyone get caught drinking milk, that was such a taboo they killed the animal and flogged the drinker.
Piracy continued in the Mediterranean well after the Greeks. The Romans had numerous problems with pirates. Pirates kidnapped a very young Julius Caesar in 75BCE and held him for a short time until a ransom was paid. Pirates remained a menace until the Romans were finally able to eradicate most of them in in 66BCE. But the problems never entirely went away as pirates were a constant supplier of slaves to the Roamn empire. They just learned not to attack vessels that were under Roman protection.
Piracy continued in the Med until the early 19th century, although much of the piracy of the period was actually state sponsored (I’m looking at you Barbary pirates, particularly Barbarossa). Piracy continued throughout the 20th century; the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was active through the early 1980s, but unlike other parts of the world, piracy in the Med was very rare in the 2000s and more likely to be related to gang wars. The last instance I can find happened in 2014, BUT that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
Which brings me to the point of today’s blog.
If our ship, with its 300 passengers and 200 crew should be taken over by pirates I feel that there is a strong possibility someone amongst the passengers will take control of the situation, infiltrate the pirates, and take them down using a particular set of skills, (much like Liam Neeson) over the course of a single evening. I want to point that this would not be John McClane style because it will be June, not December and, once and for all, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
In order for our hero to infiltrate the pirate gang he or she will need to be disguised. For that reason, I am sure you’ll agree with me when I tell Barb that it is NOT unreasonable for me to pack an eye patch, stuffed parrot and fake wooden leg in my luggage. One must be prepared!
Arrgh, until next time my matey’s.