Portal:Piracy

Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan from Piratas de la America (1681) by Alexandre Exquemelin

Sir Henry Morgan (Welsh: Harri Morgan; c. 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as they did so. With the prize money and loot from the raids, Morgan purchased three large sugar plantations on Jamaica.

Much of Morgan's early life is unknown; he was born in an area of Monmouthshire that is now part of the city of Cardiff. It is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how the Welshman began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the late 1650s during the Anglo-Spanish War. Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica; as diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, or a licence, to attack and seize Spanish vessels. Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto del Príncipe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (now Portobelo in modern Panamá). In 1668, he sailed for Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Gibraltar, on Lake Maracaibo; he plundered both cities before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. (Full article...)

Aerial surveillance of Maersk Alabama on 9 April

On 8 April 2009, four pirates in the Somali Basin seized the Danish/U.S. cargo ship Maersk Alabama at a distance of 240 nautical miles (440 km; 280 mi) southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on April 12. At the time of the hijacking, Maersk Alabama was owned by the Danish shipping company Maersk Line. The ship has since been acquired by Element Shipmanagement SA and has been renamed MV Tygra. As of 2025, the ship is still in active service.

The incident was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the U.S. flag since the early 19th century. Many news reports cited the last pirate seizure as being during the Second Barbary War in 1815, although other incidents are believed to have occurred until at least 1822. It was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates, who had previously extorted ransoms of tens of millions of dollars. The story of the incident was reported by Captain Richard Phillips, who had been master of the vessel at the time of the incident, in the 2010 book A Captain's Duty, which he co-wrote with Stephan Talty. The book was later adapted as the U.S. 2013 film Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks. (Full article...)

• ... that Pixel Piracy's developers released a free torrent of their game?
• ... that the developers of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number suggested that Australian customers pirate their game?
• ... that a search engine for pirated books has been used to train large language models?
• ... that HMS Redpole, one of the aptly-named coffin brigs, sank in an action with a pirate vessel in August 1828?
• ... that Queen Eschiva and her children were kidnapped by the pirate Kanakes after her husband put a bounty on him?
• ... that a Dutch publisher pirated the first four volumes of Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality, then hired the author to write more?

• ... that in the Golden Age of Piracy, the word "pirate" was often spelled "pyrate" or "pyrat"?
• ... that, unlike traditional Western societies of the time, many pirate clans operated as limited democracies, demanding the right to elect and replace their leaders?
• ... that there is only one account of walking the plank?