Views: 22
It was all very well pocketing other people’s valuables and roistering at rum parties, but life on a pirate ship involved a surprising amount of hard work. Pirates were first and foremost sailors and in the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730), a pirate ship required a great deal of skill to operate and constant maintenance to keep afloat.
Indeed, pirates had to be remarkably good seamen if they were to ever catch fleeing merchant vessels and escape the unwanted attentions of heavily-armed naval vessels. From captain to rigger, each crew member played their part in the complex performance of tasks that kept a 17/18th-century sailing ship in trim.
The Capitano
The captain of a pirate ship was very often the arch-criminal brains of the pirate operations. He might also have been the one who had put up the capital to buy the ship or been its legitimate captain or a high-ranking officer on a privateering vessel before the crew had decided to take to a life of piracy.
HAVING A NICE LONG COAT & PLENTY OF PRICEY PISTOLS SHOWED THAT ONE WAS A SUCCESSFUL LEADER OF PIRATES.
Perhaps surprisingly for a gang of cut-throats, a pirate captain was frequently elected to his position, but then again, it was difficult to lead through coercion a group of individuals who valued their liberty above all else.
The position of captain might not be permanent either, since sailors who had mutinied once before were not shy to do so again. Charles Vane (d. 1721) was relieved of his command for failing to attack a ship as his crew had wished and was replaced by ‘Calico Jack‘ (aka John Rackham, d. 1720).
Read more on the crew of a Pirateship on the World History.org article.
