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iracy has been in rhe news a lor larely, and we're nor ral king abour a Disney movie. Our fascinarion wirh pirares goes back hundreds of years, ro rhe rime of Blackbeard and Caprain Kidd . Blackbeard, whose real nam e was Edward Teach (or Tharch), and C aprain W illiam Kidd were real people who plundered rhe seas in the la re 1600s and early 1700s. Today, real pirates are srill wreaking havoc at sea. A pirate wo uldn't be a pirare wirhour ships ro raid, so access ro busy shipping lanes is a musr. In rhe l 7 rh- and l 8rh cenruries, pirares hung our in rhe Caribbean Sea, especially no rrh of Hispaniola (whar is now rhe D ominican Republic and H airi), where Spanish and Brirish ships regularly sailed, carrying valuable cargos ro and from th eir colo nies in rhe Caribbean and rhe Americas. Today, som e of rhe busiesr shipping lanes are in rhe Red Sea and rh e Indian O cean, where commercial ships are rraveling berween Europe, Asia, and back
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ro rhe Unired Srares by going rhrough rhe Suez Canal or around rhe rip of Africa (check our rhe map on page 19). In rhe las r few years, modern-day pirares have been purring ro sea from rhe east African country of Somalia, chasing and capruring ships rraveling off rheir coasr. They are seeking money by raking ships and rheir crews hostage and demanding a hefry ransom. Until recendy, rhis racric has been very successful. Shipping companies, faced wirh rhe potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars and the lives of rheir crews, have been paying rhese ransoms. In recenr years, Somalian pirares have broughr home rens of millions of dollars a year ro a counrry where rhe average citizen earns just $600 a year. Solving rhe 2 l sr-cemury pirate pro blem is mo re complicared rhan simply sending rhe navy rhere ro p ro recr ships and batde the pirates ar sea. Like any problem,
Somali pirates held the ship Faina and her crew hostage for more than four months before they received $3.2 million in ransom money.
the real way ro fix it is ro look at what is causing it rather than jusr rhe symp ro ms. And rhar is what our gove rnmenr and rhe governmenrs of o rher counrries aro und rhe world whose ships are in danger are working hard ro solve right now.
Pirate cruising grounds in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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In rhe m eanrime, rhere's not much harm in having fun warching make-believe pi ra re movies and saying "Arrrr matey'' on "Talk Like a Pirate D ay" (Sepre mber 19th), jusr as long as we undersrand rhat real pirates are criminals, who steal ships and threaten the sailors who operate them. For more on modern piracy, read rhe arricle on pages 18-21 in this issue. J,
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GLOSSARY: buccaneer, corsair, sea rogue, and freebooter are all synonyms for pira'Ee. A privateer was differenr. A privateer was given permi ssio n, a "letter of marque," by his government to raid the shipping o f a country w ith whom they were at war.
01- - - - - SEA HISTORY 127, SUMMER 2009