I just remembered a fascinating History Channel documentry I saw a while back concerning piracy in the 18th century. Apparently, some pirate ships put to gether constitutions governing the rules and regulations of the crew. Pirates even developed forms of workers comp, distributing gold or loot to an injured comrade. I found this interesting, simply because it overturns the stereotypical view of pirates as cut-throat and callous.
At least they cared about their own. But that seems to be about it... I don't imagine they cared a lot about the crewmen on the ships they attacked. But I guess they're human too, and weren't totally empty inside.
yea we have class too. my crew has a firm set of rules. but we are no where near the "modern" pirates. they all have guns and fast boats. we still do it the old fashion ways. get a boat (hurricane wrecks or left alone for a while) we usually spot the ones we want, take it and live on it for a while. we lways have knifes/machetes handy too. just in case well im done with my rambling. but yes, we have rules
That's interesting, I'm not too surprised... I'd like to be a pirate and seize large cruise ships full of yuppies and such :X
Viking pirates had similar financial arrangements. There is a connection between these contracts and limited government. The crews expected their leader to be have limited power. This carried over when those pirates became conquerors and the leaders became kings. The king did not have unlimited power.
One of the most famous cases is about Hanseatic pirates in the Baltic Sea. Stoertebekker was a contacted German pirate from Luebeck who captured Swedish and Danish vessels. He was officially given a letter of dispensation signed by the Guild Fathers from Luebeck and Hamburg to capture vessels on their behalf during the trade wars between the Hanseatic League and the Scandinavian Crown. The pirates were known as the Victual Brothers, because the ships and money were handed over to the Hansa, but the pirates were allowed to keep the looted personal goods from the Scandinavian seamen and their food stores (victuals). The pirates were also known as Likkedeelers (Like-a-dealers) because they all received a "contract" of how much bounty each seaman was allowed to retain according to his rank.
