Hey there any of you all heard anythign about that show on the History channel about the real pirates of the caribbbean? I recently caught sometyhing about it, and it kind of details the real “Black beard” and everything. I never knew they really existed, should be good for all of us Pirates fans. Has anyone heard about it??
You never knew Blackbeard really existed?
The guy’s real name was Edward Teach (spellings varied), and he was probably born in Bristol around 1680. He started pirating off the coast of South Carolina in 1717. In 1718, he applied for and received a pardon, and settled down in the town of Bath, North Carolina. Later that year, he started pirating again from a base on Ocracoke Island, NC. The governor of Virginia got tired of the piracy, and outfitted ships which attacked and killed him.
Modern pirates are found off the coast of Somalia, & off Indonesia’s Straights of Malacca.
And their numbers are growing.
2003 was a huge growth year for piracy, & it has grown every year thereafter.
Pirates have attacked cargo ships, cruise ships, fishing boats & container vessels.
They use RPGs, missile launchers, & machine guns.
They have strong ties to Somali Warlords & Al Qida.
They are not heroic, nor romantic, in the least.
They are the vermin of the sea.
Do they at least have eyepatches? Or parrots?
No, they’re fresh outta those, all they have is violent, agonizing death. :rolleyes:
The US Navy and some other countries are starting to rally go after the African coast pirates. Pretty recently a pirate ship and her crew were captured after attempting to take on a Destroyer.
Having had a life long love for pirates I have to say I’m shocked that their real life existence isn’t common knowledge.
Similarly-
Growing up in Montana I honestly had a bit of a fit when people would ask me if HBOs Deadwood was based on real people. See, I was taught about Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, Deadwood and the Black Hills in HISTORY class.
And the latest outrage from Somalia–
The old Pirates of the Caribbean were real, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Caribbean
But did they sing the song?
Wait, could you clear one thing up? You didn’t know that there really was a pirate named Blackbeard? Or you really didn’t know that pirates in general exsisted? Because if it’s the second one, no offense, but that’s some pretty staggering ignorance.
And that, Sir, is what we’re here for. 
Yeah yeah yeah, historical pirates were a bunch of rotten bastards too. So what? Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a good pirate movie.
There are better & cheaper ALTERNATIVES.
Soon, merchant ships will need to be armed, to survive.
the real Blackbeard is quoted as having said that he would every so often kill one of his crew, just so they would remember who he was.
I can’t help imagining that he said this on purpose, in the hope that his life story would be played out later with Gary Oldman or possibly Alan Rickman in the lead role.
Of course Blackbeard was real. His widow supposedly still haunts the isles of shoal to this day.
Side question:
How would the concept of pirates have started if there weren’t actually any pirates? Someone sat down and invented a whole profession, with its own mannerisms and gear. Are there any literary examples of something like this?