In the early 1800s, after the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, it was obvious that nations needed secure sea lanes to trade with one another. It was also obvious that taxes should be paid for imports. The large nations of the world and their navies ran down the pirates and hanged them. There were still sea outlaws here and there piracy goes on in remote parts of the world today. But modern piracy is the business of large corporations, not little crews of discontented sailors who promise to abide by their own sea rules.Even when piracy flourished, it was a risky profession. Life aboard a ship was unhealthy. Germs had not been discovered yet, and often half a vessel's crew might die of typhoid, just because they didn't wash their hands. (Let this be a lesson to you.) In the tropics, thousands died of malaria and yellow fever. Some pirates died by drowning (very few could swim) or in common shipboard accidents. A large number died from sexually transmitted diseases. Pirates who died in battles were rare, but not as rare as old pirates.
The schooners and their crews have all been quiet laid to rest, A little south the sunset In the Islands of the Blest.
THE GIBBET was worse than death for most pirates. After a condemned pirate had been hanged, his body was tarred to preserve it, then placed in its own specially made gibbet, a chain-and-iron cage that held the bones together and prevented friends from taking the body for burial. It would hang for years as a harsh example of piracy's reward.
BLACKBEARD'S HEAD Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia hated Blackbeard. He requested a special expedition against the infamous pirate. In 1718 two sloops-of-war tracked down Blackbeard's vessel, Queen Anne's Revenge, in a shallow inlet. Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard attacked. After a long duel, and after being shot more than six times, the pirate was killed. His head was cut off and hung at the yardarm of Maynard's sloop on the return voyage. Governor Spotswood could, at last, sleep easily.
OLD PIRATES were rare. shipwreck, and battles killed They were too old to sail, all their loot and their shipmates were dead. Old pirates would have been a pitiful lot. But what stories they must have told.
