12 Facts About Piracy

1.

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods.

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2.

Piracy was practiced by foreign seafarers on a smaller scale, including Chinese, Japanese, and European traders, renegades, and outlaws.

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3.

Piracy became the last major target of the international anti-piracy operations.

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4.

Piracy saw a brief resurgence between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and around 1720, as many unemployed seafarers took to piracy as a way to make ends meet when a surplus of sailors after the war led to a decline in wages and working conditions.

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5.

Piracy's flagship was a captured French slave ship known originally as La Concorde, he renamed the frigate Queen Anne's Revenge.

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6.

Piracy felt cheated and had it broken up to match what they received.

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7.

Piracy's patron was Queen Elizabeth I, and their relationship ultimately proved to be quite profitable for England.

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8.

Section 2 of the Piracy Act 1837 creates a statutory offence of aggravated piracy.

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9.

Book "Archbold" said that in a case that does not fall within section 2 of the Piracy Act 1837, the penalty appears to be determined by the Offences at Sea Act 1799, which provides that offences committed at sea are liable to the same penalty as if they had been committed upon the shore.

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10.

Piracy was redefined as a felony during the reign of Henry VIII.

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11.

Piracy is of note in international law as it is commonly held to represent the earliest invocation of the concept of universal jurisdiction.

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12.

Sources on the economics of piracy include Cyrus Karraker's 1953 study Piracy was a Business, in which the author discusses pirates in terms of contemporary racketeering.

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