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This site is designed to give summaries of the lives of the historical pirates, privateers, and buccaneers mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries through small biographies, a pirate flag display, and also a list of some of the known pirate ships and their captains.
Although "pirate," "privateer," and "buccaneer" may often seem to be
used interchangeably to describe a person, there are differences between the terms. A pirate was someone who performed any unauthorized act of robbery on the high seas; a privateer was someone who was licensed by a government to attack enemy ships (technically during wartime only); a buccaneer was initially someone who fought particularly the Spanish in the South America/Caribbean area (the Spanish Main). The term buccaneer later was used to describe both pirates and privateers. This collection of pirates and privateers known collectively as buccaneers formed somewhat of a fraternity called the Brethren of the Coast.
The differences between the terms sometimes is confusing,![Spanish pieces of eight [pesos]](Booty1.gif)
especially since different countries might consider a person to be one of the three terms while another country another of the three. For example, Sir Henry Morgan was considered a pirate to the Spanish, but since he was legally authorized to attack them by order of England, he was considered a respected privateer to the English. Although he still fought the Spanish even when there was not a war between the countries....
Pirate visitors since April 24, 1999
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