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(This transcript sucks right now but we'll fix it eventually - probably.)
Transcript Sfx
[0:05] Ahoy there listeners.
[0:10] Ahaha, this be Danny boy.
[0:13] And this be Ashes Ashes, a show about cracks in civilization, collapse of the environment, and if we're lucky - a whole load of booty.
[0:25] If we learn from all of this, maybe we can turn this ship around.
Sorry sorry about that David I think I swallowed a bug there for a minute. :
[0:38] Getting a little carried away and we haven't even started yet.
[0:41] All right let's do this. During the Golden Age of piracy between 1650 and 1730 Pirates could be said to represent one side of a dichotomy of Terror between those who ruled and those who were the rules.
[0:56] On the one hand you had the authorities who use Terror to uphold a social order. These are the church the clergyman the monarchs the wealthy the colonial governors. The social order they enforced is one in which their position holds absolute power. In which property is protected and in which the sailors who make up the backbone of the international trade system are kept in subservience to ship captains who employ their labor cheaply to keep profits low into the top of the social order. And Terror that used officials who were hell-bent on eradicating piracy in the early eighteenth Century organized Mass hangings in towns and colonies all over the Atlantic trade system.
[1:40] In London and New York and Boston and Rhode Island South Carolina and Virginia. Also the Bahamas Jamaica Salvador in Brazil and in towns on the coast of Africa and off the coast of Portugal. In an earlier episode David you mentioned the ways in which Pirates were heralded as Heroes by many people and indeed most of these Mass hangings were reinforced by armed guards to prevent locals from rescuing pirates from The Gallows. Officials often hang to pirates of the Jolly Rogers flag and paraded their corpses as a reminder to the people what would happen to them if they chose the pirate's life, of course an extension of this Terror that was carried out with merchant ship captain himself who used the whip various torture, and even murder to discipline Sailors all as necessary tactics for moving Commodities along the conveyor belt of the Atlantic trade system.
[2:35] On the other hand Pirates used tear as well but in the other direction as resistance against the social order the various states of the world were enforcing, some pirate Cruise in Rage by the news of mass hangings retaliated with their own Terror as Blackbeard one stayed by burning Boston ships at the one hanging and it's Bartholomew Roberts did, by capturing the governor's Martinique and island in the Caribbean pirates up by The Gallows Roberts responded by hanging the Governor from his own ship. But generally pirates use Terror directly against the international trade system forcing Merchant ships to surrender their booty and killing anyone who stood in their way, my phone during the prophets and property of the class rulers making a mockery of the various laws of the land achieve it in the way they subversively organize themselves as multiracial Multicultural and a multi-national egalitarian Community Pirates could be said to represent a counterforce against an imperial system that's how to exploit them Steelers, explain the various colonies there was wealth was extracted and accumulated.
[3:37] So this show David is about Pirates if anyone.
[3:41] If you if you hadn't figured it out by now this week isn't exactly our normal topic but it's something fun to enjoy over the holidays and the New Year's so we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did when we were making it.
[3:52] Right and specifically were talking about the early eighteenth Century this was a time when the greatest accumulation of wealth perhaps the world has ever seen will taking place through colonization extraction of natural resources from indigenous people using slave labor and a transfer of that wealth along international trade routes to the Metropolis with powered by underpaid and exploited see labor.
[4:18] This was also a time of worldwide revolt and Revolution as around the world and especially in Western Europe we saw upheaval, as the forces of capital came together and for the very first time started exploding their power over the worker on a scale that had never been seen before this was a time of strikes at the Luddite Revolution that we talked about before the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The beginnings of what we see as capitalism today and sailors as the oppressed working class that enabled a lot of this transfer of wealth of trade across the nations of the exploitation of the new world we're at the very core of a lot of these Revolutions in changes, and in that Spirit They Carried a lot of these ideas of rebellion and a chance for something new book in their very lives and onto the ships that they work everyday.
[5:03] Right and I think that's very important to realize how the structures of the day in Courage piracy and that pirates came from a long tradition of this resistance as we'll talk about later in the episode some of the tools of Labor disputes to this day came from the Sailor class and those associated with this trade system, and the customs and the Traditions even the song that many Pirates carried with them through the community came directly from people who were raised and grew up, in this massive trade system whether that's Bay men on the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula or fishermen in Newfoundland or coal heavers and London, Pirates were perhaps the most memorable coming together of all of these cultures and clashes what is a brief moment in history that spawned all these legends that we now look up to and romanticize through movies and film but along with this romanticisation comes misunderstanding at Times Square healthy perceptions we have of the pirate of this greedy underclass it's just in it for the profit or these vicious people who terrorized everyone around them we see that in a way that's not exactly what the pirate life is all about right there.
[6:12] The pirate's life for me Daniel and why that's the case we'll explore throughout the rest of this episode but maybe we should start with a, of a breakdown of exactly what conditions led to the explosion of piracy in this so-called the Golden Age of piracy that you looted to just a few minutes ago. This is by no means an exhaustive history of piracy and there are very many periods of piracy throughout history it continually comes up and goes down and waves and Ebbs and flows around the world at different times conditions what does reticular. That were talking about the one that we from member in our movies and our stories, is this Caribbean 1710 to 1726 or so. Of piracy what is the Golden Age of piracy in this this was brought on by number of things but one of which and this is often always the case is war.
[7:01] To the time the major Colonial Powers were battling among each other to see who would get the largest amount of, spoils from the exploitation of the new world end and this was consoling ongoing between Spain and England between France between Portugal all these nations were consoling battling between each other and this led to a large War the war of Spanish succession and during this time the English fleet was pumped up to a very large size it had well over 30,000 Sailors and this is in addition to many for the tears which is basically a private pirate what a nation would do is go and find a ship and would offer a bounty for attacking this ships of other nations, and while this was not an official military ship it was sort of a license to kill or pillage or attack, a one nation would Grant to a ship to do to other nations and would fall under the protection of that nation and be paid for those actions.
[7:53] After the war was completed and England found themselves without such a need for all these privateers for the sailors they got rid of everybody that drastically cut down the size of their Navy and no longer employed all these privateers and that created a labor catastrophe in the salad world people were unemployed and what was once a well-paying job, you could live comfortably off of was now something that tens of thousands of people were competing for for very small number of actual ships most of which were on Merchant vessels. And the wages for Steelers plummeted and the conditions on the ships that Sailors tell themselves on we're despicable. As much as realize they didn't need to provide perks on the ships they could do the bare minimum just barely keep their Sailors alive and people were still falling over themselves to work on these ships because the other option was destitution.
[8:41] Is it like you were saying David all these wars came to an end for the most part because these Uniworld Powers realize it. Although they could make money by stealing directly from each other. They can make more money by kind of marking their territory and having this kind of unspoken truce where looks this is my territory this is your territory let's just extract our wealth and leave each other alone at that point the privet ears who then turned pirate became really enemies of all Nations, and it's like that's the name of one of the books that we read for some of the information we got villains of all Nations by Marcus rediker highly recommended. During this time after these wars we have the Golden Age of piracy and specifically 1716 to 1726 all the peak of pirate activity. At least 10 years are over 4,000 Pirates roaming the Seas and they became a major thorn in the side of these Imperial Powers who were using this trade system to grow their empire.
[9:42] When captain of the time estimated at Pirates did more harm to trade in the combined Naval powers of Spain and France during the war of Spanish succession historians act this claim up during the war England lost around 2,000 pesos. But captured as much if not more but after the war Pirates alone captured or plundered close to 2,500 ships sinking over 10% with very little pirate vessels being captured, Bartholomew Roberts crew captured over four hundred vessels alone.
[10:11] Pirate's plunder trade ships for the best Loot and often sink the remains to the Bottom of the Sea but these riches alone could not explain, why so many sailors deserted their post to join pirate ships, the various empires of the time we're dead set on Exterminating the pirate life and so many Pirates were either captured captured and hanged or killed in Conflict within just a year or two of going on the account. Do I take the risk.
[10:39] The famous pirate Captain black Bart Roberts once said no wages and hard labor. In this the pirate life there is plenty and satiety, does your knees Liberty and power and who would not be on this side of the hazard that is run board at Warped is only a block or two at choking. Any means being hanged by that no one shall be my mother.
[11:10] Well done and and that's right it was a better life that many Pirates sauce, on Merchant ships that honest service that black Bart refers to Sailors were beating they were paid little they had terrible food and as many are well-acquainted with today in relation to our modern industrial economy, Sailors had little health and job security they could expect to die early after The Chronic consequences of a hard life at Sea caught up with it.
[11:39] Daniel's not exaggerating in the least bit here once sent to shift out to capture pirates in 1722, when shipped left with 240 men and when it finally came home it have recorded 280 dead Sailors on board. Absolutely rampant among the overworked and under nurse Sailors and it's at the beginning of episode 36 Lisa progress ship captains made up for the high turnover my capture and vulnerable young men in port cities since leaving them on board their vessels, but on pirate ships life could be better if even for a short time sure there was The Wealth of plunder ships but more importantly would Sailors found was a more equal social order what and what's the sick and the injured were actually cared for. Officers were elected not imposed. The plunder was spread equally between all crew members the crew collectively voted on their destinations and targets and all work as comrade in pursuit of common goals and ways of living.
[12:38] Brighten and this is a big theme of the show is the Societies in which Pirates organize themselves and how this social order they represented was so contrary to the authoritarian hierarchical and violet one in which they came from.
[12:52] In fact it was so different from what captains and government officials recognized as the only way of doing things that they look at how people are living aboard pirate ships I saw that anarchy and Chaos because they couldn't wrap their mind over the idea that people can live in a non totally top-down hierarchical system and the way that pirate ships will run was literally on fathom.
[13:13] Yeah and speaking of a more equal social order in which officers were elected. The famous Captain Blackbeard Rose to command a fleet of three vessels and 150 Pirates after his mentor and former Captain Benjamin hornigold was demoted by his own men hornigold turned pirate after being employed as a privateer for the British but he refused to plunder his former British ship allies so is old man took a vote they demoted him and hornigold retire to a peaceful life and Blackbeard took the helm and speaking about The Mists of.
[13:55] Apparently Captain Blackbeard never harmed anyone that his crew captured.
[14:00] And to be fair that's because a lot of pirates employed the Genghis Khan strategy of attack where it's going to surrender. They were more than happy to treat you right it would feed you they would drop you off someplace if you weren't a horrible person will talk on the little bit but any resistance will be met with equal Violence by the pirate.
[14:18] Yeah sure and that's what a lot of people point to is that pirate terrify their enemies but it's also important to point out that the targets of pirate rage, where the commercial merchants or the governor's who mistreated Sailors and who had attacked pirates in the past mini pirate Cruise, like you mentioned voted on on what their mission was and so often they chose to go after in an official because he had hanged a certain number of pirates and there's tons of stories of cruise that capture a vessel, and before they decide what to do with the merchant Captain they line his crew up and they interview the crew so how did your captain treat you, if the crew said he was actually pretty good Captain he treated us honestly he didn't beat us very often they would transport him to a port city and let him go.
[15:08] In some cases they even return the ship to the captain as well as some of their supplies and stuff and sent them on their merry way.
[15:14] Right I think I've came back to bite 1 Crew in the ass where they captured a ship the captain was a kind man to a sailor so they let him go and then he ran home and recruited some Navy ships and went back to capture the pirates that had treated him so nicely but such is the way of life at Sea David.
[15:32] Will you find this in a lot of even just the way that pirates name their ships, show me the names of the ships were the something revenge or the Revenge of something because that's what a pirate so most of what they're like was remember they have been pressed into difficult service serving under these Merchant captain, and at some point is they have been liberated by a pirate or they had mutinied against these cruel captains and they saw themselves as sort of Agents of Vengeance traveling around the Seas and making sure that those who are just well rewarded in this case those captains were good it was in an office supplies in some cases they would even steal new ships to give to Captain for they had actually damage their shifts if it was a quote honest or good man, but what happened was bad when they had mistreated their Cruise when they were cruel and unjust then they would be tortured and ultimately executed in ways that the crew would collectively vote on.
[16:22] Expand a little bit on these anti-authoritarian communities the Pirates created for themselves and here's Walter Kennedy a famous pirate Captain who's who was hanged in 1721 but he was interviewed shortly before his death and he elaborated on this role of authority on a pirate ship. Quote that shows the captain from amongst themselves who in effect.
[16:51] Most of the crew had suffered formally from the ill-treatment of their offices provided carefully against any such evil now they had the choice in themselves, by their orders that provided especially against quarrels which might happen amongst themselves and appointed certain punishments for anything that ended that way put a do execution that are off they constituted other officers besides their captain, so very industrious were they to avoid putting too much power into the hands of one man.
[17:22] It might sound contradictory to have a captain who is both in control and has no Authority but that is how these systems would work, oftentimes a captain with counterbalance by quartermaster who had equal Powers but in different areas, one would look out for the other and then at any point either could be overruled by the crew or even turned out of their position like we met you before work Crews would both their captains down they would become a regular member of the crew and someone else will become captain this was a common way of running the ships everyone had total control over every single moment does not if you were cooking in that if you were captain you would share the responsibility because you are all in the same boat quite literally and that's where that freeze comes from Every Man a captain was the idea that they had on these ships, because they had grown so weary of the abusive a centralized contained Authority, Authority that could be abused they were extremely careful the creepy systems that would prevent that from ever being able to happen because they have the understanding that Authority itself enables corruption. It's not just that corrupt people end up in power but the actual and this is something we've learned today actual, Act of being in charge of others makes changes in your brain physiologically, empathy and makes you more aggressive in many cases it makes it rain resemble more sociopath than a cognitively normal individual. And still having these mechanisms in place where this could be overturned at any point with an important part.
[18:45] Culture and this is something that had happened from both experiences on these cruise with he's abusive Merchant captains but also because of these Pirates themselves were former revolutionaries or radicals that were exiled from these Western Nations during this time with social upheaval found themselves carried off to new colonies as a punishment and then wound up in these Maroons these pirate communities for the ultimately brought these ideas and created this culture thing that we want something different we want to run our lives together without this top-down approach we want to collectively owned our Fates and that was a pirate's life.
[19:18] It's so interesting to me how kind of solves the authority issue where is it you know what you say look we shouldn't have people who are in charge of Our Lives I think the pushback is we do need leadership in certain areas of our life would you need leadership and organization and this is something that the Pirates absolutely recognize this, yes we do need a leader in times of a Chase we do need leaders to take the helm during a battle so that there isn't as much confusion so that orders are clear, you know someone that we can appoint to observe the overall strategy and make decisions but win that chase is done when that battle is over. We're all the same we're all equal the captain sleeps not in his special quarters but just like everyone else on the deck wherever he pleases, he doesn't get any extra food than anyone else and The Spoils of these battles are decided by US based on our contract and based on roles and divvied out by the quartermaster whose role is to disperse that.
[20:20] You mentioned briefly there that the captain would not sleep in the Captain's Quarters it was actually interesting thing that we saw over and over repeated in these pirate ships and was confounding to that Merchant captains that were captured and would spend time on the ships they could understand why this is happening put on the pirate ship people with sleep anywhere they would they would sleep wherever they wanted there were no fixed beds there was no this is my bunk everyone would sleep wherever was convenient oftentimes the captain himself had no bad to sleep and they were forced not to sleep in a bed.
[20:50] This is sort of a way of overcoming the hierarchy that was built into the ships themselves because of when a ship designer is building a ship their used to the way that the military or the merchant class is building a ship, and there's a hierarchy to the way that the quarters on a ship by Design there's the Captain's Quarters there's a larger room for the first made their shared bunks for other people to different decks and a sort of, informal social hierarchy is reinforced by the architecture of the ship itself. And Pirates Bay recognize this fact because they live these lives where this is something that is constantly pressing than the various ship itself that they spend their entire lies on, and instead of saying well you know this is just the way things are this is our environment that is encouraging this way organizing ourselves we're going to resist this we're going to ignore the fact that we're supposed to sleep in these bunks we're going to ignore the fact that there's a Captain's Quarter and we're going to make sure that we collectively treat this ship as our home and that every man is equal with where they sleep how they sleep, and who they sleep with which I guess we'll also get to later.
[21:50] There's a there's a funny story worth highlighting which shows how much these captains truly were at the mercy of their crew, is a captain a pirate Captain named Howell Davis he was a daring Captain he only lasted 11 months before being killed but in that time he captured a great number of vessels, and used charm and trickery to pull off some pretty high-profile kidnappings and rage against West African slave in Fords, in one instance he convinced the commander of such a dork that he and his crew were privateers employed by the Empire and when they were welcomed for dinner, Davis took the commander hastad and plunder two thousand pounds of gold bars and dismantle the castles guns and other defenses. In and I was curious David how much this might be worth today or or, you know it's best we can back the napkin calculate the value of this go to this Pirates if it were today the right now the price of gold is about $1,200 per ounce give or take I'm sure tomorrow to be radically different but two thousand pounds of gold bars which is about 29000 Troy Oz
[23:05] Nice nice.
[23:06] And he pulled off a number of raids like this but despite his bravado even Howell Davis could not pull one over his crew. One night and two other pirate captains that he had Allied himself with decided to go have some fun ashore at Sierra Leone to visit the local brothel but I don't want to go in looking like a bunch of pirates scrubs David they decided to look their best so wanting to look good for these prostitutes they stole some fine clothing from the common shots.
[23:37] Technically they borrowed it without permission.
[23:39] Such as the pirate way right. But when they came back to the ship the crew found out what they had done they ripped the clothing off them the chastise the captain, and they reminded them that it was the quartermaster who determines how goods are distributed and that these clothes in particular were to be auctioned among the crew and I just think that's really funny that, yeah you were talking about the hierarchical structures of merchants and navy ships today where we use titles and uniforms I mean we do that so much in our society but we use these things to symbolize one's authority over another.
[24:15] Junior senior vice president of marketing.
[24:18] Yeah exactly but these Pirates were like oh oh you want to wear the fancy waistcoat and we don't care if you are the captain you're going to bet on it just like everyone else and if I outbid you I wear the fancy waistcoat.
[24:30] But you might say well if pirate Captain is obviously going to have more money than his crew to bid on these clothes whenever that auction comes up. It's not as much as you think in fact for most pirate Cruise it was very common for everyone to get an equal share of whatever bounties that they would gather so every man will get one share except. Be captain in the quartermaster who would get more and how much more do you think a captain would get in a regular Chrome and you know it. A b c business today Daniel how much more does a CEO make than a regular employee.
[25:03] 52 * Morris.
[25:04] Like a million times more whatever it is. What's the on a pirate ship these villains of History who are so Infamous for their in was greed and pillaging and how much more the captain going to make them the crew members.
[25:17] If it be me Davey and I be the captain of this year ship I say up their doubles coin should be good for me.
[25:25] Well that's right on the money. Most of these captains were making just one and a half or two times what a regular sailor on the ship would make officers because of their extra knowledge and carpentry or Gunsmithing or whatever it is but make 1 1/2 to 1.25 more. That's not that much more for all the extra responsibility and work at a captain or officer might take on the longer watches and things but that's what these people considered work there and can you imagine if that was the case that we had today in a business where the CEO or the owner of the company or whatever it is just makes double what everyone else in a company makes people would lose their minds but this was common on pirate ships This Is How They function. What it really ties in well to that idea of perceived ownership and every person on the ship is a cap.
[26:12] And you actually found some, recorded articles that various pirate Cruise had that actually laid out all this in riding we can come back to that shortly but why don't we explore a little bit more David some of the economic and political realities at this time in the 18th century that led to pirates in the first place movie kind of briefly touched on this but we can expand a bit.
[26:34] Will Sir Daniel as I mentioned being an episode there was a lot of war and conflict going on at the time and of course in this world of trade, Taylor was perhaps the most important Cog that link together the dominant forces of economy politics and that unceasing war which together form the backdrop of the sailors whole world he was caught between a constant struggle between the dominant powers of the worlds and span Frank.
[27:01] We you getting lots of booty in Spanish and Davie.
[27:05] Spain France England Portugal the Netherlands once religious War have largely demarcated the land of these various Empires they turn their attention to trade War each vying for control over Commodities like gold slaves and sugar. Load from the colonies. Accumulation of wealth at the heart of these Empires required mass is possession of people everywhere as a result the Atlantic economy with absolutely.
[27:29] Write the so much was going on that negatively impacted so many people not just do Sailors but, land enclosures at home which forced people off their land and into either low-wage work in cities turning these raw Spoils of colonial extraction into their final manufactured products or, or perhaps they were let into indentured servitude in the far-flung colonies themselves.
[27:51] Sugar plantations gold mines and other sites of extraction require the mobilization of millions of slaves stolen from native land and required the extermination of native for the conversion of their land into one fit for economic production.
[28:06] And all these dispossessed people offered a ready pool of cheap labor for employee under ship captains especially in touring this air of piracy after 1716, and what all these people had in common was the violence with which these various Empires that you mentioned used to maintain the social order also that this trade to be carried out on large-scale.
[28:27] But even admits this reality to see if I could see that these Empires did not have a tighter grip on the vast Atlantic trade system as they would have liked and those Sailors would become emboldened by their experience resisting vicious Merchant captains don't they could escape the system altogether as a pirate.
[28:45] These struggles actually in some ways laid the groundwork for modern labor movements that we have today and that we've benefited from as workers and laborers across the world, as we mentioned work was brutal among these Merchant vessels in many cases Sailors were forced into it by being kidnapped they were beaten starved they were fraught with disease so they found a number of ways to fight back, those that could work together found use in work stoppages mutinies against captains and outright desertion.
[29:14] Or toasting as we like to call today.
[29:16] But most interesting you David is that you know Sailors actually invented the strike. That thing that people do now or they have signs and then they walk around a circle saying strike. If you've never thought about where that word actually comes from we first see it in 1768 when the word first appears and it describes the action of physically dismantling the topsails on ship so that they couldn't function.
[29:41] Striking the sales quite literally.
[29:43] Exactly and and leading up to the first strike Sailors and land labor such as coal heavers both engaged in work stoppages regularly to demand wage raises but in 1768, Sailors in northern England and then the coal heavers further down the coast realize that they could get a faster response to their demands by simply striking the sales of ships in Port, thus preventing them from leaving.
[30:09] And this goes back to that realization that the sailors had that all these networks all is well that was traveling around the world the systems of trade that enabled all this they don't function when the ships themselves don't work in the ships themselves don't work when the sailors don't work and this realization if the power of running these economies that enable all these abuses rested in the hands of the sailors was a very important moment in the realization of how labor. Can see the power that they have, and this is something that Echoes through today and unfortunately lost in the building of but I mean Daniel it today if all the truck drivers decided they were no longer going to drive their trucks until some whatever it was was meth. Then this country with shutdown and this is actually it happened recently in Brazil happened in other nations. We are still so dependent on these transportation and trade networks and the labor that drives these and it maybe that's why Amazon is trying to get these drone deliveries working so so quickly.
[31:05] On that point about truck drivers makes it so clear this concept we talked about in episode 37 Logistics of slavery of how, modern Logistics in these trade routes that we've built to fuel the global economy is so important at this point. Anything that gets in the way of that it at this point is is seen as like a national security threat and we talked about those Strikers in California a decade or so ago who simply went on strike in the US president at the time to Clare like a state of emergency, deploy the military from the perspective that the strikers were terrorists simply because they were demanding higher wages but in so doing they interrupted that flow of goods.
[31:44] Important lessons there but I think we're getting away from Pirates.
[31:48] Well at the Ginn David why become a pirate why don't we talk a bit about some of the perks of being a pirate some of the benefits you might enjoy by going on the account.
[31:59] That's a great Point Daniel and something that we really need to drive home because he had these Sailors were being more or less portrait on the ships and stuff but what makes them risk their life their livelihood and take up a life that they know it's probably going to end in their death, imprisonment in just a few years what are the perks that drives somebody to doing that instead of just saying I'm done with sailing I'm going to go work on a farm somewhere.
[32:22] Reading a lot of it has to do with escaping that backbreaking work that we mention and entering into a an egalitarian society. You got the time a 250 ton Merchant vessel would have employed less than 20 min where is a pirate crew with outfit the same ship to accommodate up to 90 meaning less work to go around on joint better company, but perhaps David for some people it was as simple as the food and drink and this might have been a bit of an overcorrection among Pirates but. After being worked to the bone on shift with no food and drink no maybe we shouldn't be surprised that the stereotype of the drunken pirate is actually pretty spot-on.
[33:03] Yeah this is something that history did get right.
[33:05] Yeah they love to eat drink and be merry and this was fully weaved into their social order not only did many crews conduct business over a gratuitous bowl of punch for some Pirates could even be suspected of conspiracy, simply for being sober what are you doing Being Sober there are you planning something.
[33:24] There are a bunch of funny stories from captured Sailors and were captains were invited to eat and drink with the Pirates but we're like oh no you know I'm feeling bad my ship just got captured on the prisoner The Joint in and bought you like okay and they like partying around and then like a cheer up you know I have some alcohol have some food in there and these captains are like no I'm not feeling it you keep doing it and if I heard you like whatever and in the words of these captains used to describe the cruise quite literally constantly was Mary you can believe how Mary these people were how much they enjoyed inviting all this food and drink and being friends with each other and all the hijinks I wouldn't Sue on the ships but many times unfortunately, all these people that sense of adventure and all this alcohol got together and made things on the ships Acacia little, chaotic fistfight would turn into a brawl that might take over a ship or in some cases things we could completely out of hand.
[34:20] Let me look how much drinking was woven into the soap here are some articles from Captain Bartholomew Roberts ship that the crew had come up with the very first one Every Man Has a vote in Affairs of moment as equal title to the fresh Provisions or strong liquor. And here's number yours article number for David, the lights and candles to be put out at 8 at night if any of the crew after that our still remained inclined for drinking they were to do it on the open deck. So I mean he's drinking was so common that it was it found its way into the Articles and describe the rules for. And as good as the drinking was for morale at wasn't always ideal for job-readiness right, pirate Captain Black Sam and his crew for example got so drunk one time that they ran their ship aground.
[35:11] But it wasn't just drink Daniel and Edition Pirates provided for the health and safety of their members, a portion of all booty went into a common fund that was used to compensate any pirate that was sick or injured what does early Universal Health Care.
[35:25] Pirates did it first David.
[35:27] The comradery cannot be understated is most infamous exploits was the interruption of trade in 1718 when he blockaded the Charleston North Carolina Harbor included several ships for the sole purpose upper clearing medicine for his crew, and what commercial Sailors could be expected to a miserable fate once they became sick or injured pirate Cruise maintained their own Social Security System under which a portion of this money was always set aside and used to take care of those who were injured. You can actually see these in some of the pirate codes and articles that were basically contracts that everyone would agree to and collectively sign every time you would leave port so this was something that didn't Tire crew would come together right down and agree to in some of these they were encoded, the protection of these rights.
[36:11] Again here's from Bartholomew Roberts articles number 9 no man to talk of breaking up their way of living till each had shared 1000 lb, if an order to do this any man should lose a limb or become a cripple in their service he was to have $800 out of the public stock and for lesser hurts proportionately.
[36:32] There you go public payouts encoded in what is basically the constitution of a ship collectively decided upon by the crew members in order to make sure that even those who are injured were protected and. Even beyond the injuries themselves there was no discrimination against those who were injured in the line of service and then we all have this very. Specific image of the pirate was missing an eye and has a peg leg and a hook for hand. This didn't exist in the Royal Navy or in the merchant ships where it once you were injured or lost a limb or something that's it you weren't able to serve any more because they wanted able-bodied men that phrased put on a pirate ship if you lost an i or an arm or leg or whatever, Not only would you be compensated for that lost but you were still able to serve you were able to do your work as long as by end of the day you weren't getting in the ways of others, you were still part of that crew and they would still work with you and protect you and you can even at that point make it up to captain in that happened many times.
[37:27] Sorry to change the subject I need a bar graph is just looking at some more of these articles and I think this is really interesting even though powercruise were generally, almost entirely made up of men, they had rules for how to interact with women in here is from Captain John Phillips articles number 9 if at any time you meet with a prudent woman that man that offers to meddle with her without her consent shall suffer present death, I think it's really interesting how again going back to the depiction of pirates is being violent being coming to your villages to rape your women yet they had these rules to guard against any unnecessary violence they truly did Iraq, their attention towards the end justices of the commercial class in the authorities that oppress them. But another benefit of becoming a pirate David was simply the freedom to leave pirate Crews were always undergoing change, every time a new vessel was captured it became necessary for the crew on the original vessel to split in some way, those who wished to leave would drop a new constitution elect a new captain and be on their way this is a pretty remarkable thing compared to these Sailors previous life trapped in the service of some merchant ship captain with no prayer of ever leaving if you are pirate though and you are unhappy with your current Captain you had the freedom and the opportunity, to form your own crew take a vote and leave.
[38:48] What's particularly interesting about that is most power Cruise could trace their lineage from a long line of pirate Captain Britain this vast network of shared customs and tradition.
[38:59] Our genealogy is the coolest Mormon genealogy.
[39:03] That's why you won't find any DNA test do.
[39:06] It's at the Spirit we can all share you don't have to have pirate jeans you just have to have a pirates. And that's something that we we hope everyone's going to gather from this from this year. It wasn't just fun and games all the time of course Pirates and find themselves in battle or in conflict and so courage was a quality that carry a ton of weight among Pirates captains who acted cowardly. Coughing immediately skip to the titles those crew members who were Brave enjoyed their first choice of lieutenant-general pirates were expected to live every aspect of their life courageously. Reverie with v most valuable personal currency to possess and those who had it work set it as one of the crew regardless of where they came from or even if they were a woman.
[39:47] I know I just said that pirate Crews were almost entirely men but there were exceptions to this and this is where this courage quality comes into play there were, two women that Captain Johnson and his General history of pirates this is the 1700 book that really brought Pirates into the public consciousness, well in this book he recounts the history of two famous women Pirates Who both were born illegitimately they learned how to disguise their gender they both escaped this life that was imposed on them and eventually made their way into the pirate's life found their way on the exact same ship and in one case, there was a one of these women fell in love or one of the other Pirates mail Pirates fell in love with her they found a relationship and it shipped came under Fire and there was a battle and every other pirate except this woman The Other Woman in one of the pirate, they all escaped down to the bottom of the deck of the ship to escape the battle in this act of cowardice but the two women stayed on the deck to fight, and eventually the ship was captured and those that had fled, found their way to The Gallows and one of the men that was about to be hanged was the lover of this female pirate, and I guess he looked at her for help and she looks up at him and she says, I'm sorry to see you there but if you had fought like a man maybe you wouldn't be hanged like a dog and I can see what what about her way so.
[41:12] That is a badass.
[41:13] Yeah just goes to show if you've got the courage you have what it takes to become a pirate and you earn the respect of your crew regardless of where you came from.
[41:22] We mention that pirates come from the Sailor class who developed Maritime skill sets and knowledge from a life at Sea and whose motivation came from a desire to escape and fight against the forces of Oppression that surround, these factors alone are not enough to explain how such a vibrant and well-organized pirate Community came about, it's not good enough to assume that the Golden Age of piracy simply spring up spontaneously for a few decades and it disappeared. Rather is Pirates emerge from and were supported by a much deeper undercurrent of resistance along Corporal evolution of outcasts of maroon communities a fisherman Tavern worker slaves Peters and more. The community center dishes that were built up in Blended, by diversity of people mixing and resisting oppression along it International System of trade is what gave birth to the pirate and their songs customs and experiences were all carry over from the culture, in which they were raised these were people from every Walk of Life from every nation of every skin color of every sexual orientation. The world and their traditions of resistance were cured from all those places and ways of living in an echo to the communities that they lived Within.
[42:35] Example of Infamous pirate Captain Walter Kennedy was an Irishman born in 1695 London do an anchor smith is apprenticeship under his father got him acquainted with the comings and goings of life in a sailor Port City, and his time as a pickpocket and house burglar got him acquainted with life outside the law. After his father died he took to life at Sea aboard an English man of Warship but it was the stories he heard below deck from his fellow sailors. Stories of pirate exploit and of maroon communities established on island that inspired him to conspire with his comrades to steal a small vessel himself and become Pirates. But a better example of how established communities and traditions carried over to the pirate way of life might be the loggers off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, these lockers who lived and worked in the swamps established for themselves their own governments they share their resources with each other equally and without discrimination they outlawed violent punishment and they were Mary with drink. Sounds a lot like a pirate to me, and these communities sold their Lumber to Jamaican Traders and it was not until the Spanish government attacked these communities that many of them turned pirate and it's easy to see how the knowledge and traditions built.
[43:58] Through these communities lay the necessary groundwork for successful pirate cruise and the songs and traditions that passed from one crew to another, is what enabled a consistent pirate tradition to preserve itself to all four corners of the sea.
[44:14] Use the quote once more from Marcus rediker from Antiquity on word piracy always depended on a particular set of material circumstance to emerge. The most essential precondition Through the Ages has been the existence of trade in which valuable Commodities are transported by sea the remote, poorly defended regions populated, my poor people these poor people in turn had to have access to see going craft which were usually smaller lighter faster and more maneuverable than the heavy laden vessels they chased and sought to capture, Pirates had to have the skills to handle their crap exceptionally well underlining the old adage that the pic of all semen or Pirates they had expert local knowledge of winds and Waters Shoals and Coastline ceiling and shipping patterns, we had places to lurk and hide near the main routes of trade and communities of people to support them. In addition these small islands of bounded with Provisions water and food Turtle sea fowl shellfish and fish. And there were at least and it really. Under consideration. Always people who are willing to support Pirates Merchants willing to buy and sell their booty Pirates continually found beavers and encourage even in Jamaica after the sugar Planters Consolidated with their ruthless power. The coexistence of this condition is the major reason the explosion of piracy was not only likely but predictable after the war of Spanish succession.
[45:38] So in short most pirates came from poor social classes. And they were well acquainted with life is see they had vast local knowledge and social networks and they had little to lose and much to gain by going on the account.
[45:53] And. Again you know relating this back to the misrepresentation of of pirates we've come across a number of articles that describe Pirates as criminals why did they turn to such a bad life but, and being enemies of the authorities of their day Pirates were not enemies of local communities. It's like without the tacit support of land-based communities and regions which Pirates operated they likely would not have been as successful as they were, there's a crew of pirates in 1718 for instance that said without the New England Merchants providing their crew with ammunition and food they quote could never have become so formidable no arrived to that degree that they have. And other support that these Pirates received from tiles included information on the merchant and Royal ship that came and went helping them keep track of the movement of authorities and Merchant captain. Locate David Davey Boy we've been talking about pirates in the 18th century and part of doing this show is is trying to challenge these characters of pirate in the modern day, and if we can maybe relate their position in history to maybe some of the Pirates of the modern era it's not an apples-to-apples comparison but.
[47:10] By any means.
[47:11] Right but I think there are some similarities we can draw some parallels and and whatnot so why don't we fast forward to today, and then just talk about some of the responses to Maritime piracy in another contest we might take away.
[47:26] Net before we start with modern piracy Daniel we definitely don't want to romanticize the current trends of piracy around the world and we absolutely don't want to generalize or make the same blank generalization that modern pirates are just like these prior to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[47:41] Will someone David eye-patches have gotten a little bit more sophisticated we don't use wooden peg legs anymore but you know we had these carbon fiber prosthetic so.
[47:53] Bionic Pirates well I mean today the modern pirate is, maybe still a symptom of these larger breast of forces that does not mean that they themselves cannot also be oppressive or destructive in their own ways, and well it seems many Pirates of old were motivated primarily by revenge against those Merchant captains who exploded and brutalize them, we might speculate that the motivations behind modern piracy are more directly political and economic in nature as the maritime aspect of international trade is much less labor dependent.
[48:24] Definitely if you just look at the Modern cargo ship, large enough to carry over 500 40 foot containers yet only employee like just a handful of workers it's definitely a much different labor situation to say the least if we're thinking of pirates purely in this like Maritime environment.
[48:43] In addition we also don't have any research whatsoever on what community among pirates in Asia the Caribbean western Africa and other reasons might compare to the social dynamics and we've been talking about throughout this episode and importance because the research on this as far as we can tell just quite honestly doesn't exist anywhere I almost everything that talks about money and power seats are either International States reacting to some sort of violence against their can citizens of their Nation on end and talk about how they're going to react to that two local countries who are trying to battle piracy off their Coast or to these large think-tanks who are talking about ways that we can combat or less than piracy and there is very little cultural conversations and I guess what we do get are things like Captain Phillips. Which is whatever the fuck that is.
[49:32] What is that's that Somali thing.
[49:34] You are the way I am.
[49:37] It may be out there David but maybe this is something we can spend more time out to some more Pirate shows.
[49:42] This is a pirate podcast now.
[49:44] Look if anyone wants us to do more power shows, I just actually bought to Pirate books so this is something I would love to death more into you know how some fun with me we can do some more episodes on it but you're absolutely right, we don't want to generalize and make blanket comparison and you mentioned that we don't understand much of the social dynamics of modern piracy but we do know that there are many pirate activities are highly complex but acts through coordination between multiple vessels as well as groups on land which no doubt require some kind of community support right, beers from a report by oceans Beyond piracy quote hijacking for cargo theft is the most complex piracy model requiring a coordinated effort and often D complicity of a variety of actors ships carrying petroleum products are targeted and attacked. Once the vessel is hijacked the crew is often forced to navigate to a remote location or parts of the cargo are transferred to another ship or a storage facility on land the stolen cargo has been sold on the black market or blended with legitimate refined product.
[50:46] So let's talk about the why that modern piracy has sort of exploded in the past few years for just a moment here this is not the first time that we've discussed this topic on the show without this fairly extensively in episode 37 36 of slavery.
[50:59] Write what we talked about the Somali pirates and how.
[51:09] Why we need to send our militaries in and liberate these these backward Savages and rescue our cruise ship that these Brown Pirates are terrorizing and murdering her.
[51:20] But in many cases these so-called pirate says we've labeled them are operating with what they see as the official section of the state of Somalia or with the support of the local communities and stuff and European or Asian fishing fleets are metals that are coming in are seen as the actual Pirates to the residents of these areas. Let's start this off with the big quote by Johann Hari here riding in 2009 and 1991 the government of Somalia collapse, it's 9 million people have been teetering on starvation ever since and the ugliest forces in the western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply.
[51:56] Dump our nuclear waste in their Seas, as soon as the government was gone mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia dumping vast barrels into the ocean the coastal population began to sicken, at first they suffer strange rashes nausea not born babies in after the 2005 tsunami hundreds of the dumped and leaking build washed up on shore people began to suffer from radiation sickness more than 300 people died. At the same time other European ships have been looting Somalia seized of their greatest resource Seafood we have destroyed our own fish docks by over-exploitation and now we have moved on to theirs. More than three hundred million dollars worth of tuna shrimp and lobster are being stolen every year by these illegal trawlers the local fishermen are now starving, Muhammad Hussain a fisherman in the town of Marca 100 km south of Mogadishu told Reuters if nothing is done there soon won't be much fish left in our Coastal Waters this is the context in which these Pirates Eva Marie.
[52:58] And he's writing about over fishing in 2009 if you want to, dated a snapshot of overfishing today check out episode 42 no catch. But piracy off The Horn of Africa has received the most media attention but it's not occurring just there so fearsome modern Trends in piracy as outlined by oceans Beyond piracy, piracy has increased 160% around Latin America and the Caribbean from 2016 to 2017, and although incidence of piracy worldwide have declined slightly the activities of the Somali pirates have continued to expand between 2016 and 2017 those incidents have increased 200%. And these have had Direct economic impacts on international trade.
[53:48] In 2017 the cost of piracy either directly through stolen goods or indirectly from the cost of security and prevention measures with 820 million dollars around West Africa and 1.4 billion dollars around East Africa.
[54:02] But we're not going to spend too much more time on this episode going into modern piracy you mentioned David that it's hard to make blanket comparisons between modern piracy and that that occurred during the Golden Age of piracy but it is interesting when you compare these statements that are made by modern anti-piracy groups when compared to the officials of the day during the Golden Age of piracy who were equally opposed to Paris at that time.
[54:31] Let's play a game with this Daniel modern day. Oceans Beyond piracy and other anti-piracy advocacy groups and think tanks and stuff and you're going to be. Golden Age pirate officials and governors and whatever and we're going to go back and forth reading the today take which is me and then for you to take of the 17.
[54:54] RW bring you you make a nice proposition okay.
[54:59] Let's let's let's go pirate boy so today. The oceans Beyond piracy crew the root cause of piracy is always related to conflict political and security and the economic situation on land the most part patterns and piracy are reoccurring often dating back decades or even centuries.
[55:18] I hear is Cotton Mather a famous minister in colonial America who participated in the persecution and hanging of many Pirates in 1700s Boston, calling Infamous pirate William fly quote a most uncommon an amazing instance of impenitent see and stupidity, yet he also recognize the role that ship captain played in motivating semen to go on the pirate life during one hanging of pirates Mather told the commercial captains and Merchants in the crowd to avoid being quote, too like the devil in your Barbers usage of the men that are under you and lay them under temptation to do desperate things and quote.
[56:01] Today much of the talk about Pirates is focused on the fact that they threaten property. Because a quote today more than 50,000 Merchant ships transport more than 80% of global cargo trade ports all over the world V semen and ships. Gauntlet of threats to reach their destinations threats such as terrorism local conflict and piracy.
[56:23] Is Marcus rediker riding about the Golden Age of piracy quote piracy was first and foremost a crime against property more specifically in almost every instance the property of merchants, and interesting about that David as we discussed in logistics of slavery is that today protecting the logistics infrastructure that spans the world. Is the highest priority of government National Security interest, like I mentioned earlier that California strike but similarly in the 1700s English law made a treasonous offense to interrupt trade since shipping was a quoted interest of the Kings government.
[57:03] Well just like then today it is very obvious what side the international anti-piracy groups are on when they make comments like this, the occurrence of piracy is often linked to the fishing industry illegal unreported and unregulated fishing devastates the sector in several countries which leads to financial strain unemployed fishermen are also often recruited into piracy. Memphis really stands out to me because this dance is that individuals and pirate Cruise are the problem of unregulated fishing causing Financial strain along these go to population, well also recognizing that unemployed individuals facing their own economic stress are those most likely to join if he's dangerous pirate Cruise.
[57:42] There is no recognition of those industrial fleets and we talked about in episode 42 no catch.
[57:48] Park their trawlers right off the coast of these poor countries extractor fish while causing the collapse of these marine ecosystems that systematically dries up the price of fish locally with thousands or millions of people other jobs and livelihood, if he's anti-piracy groups were actually interested in ending this piracy that they Advocate against they would address those systemic causes of piracy in the first place with living cells recognize but that would mean opposing the industrial ships in economic activity causing the harm to these local people but the clothes up this section Daniel Pirates are major threat. So today people say the Pirates are major threat that requires concerted efforts among World governments and Business Leaders to combat there's another quote from that study, the problem of piracy is a global issue which requires collaborative efforts to reduce the impact this crime has on our industry. Piracy has not gone away in the challenges for governments industry and Military partners, continue utilizing the information in this annual report back something to eat for The Wider implementation of security measures better Maritime situational awareness and the importance of constant communication with our military forces at sea. Piracy can be offset by security measures the long run denying safe havens the Pirates by building capability of local Security Forces on land as well as local support for these programs and successful Prosecuting a pirate are essential in defeating piracy.
[59:14] And in 1717. Once again cotton Mather's addressed a group of pirates about to be hanged and he said quote All Nations agree to treat your tribe as the common enemies of mankind and 2x to take you out of this world. So even while the world powers of the day competed and warred with each other they were United in their goals of eradicating piracy which threaten their property.
[59:42] And I really want to emphasize the word extricate their Daniel because extricate is such a potent and powerful word it means quite literally pull out a weed by the roots and also there is nothing left.
[59:53] But this this reminds me of something I hear a lot and. I was listening to Jocko willink Navy SEAL leadership podcast the other day don't shame me I have some. But anyway he was discussing evil in the world David and how the US military is this force of Good Witch is fighting hard to rid the world of evil. And he went off on this concept of evil and darkness arguing that we all need to accept the reality that evil is out there, darkness is growing and that we have to fight back against this evil by expanding the strength and presence of our military around the world. The idea is that the various people around the world who are committing violence against others acting out against the law.
[1:00:43] The idea is that these people are just playing evil. Nevermind the systemic causes of people's actions from this Navy Seals perspective the people who resist us occupied forces in their own country.
[1:00:57] Are just plain evil and deserve to die never mind what we may have done to destroy their way of life, never mind the toxic waste were dumping on their beaches or the fish were illegally smuggling out of their Waters going back to what radical rides in his book quote Pirates attempted to intervene against and modify the standard brutalities that marked the social relations of production and Merchant shipping that they sometimes chose to do so with brutalities of Their Own, shows how they could not escape the system of which they were a part, ins quote not think that last point is worth reflecting on the Wii have built-in inherently violent world, even if or especially if much of that violence is silent, a community on the other side of the world who watches their entire livelihood dry up as commercial ships take off with their only source of food are the victims of violence, even if no gun was ever fired. People around the world were forced into wage slavery working 10-hour shifts under dangerous conditions and in fear of being physically and forcibly removed from their home if they cannot afford to pay their overpriced rent, these people are victims of violence we have built a violent world and the fact that those who resist this may employ violence themselves, might just speak more to the brutality that they endure rather than the nature of their hearts and souls.
[1:02:22] Ears Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood the man who killed the famous Captain Blackbeard riding to the English crown in 1720.
[1:02:33] Quotes. Your Lordships will easily conceive my meaning when you reflect on the vigorous part I've acted to suppress Pirates and if those Barbara stretches, can be moved to cut off the nose and ears of a master for but correcting their own sailors, what inhuman treatment must I expect should I fall within their power I who have been marked as a principal object of their vengeance, for cutting off their Arch pirate Blackbeard with all his Grand designs and making so many of their fraternity to swing in the open-air of Virginia. End quote.
[1:03:10] How does the language he uses calling Pirates of his day Barbara stretches compared with the language we use to refer to those our governments have declared war on, listen to the way he described a sailor's place in this world, but they belong under Masters and then when those Masters abuse them they are merely correcting them and that of a sailor should be so bold as to resist this correcting we should consider this an inhuman reaction. Today are we so different. When we call people criminals for breaking laws that were meant to correct them when we call people thugs for developing their own social orders outside the ones we try to impose on them, if we find any part of the pirate life endearing, impressive or admirable or inspiring we should remember that during their Zenith they were considered Barbara stretches by the government that opposed, maybe we should reflect if there isn't any irony in idolizing the Pirates of yesterday and siding with their enemies of today.
[1:04:09] When reading about Pirates and what ultimately Inspire this episode I feel almost like a child again, there's something wonderful about the stories that I hear the adventures of the audacity that someone had to have to be abused in this life and instead take their life into their own hands to step outside these worlds that were made and built and encouraged impress these people empty. Stand on the ship and be your own man to be your own Captain not this on the ship but in their lives in the world that they live and had only known as an impressive brutal world before this moment. There's a romance to this these stories are very akin to what we know in the story of Robin Hood and his merry men these Pirates were out there seeking revenge against the wrongs that were committed upon them by these people who are out there only to profit off their labor.
[1:04:54] These stories even when they've been turned into propaganda focus on the violence and made of atrocities that these Pirates were allegedly committing across the seas against governments individuals the innocent. Even with these stories with these centuries of propaganda this point there is still a romance that we still idolize the ideas of the Pirates line in our movies and I'm media and books even in amusement park. That's because there's something there there's something that speaks to a very low base level of what we all want of a freedom that we all crave that we wish we would have. But something has been denied from us because the world that one. The one of these nations the world of these governors of these oppressive Merchant captains is the world that instead we live in this in this world of equality and egalitarianism Diaz where everyone shares and their responsibilities to each other. We live in this world if these Pirates reacted against. Emily read their stories and we identify with their struggles and we find ourselves lost in a daydream imagining what it would have been like to live that free life, we know for a second that we bought something in many cases it's something that we've never even had but we still lost it then we can feel our craving for that life right now.
[1:06:07] Interesting point in the culture of our human civilization. With the mini things were talking about in the show the systemic issues at all bubbling up we live in interesting times. This is a Tipping Point and there are so many Futures available to us right now and unfortunately so many tragic Futures if we continue down the path that we've been continuing doubt but he's hundreds of years since this golden age of piracy and ending before. And if we don't step out and find our own independent and free future.
[1:06:38] This is why we're looking at these inspiring Tales because these are examples of things that were. Eventually shut down there eventually captured and hang during their brief lies me with free and happy and they knew what they were getting into and inspiration there. It's our struggles today may not end up in our own. Satisfaction United interneuron Freedom we are Paving the way for those who will come after us who can build off the work that we're starting right now just like those who came before us that we are building upon theirs and it's a war to better future. The world where people can live free like this and not have to step outside this Society. Find Freedom that way but it is there when they're born and it is something that they protect throughout their life because of all of us who came before them fighting for it and sacrificing so much just like these fires two centuries ago. Another culture may have died in modern piracy their Spirit still exist in our culture today. Another ideas have been mixed up and muddled and compromise and twisted way from their original Spirit by looking back at the actual history that was there we can recover this culture and we can just do it and all the things that we do and we build this world at the Pirates Priestly hat. And that sounds like a world that I want to live.
[1:07:53] I also felt a little bit like a child reading about Paris David. And learning about the pirate life really made an impression on me and I think there are so many things we can learn from pirates that can help inform how to live today. You don't hear on ashes ashes and more broadly there's a lot of talk about what is wrong in the world, and you know we're very interested in educating people on what not to do don't oppress people don't destroy the environment, don't build empires of wealth accumulation by extracting individuals out of tightly-bound communities that you can then turn into slaves. So we're good at telling people what not to do but we're not so greater and this has become an opportunity for those in the self-help rounds to infuse these types of world dominating ideologies with the messages.
[1:08:43] What we are not so great at is instructing people how to live. And for that I look in part to the Pirates we live in a world today where it is easy to become discouraged at the massive forces that shape Our Lives. Whether those forces are environmental political or economic. And life for pirates in the Atlantic and Indian oceans during the late 17th and 18th century were similar. They lived at a time in which great Imperial Powers spanned the earth and the coasts the indigenous the town's the farmers everyone was being gobbled up and integrated into the great giant machine.
[1:09:23] Some looked around them and noticed that this great machine was expensive to maintain it couldn't be police 24/7 and in every location there were gaps there were holes. So they banded together, and they use their Collective knowledge of local Waters Coastal inlets to step outside the system and into those gaps they built communities of mutual support and common goals they made survival their principal aim. Our world may be more destructive and in greater disrepair but are we in so different a situation now our great Empires are dying. Our ships are sinking Mass surveillance incarceration conflicts and Wars. All of these get ratcheted up as he profits from declining resources strain National budgets, and our governments have to work harder and harder to plug the hole through which these costs are gushing it the tighter grip our Empire seek to enclose the world in betrays however is smaller and.
[1:10:28] There are gaps and holes in our current world we cannot let the fear, of such concepts of security theater that we discussed an episode 51 Eyez on Me convinced us that we are outmatched, we can use our local knowledge our love for each other to build communities in the gaps of our Empires as a not seeing says which we quoted an episode 50. Quote in a global state of precarity we don't have choices other than looking for life in this ruin our first step is to bring back curiosity. Unencumbered by the simplifications of progress narrative the nuts and pulses of patchiness are there to explore in quote. And then these patchy gaps we can look for opportunities to form our communities and go forward towards a better world. But I suppose David that be a lot to think about.
[1:11:25] Think about it you are. You can read more about pirates with the sources that we link on a website or we highly encouraged to check out Marcus Redeker's book villains of all Nations you don't Supply me a full transcript of this episode on our website at ashes ashes. Org.
[1:11:46] A lot of time and research goes into making these episodes possible and we will never use add to support the show. If you like it would like us to keep going you are listener can support us by giving us review recommending us to a friend or supporting us on our patreon page. Patreon.com ashes ashes cast get in before January 1st and you can be a part of that first shipment of stickers.
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[1:12:30] Next week it's the New Year I'm going to have an episode looking forward for all the things people are doing to help make this world a better place we hope you'll tune in for that but until then.
[1:12:42] Bye-bye maties.