[Ansteorra] Re: Pirates, Privateers, etc

[Duncan MacNamara]

>For Society members, most of the world, and all of the centuries prior to 
>the 17th, can serve as a source for personal research. However, the further 
>you go from the core of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, the less the 
>environment we offer will resemble what someone of your time and country 
>would find natural or homelike. For example, you can be an Asian or African 
>guest at a European court, but you cannot expect others to share your 
>special interests - like any long-term visitor in a foreign land, you are 
>the one who will have to adapt to the customs you find around you."
>So, if you want to study pirates....go right ahead! If you want to call 
>yourself a pirate, go right ahead....but be prepared to adapt to the 
>customs around you. Like generally accepted courteous behavior, regular 
>bathing, or eating with your mouth closed.

LOL!! You have a good point M'Lady... But you see... (from my persona's 
view) I am a very well-mannered and educated gentleman... I grew up in a 
noble family, and after my parents died, me and my siblings were cast out of 
our family's lands by the O'Briens. Some of us took to the sea working a 
merchant vessel which was captured by the Spanish. After working as slaves 
aboard the Spanish vessel, me, my siblings, and our few friends took the 
ship for ourselves. The name of that ship was the Mary Anne, which was a 
Galleon built in 1575. We re-named her the Iron Lotus and here we are...

My persona can read and write, and can speak french, italian, english, and 
gaelic. I can read and write in latin and english, and being from a noble 
family, I consider myself to be a fairly well-off gentleman in spite of the 
things that happened to me and my siblings.
(that's the condensed version)

And there were some cases of "Free men of the Sea" who treated their prize's 
crews fairly... For instance, only treating the captured Officers and 
Captains as fairly (or harshly) as they in turn had treated their crews, and 
usually offered the captured crew members a chance at freedom of sorts, with 
the prospect of becoming rich men. This practice was adopted by both Pirates 
and Privateers alike, and was not practiced by all. But it was practiced. It 
was not neccesarily a bad thing to have been offered a chance at that kind 
of freedom, as alot of men were pressed into the service of their 
prospective Crowns, or had been outright kidnapped/shang-haied, or what have 
you. Weigh out the options yourself... being forced to serve aboard a 
warship, with very little pay, and harsh treatment (little better than 
slaves most of the time), or the chance to be semi-free, work for a 
percentage of your captured prizes, and a little better treatment most of 
the time? A man could make more in one successful "raid" than a King's navy 
man could make in their whole life.

Lord Duncan MacNamara
Captain of the Iron Lotus
Commodore of the Allied Outlanders Fleet