Piracy in The Caribbean - The Rules of Piracy

The Rules of Piracy

Aboard a pirate vessel things were fairly democratic and had “codes of conduct” that even reflect modern laws. Some of these rules consisted of a dress code, no woman, and some ships had no smoking. The rules, the punishment for breaking them, and even the staying arrangements would be decided amongst everyone going on the ship before departure; which was very abstract compared to the authoritarianism that occurred in the Royal Navy. In further contrast to Britain’s colonies; on board pirating vessels racial division did not normally occur and in some instances pirates from African descent were Captains Another activity that had to be engaged in before the ship left the dock was swearing an oath to not betray any others in ones entire crew, to sign what was known as the ships’ Article, and the percentage of profit each crew member would receive. Furthermore, some of the ways for deciding disagreements: consisted of fighting till first blood or in more serious cases abandoning the individual on an uninhabited island, being whipped 39 times or execution by gun. Despite popular belief, however the punishment of plank walking off the ship into the open ocean never was a way of settling disputes. There was however, somewhat of a power division consisting of the captain, quartermaster, council for vessel, and the crew; but when in a battle the pirate captain retained all power. When it came time to split the wealth into shares, profits were normally given to the person in each title as follows: Captain (5-6 shares), individuals with a senior position like the quartermaster (2 shares), crewman (1 share), and individuals in a junior position (1/2 a share).