Pretend to be a Pirate

September 19 is coming. For those not in the know, it is the international day of pirate talk. You will need to look, talk and act like a pirate. Whether you are the one who wants to fake pirate or it’s one of your friends it not an impossible thing. By following the below steps, you can convince anyone that Captain Morgan can be resurrected.

For a beginner, you should dress like a pirate. Look for some rags and make them a little wet. If you cannot lay your hands on rags, just wear any clothing that resembles them. You will need a pirate hat and a bandanna to wear on your neck.

The next one will be a bit tricky for those who care about hygiene. You need to smell like a pirate. Put some smelling stuff on you and skip showers whenever you can. Brushing your teeth might also have to go. This will help you produce a foul smell reminiscent of a true pirate.

You also need to develop pirate talk. This is how pirates talk. Now that you look and act like a pirate, it is time to develop the pirate tongue. Memorize and learn to talk the o’ pirates words and phrases. A few ahoys and avast here and there will get you along the right track.

The next thing you will need to gather a crew. All pirates have crews. Your friends will only be more than willing to join you. I am assuming that they are fun guys and they are not afraid of some adventure. With a crew the next thing that comes to your mind should be a ship. Don’t forget the pirate flag as it declares territory. If you are not able to gain access to a real ship, just make do with a toy. Nobody promised you will always find ships for fun and games.

You will need pirate gear and props. For the props, a parrot to stand on your shoulder can do a perfect job. A telescope is also a good acquisition.

The next thing can be dangerous especially if you take it seriously. You can however use fake swords to fight with ‘enemies’ just for the sake of practicing on pillaging and stealing like a pirate. Don’t be too serious though. You don’t want to spoil things with excess violence. Pretense is all about having fun after all.

If you ever need a good pirate store, my friends recommended this one for all their Halloween stuff. You can buy real pirate stuff and never feel like a total clown.

How to make a Pirate Costume

Making pirate wear from scratch is not a hard thing. Sure it might not be the best pirate wear to find out there but it doesn’t mean that you can’t use your skills to come up with something impressive. You don’t even have to be great at sewing and you can avoid it altogether if you are not sure about your abilities. You won’t need expensive materials and you can actually make do with stuff that is readily available around the house.

For starters you have to decide whether you want to look like a female pirate or a male one. For some people you might think that it is an easy case of gender and identity, but it goes further than that. The most famous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read dressed as male. Choose what works for you.

Find a pirate figure or image and use that to construct pirate attire. Some pirates of note include Captain Morgan, The Blackbeard among others. Their mode of dressing will help you in your creativity as you seek to make the coolest wear ever.

To start the designing, choose a loosely fitting T-shirt that gives the impression of sloppiness. You don’t need an expensive shirt or the best material out there. A t-shirt will serve the job perfectly.

Next you need to cut some edges of your t-shirt to make it look like you have been at sea for a long time without a spare change of clothes. You must have seen that rugged pirate look almost everywhere you look. Now using fabric paint go about painting blue stripes into your cloth.

After your t-shirt, you will need to create a pirate top using a shirt. Find a good shirt especially if you are aiming for the top job, a pirate captain. A large bulging shirt will fit the occasion. Considering pirates don’t like all that corporate stuff, the stiff white collar should be the first to go. Replace it with a softer one or a ruffle.

For the pants, choose black. Pants have never made a statement even for pirates of old. Choose simple black trousers and let the other attire make the statement. You can wear a vest that opens up to the front. Make it black or even decorate it with skull and bones, the mark of a pirate.

For the accessories, choose some good ones from the many that are available. To start with make a good pirate hat. Make the correct measurements to ensure that your hat fits perfectly. Choose a piece of paper as a template to help you achieve the shape you are looking for. 

Other accessories that might be of interest to you include a bandana around your neck. Supposing you paint your hat black, it may be a nice idea to make sure your bandana is red for effect.   Just cut a piece of read cloth carefully so that it ties perfectly like it was designed for your neck.

Add a pirate belt and an eye patch. Wear some old boots. Now stand before a mirror and look at the pirate looking back at you!

The World’s Most Pirated Waters of Today

Modern day pirate attacks are not anything out of the ordinary in Malacca Straits South East Asia. If anything, there are to be expected and sea farers expected to be wary of the narrow water channel as dangers lurk there. The narrowness of the channel makes ships slow down enabling pirates to attack easily with speed boats and canoes. They are usually armed with guns and/or grenades and if the crew of the ship doesn’t have enough armament to resist, the only option remains surrendering.

Modern pirates are not just after cargo. The pirates off the coast of Somali tell a different story. Unless they can find a ready market for the cargo, it is next to useless for them. They prefer valuables like gold, jewelry and money from the crew. Kidnapping of crew for ransom is also very lucrative and widely practiced.

Pirate attacks are spread from Philippines to Peru, Zanzibar, Somalia and Yemen. Must stop ports for sea farers like the ports of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles and Mauritius have been threatened by piracy now and in recent history. Crews that have little or no protection are keen to avoid these routes as a result of repeated attacks.

Somalia’s Coast has probably been the one that grabbed world attention during 2008 and 2012 due to increased piracy. The government of the day in a country that has seen warfare since 1991 was almost nonexistent and intervention of AU backed by UN served to return the country to normalcy and secure its territorial waters.

The islands of the Maldives and Seychelles are known for being tourist destinations of choice. In the recent past, the have been on the news for piracy. The most important capture was MSC Melody which was captured by pirates in April 2009.

The coast of Peru is also infested with pirates. This is fuelled by the illegal drug trade endemic in the region. Callao a city of Peru leads in the number of attacks both in South and North America.

The Gulf of Aden is famous for hijacking Suez Canal bound vessels. Another pirate zone is the Arabian Sea famous for migratory Somali pirates. 

Those are some of the areas which are targeted by pirates worldwide. Subsequently, they are among the most dangerous sea routes ever. Learn more about modern piracy and its effects.

How Pirates of old were Modern

Captain Jack Ward

You probably think of pirates who belong to the modern age of piracy as blood thirsty thieves who could only live off the sweat of others. Rapists, drug abusers and people who could only live in a society with no rules to govern whatsoever, the pirates paint a grim picture of themselves. Pirates were however ahead of their times and held practices that were modern even in civilized societies.

Pirates had Medical Cover

Considering that by the 17^th century there wasn’t much of medicine to write about, you would consider pirates to have lacked medical benefits. Gangrene back then was treated using a woodcutter's ax, hot tar and bamboo wood to sink your teeth on; just in case the pain became unbearable. Medical cover in these types of conditions wouldn’t seem to be considerable.

The truth however is that the crew of world famous pirate Henry Morgan had health cover.  Before his assault on Panama, the sea-going legend drew up a charter that insured certain interests for any crew that got injured in battle. For the loss of a hand a pirate would get 600 pieces of eight, the first global currency. 1,800 pieces insured you against loss of both legs, 200 pieces for one eye while total blindness gave you 2000 pieces.

Religion was tolerated by Pirates

Pirate crews and their captains tolerated the religion of others. It would seem that only world leaders have problems with liberty of worship at any point in time. At a time when Muslims were persecuted by the Christians if they chose to settle in Jerusalem, pirates didn’t care who you worshiped as long as you possessed gold or other valuables.

Piracy tolerated Gay marriage

Locked out at sea with no female company many pirates turned to their fellow men for companionship. Research shows that the original Pirates of the Caribbean might have practiced homosexuality in their societies. Pirates even had a form of civil union where they would share all their loot known as matelotage. Each pirate would name the other as his sole inheritor. In Tortuga (Piratesof the Caribbean) pirates practiced homosexuality and only introduced prostitutes to curb it as government reaction to things would endanger their trade.

Pirates were Equal Opportunity Employers

Back in the dark ages of human history, being a woman relegated you to second rate citizen status. If you weren’t a wife, servant or sex slave to someone, you would be paid less than a man for the same job. Pirates however did not give a care to what your gender was so long as you could fight tooth and nail for the success of your ship against a target. History is awash with stories of brave women who were part of pirate crews and their activities.

Elections were Democratic

You would think that any bloodthirsty thief would stick to power by all means right? As for pirates, you would be very wrong.  Many a captain was elected democratically by their crews.  A good example is Jack Ward who deserted the Royal Navy. This is in stark difference in what happened in his country England or even civilizations of his time where less than 3per cent of the population could vote.

Some of these happenings go a long way to show that pirates may have been indeed more modern than the mainstream society.

How Modern Pirates Rule the Sea with Terror

The first picture that comes to your mind when you think of pirates is cool people who know nothing more than the sea, beer and women. Ask any kid who has watched Pirates of the Caribbean and they would probably tell you they want to be a pirate when they grow up.

Romanticism in piracy is only a thing of the movies and the novels though; out there it is real terror. From Sumatra to Somalia piracy is not a lovable trait to possess. In fact world governments are ready to spend a fortune to crush the vice. Modern pirates are ruthless people who prey on weak crews and rob them or hold them for ransom.

Cargo ships and fishing vessels are high targets of the pirates. While cargo may not be of much interest unless one has ready markets, the money that crews carry for exorbitant port fees is. Ransom money that is paid by governments or relatives of the captives is also an attraction to the trade.

Ships can also be stolen, repainted for new identities and ownership changed through fake papers. In such case pirates usually attack a vessel armed with guns, grenades or even rocket launchers. They then leave the hapless crew on a speed boat or canoe or even marooned in some island.

Most pirates attack ships when they slow down to navigate narrow straits. A good example of this is the Strait of Malacca a narrow stretch of waters that spans from western Malaysia to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. When ships slow down, they can easily be overtaken and captured by the use of speed motor boats. 

Piracy in Somalia escalated between 2008 and 2012. Accounts of survivors revealed that these pirates were indeed more dangerous than the ones that we read in history books. They had larger and more sophisticated weapons and considering the lack of a good government ashore, their activities went largely unchecked. Prosecuting the pirates was also very hard and a situation known as Law-Enforcement Vacuum created perfect conditions for the illegal trade to thrive.

Modern piracy is no different from the past in that motives are the same, gaining of goods or valuables that one doesn’t own.

How Somali Piracy came to be

Before the intervention of the African Union forces in Somalia, piracy in the war torn country was a thriving business. It is estimated that from 2011 to 2012 up to $6.9 billion was lost to piracy. Over 199 hostages and 14 ships were held off the Somali coast making the whole issue an international crisis. 

Many of the leaders of the Somali and even the pirates themselves have attributed the situation to a totally different cause. The theft of fish from the Somali coast and the dumping of toxic waste into the area has been blamed for the increased vice over time. 

Most Somali believe that the term pirate should be given to those who come to fish from their territorial waters or dump waste off their coastline. Considering the losses of life and property on the coast of the Gulf of Africa nation one would feel that the claims don’t weigh much. However, every story has two sides.

Piracy has been lucrative for anyone who is ready to get involved. The goods could be smuggled through porous borders into neighboring East African nations where they would fetch a tidy sum. The money would then be invested in businesses like real estate. In 2011 and early 2012 when the business was thriving; property in the real estate rose in Nairobi the Kenyan capital as a result.

To increase their earnings, pirates started kidnapping journalists, tourists and children in Somalia and Kenya for ransom. The money was also used to fund the Al Shabaab in carrying out terrorist attacks in the country and East Africa and that necessitated military action to quell the bloodletting the trade fueled.

The AU forces with help from the international community have helped return sanity to Somalia and the country is now recovering from the effects of a war which is as old as 1991.

Read more about piracy in Somalia here.