Five of the most ruthless pirates to ever set sail

[5fish]

Is not this person not a German pirate... Look at his name we wont worry about his Background...

Eric of Pomerania - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

For ten years, Eric lived in Gotland where he fought against the merchant trade in the Baltic. From 1449 to 1459, Eric succeeded Bogislaw IX as Duke of Pomerania and ruled Pomerania-Rügenwalde, a small partition of the Duchy of Pomerania-Stolp (Polish: Księstwo Słupskie),[26] as "Eric I". He died in 1459 at Darłowo Castle (German: Rügenwalde Castle), and was buried in the Church of St. Mary's at Darłowo in Pomerania

This earlier guy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnim_VI,_Duke_of_Pomerania

Barnim is known for his engagement in piracy. He erected a fort and a port for this purpose in Ahrenshoop, which was destroyed by Rostock in 1395. He allowed the Victual Brothers, a pirate organization assaulting vessels of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea, to use the Peene river as a winter refuge and the Bay of Greifswald as a basis. In 1398, he signed a treaty with the Teutonic Knights not to further support the Victual Brothers (then also "Likedeelers"), but kept on engaging in piracy himself. On one of his expeditions, he was caught by the Hanseatic League in Kopenhagen's port. From 1400-1403, he aided the dukes of Mecklenburg-Werle in their campaigns against Lübeck. Barnim himself was wounded once at Lübeck's gates

This guy... @Wehrkraftzersetzer He is a Frisian...

Wijerd Jelckama - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The nephew of Pier Gerlofs Donia (also known as Grutte Pier), fought along his side against the Saxon and Hollandic invaders.

Wijerd Jelckama (also spelled Wierd and Wijard)[1][2] (c. 1490–1523) was a Frisian military commander, warlord and member of the Arumer Zwarte Hoop ("Arumer Black Heap"). He was the lieutenant of Pier Gerlofs Donia (also known as Grutte Pier) and fought along his side against the Saxon and Hollandic invaders. Jelckama took Donia's place as freedom fighter after Donia died in 1520.

This person...

Marten Pechlin – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

Marten Pechlin was a privateer in the service of the deposed King Christian II of Denmark , Norway and Sweden . Marten initially sailed as a grain shipper for 20 years on behalf of the Lübeck Hanseatic League. In February 1521, a shipload to Memel was lost under him as captain, he was sentenced by the Lübeck Council, expelled from the city on August 19, 1521 and then one of the most feared pirates on the North and Baltic Seas in the first quarter of the 16th century with a Letter of marque from the Danish king Christian. Among other things, he was said to have sunk twelve merchantmen and sent 105 seamen over the plank in a single dayto have. On November 3, 1526, he fell under circumstances that cannot be precisely reconstructed off the south coast of Norway in a skirmish with three Lübeck mountaineers

 

[5fish]

I found this list of odd pirates...

The Unknown Pirates – Meet 13 of History's Forgotten (But Damn Fascinating) Sea Dogs - MilitaryHistoryNow.com

“A number of countries have their own pirate heroes (and villains) as well — most of which you’ve probably never even heard of.” BUCKETS OF INK have been spilled immortalizing Britain’s buccaneers, privateers and sea...

militaryhistorynow.com

Cossacks Rule the Waves
Cossacks are often remembered as mounted warriors, but surprisingly the famous Russian riders have something of a maritime tradition as well. In the 16th and 17th centuries, a number of Cossacks traded in their horses for oar-powered longboats known as Chaikas and set out on the Black Sea in search of Turkish ships to plunder and destroy. Christian kingdoms across Europe as well as the Catholic Church feared the rise of the Ottomans and many sovereigns paid rewards for the destruction of Turkish vessels. The Cossacks mounted small cannons on their 50-foot craft and loaded them with swordsmen and musketeers. Flotillas of several dozen of the lightweight Chaikas could outpace and out maneuver the larger lumbering Turkish galleys. In one battle, a 1625 clash off Kari-Khaman, several hundred (perhaps even as many as 4,000) Cossack boats did battle with the Turkish navy.

The German delivered food aide... We have met these guys before

Germany’s Humanitarian Raiders
Most pirates (and even licensed privateers) plunder ships to line their pockets – Germany’s pirate collective known as the Victual Brothers, sailed the Baltic in the 14th century to feed the starving. Originally hired in 1392 by King Albert of Sweden who also controlled the Germanic region of Mecklenberg, this mercenary navy was ordered to strike a blow against Queen Margaret I of Denmark who had laid siege to Stockholm. The German privateers fought their way through the enemy blockade and delivered food to the city’s starving inhabitants. The mission earned them their curious name. Eventually, the Victual Brothers set themselves up on Gotland Island in the Baltic and began preying on any and all shipping, as referenced by their motto: “God’s friends and the whole world’s enemies.” Soon few vessels ventured into the Baltic and commerce ground to a halt. Eventually Margaret and Albert set aside their differences and jointly sought to destroy the brotherhood. In 1398, an army of Teutonic knights struck Gotland and wiped out the Victual Brothers once and for all.

 

[5fish]

It seems @O' Be Joyful holding out about pirates on the Ohio river...

The Unknown Pirates – Meet 13 of History's Forgotten (But Damn Fascinating) Sea Dogs - MilitaryHistoryNow.com

“A number of countries have their own pirate heroes (and villains) as well — most of which you’ve probably never even heard of.” BUCKETS OF INK have been spilled immortalizing Britain’s buccaneers, privateers and sea...

militaryhistorynow.com

Another American pirate, James Ford of Kentucky, didn’t sail exotic foreign seas in search of plunder; he used a fleet of longboats to loot barges that travelled the peaceful waters of the Ohio River in the early 19th Century. A prominent local militia officer and prosperous landowner, Ford secretly headed up a gang of pirates that hid out in Illinois’ limestone bluffs known as Cave-in-Rock. Eventually, Fords Ferry Gang was broken up and the ringleader was killed by vigilantes.

James Ford (pirate) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › James_Ford_(pirate)

 

[rittmeister]

Germany’s Humanitarian Raiders
Most pirates (and even licensed privateers) plunder ships to line their pockets – Germany’s pirate collective known as the Victual Brothers, sailed the Baltic in the 14th century to feed the starving. Originally hired in 1392 by King Albert of Sweden who also controlled the Germanic region of Mecklenberg, this mercenary navy was ordered to strike a blow against Queen Margaret I of Denmark who had laid siege to Stockholm. The German privateers fought their way through the enemy blockade and delivered food to the city’s starving inhabitants. The mission earned them their curious name. Eventually, the Victual Brothers set themselves up on Gotland Island in the Baltic and began preying on any and all shipping, as referenced by their motto: “God’s friends and the whole world’s enemies.” Soon few vessels ventured into the Baltic and commerce ground to a halt. Eventually Margaret and Albert set aside their differences and jointly sought to destroy the brotherhood. In 1398, an army of Teutonic knights struck Gotland and wiped out the Victual Brothers once and for all.

mkecklenburg

 

[5fish]

MY God! the Ohio river teams with pirates...

Pirates of the Ohio River | Park District | Clermont County, Ohio

clermontparks.org

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From the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries, American river pirates on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers chose flatboats, keelboats, and rafts as profitable targets to attack because of the valuable and plentiful cargo on board.

 

[5fish]

It seems river pirates are or were all around the world too...

River pirate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted under national, not international law.

It seems the Ruusians had river pirates too...


The Balkan Narentines, of the ninth and tenth centuries, were known for piracy on the River Neretva. The Ushkuiniks were Russian Novgorodian Volga river pirates from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. Both medieval river pirate groups were Slavic versions of Viking river raiders.

Yermak Timofeyevich was a 16th-century Cossack river pirate who started the Russian conquest of Siberia, in the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

 

[5fish]

This is a great little article about the early early pirates on the rivers and coastal areas of North Europe. Germanic tribes were river pirates with boats that used sails and oars...

It all began with piracy

The arrival of the Romans in northwest Europe at the beginning of the era, with the river Rhine as frontier, was the starting signal for five centuries of widespread piracy. Piracy not only affected the coasts of Britannia and Gaul, but also stirred things up as far as the coast of the...

www.frisiacoasttrail.com

The arrival of the Romans in northwest Europe at the beginning of the era, with the River Rhine as frontier, was the starting signal for five centuries of widespread piracy. Piracy that not only affected the coasts of Britannia and Gaul. It stirred things up even as far as the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Heartland of these pirates was the coastal area north of the River Rhine up to the River Elbe, including parts of the adjacent interior. A dangerous coast that even sheltered notorious capers until late fourteenth century. Out of this long-standing pirating tradition evolved a common culture with a common language, encompassing the southern coast of the North Sea ánd both sides of the English Channel. In fact, it is this buccaneer-culture on which western culture was partly founded, which flourished in the course of the fifth century, after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the region. In this post we will try to tell this complex coastal history of the Late Antiquity. A story that is almost never being told.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

drake's actions brought the english time (and silver) to prepare for the armada - it's rather annoying when you finally send in your big bad fleet and get their asses handed on a platter, isn't it?

 

[O' Be Joyful]

It seems @O' Be Joyful holding out about pirates on the Ohio river...

The Unknown Pirates – Meet 13 of History's Forgotten (But Damn Fascinating) Sea Dogs - MilitaryHistoryNow.com

“A number of countries have their own pirate heroes (and villains) as well — most of which you’ve probably never even heard of.” BUCKETS OF INK have been spilled immortalizing Britain’s buccaneers, privateers and sea...

militaryhistorynow.com

Another American pirate, James Ford of Kentucky, didn’t sail exotic foreign seas in search of plunder; he used a fleet of longboats to loot barges that travelled the peaceful waters of the Ohio River in the early 19th Century. A prominent local militia officer and prosperous landowner, Ford secretly headed up a gang of pirates that hid out in Illinois’ limestone bluffs known as Cave-in-Rock. Eventually, Fords Ferry Gang was broken up and the ringleader was killed by vigilantes.
James Ford (pirate) - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › James_Ford_(pirate)

I've heard about him, he was "portrayed" by Walter Brennan/ Col. Jeb Hawkins - 0:50 in the vid - in How The West Was Won.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

5 Ways Pirate Ships Functioned as a True Democracy

This is something you don’t learn in school. Pirates pioneered many of the features we associate with democracy.

historynewsnetwork.org

Pirate organizations predated any modern democratic government, having originated during the Golden Age of Piracy, from the 1650s to the 1730s. As an outgrowth of a diverse society that sought to maximize efficiency, Pirates formed relatively liberal, egalitarian orders based on elected officials and mutual trust.


Sailors often turned to piracy after long, abusive careers as either naval officers or ordinary seamen. In the eighteenth century, sailors were commonly beaten, overworked, and underpaid, and were often starved or diseased.

 

[5fish]

I've heard about him, he was "portrayed" by Walter Brennan/ Col. Jeb Hawkins - 0:50 in the vid - in How The West Was Won.

All those old movie stars...

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

mkecklenburg

he who sits in the glasshouse shall not throw stones

 

[rittmeister]

he who sits in the glasshouse shall not throw stones

the fish quoted from the article which means i was not adressing him

 

[5fish]

Lithuanian pirates... beat up the Prussians...

https://lithuaniatribune.com/curonians-the-fearsome-pirates-of-the-balticuanians

Military historian Dr. Manvydas Vitkūnas says that the Curonians were much like Vikings and that, when it came to naval warfare, they may have been more active than the other coastal Baltic tribe – the Prussians.

 

[5fish]

Baltic Medieval Cities hired pirates...

http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/medieval-pirates-plundered-baltic-sea.html

His research discovers many instances of pirate bands operating in the Baltic. In records of cities such as Reval, Lubeck and Gdansk one can find instances of pirate bands being hired by the cities, as well as laws and practices to defend against them

In 1427, the city of Lubeck hired three pirate leaders, named Bartholomeus Voet, Kalus Glokenere, and Michael Rute, to fight against the Kalmar Union (Norway, Sweden and Denmark). The pirates had a fleet of two large ships, seven smaller ones, and a crew of 300 men. The pirates plundered the Norwegian town of Bergen in 1429. After peace was agreed between the Lubeck and the Kalmar Union, the pirate band moved on and were hired by the Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order.

 

[5fish]

We can not leave out the Persian gulf pirates...

Piracy in the Persian Gulf - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

.

Piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf during the commercial decline of the Dilmun Civilization (centered in present-day Bahrain) around 1800 BC. As early as 694 BC, Assyrian pirates attacked traders traversing to and from India via the Persian Gulf.

During the age of pirates...

Battling pirates in the Persian Gulf

Battling pirates in the Persian Gulf - British were worried about Wahhabism entering India

www.dnaindia.com

For decades, the so-called “pirate kingdoms” of the Persian Gulf’s southern coast(present day UAE, Qatar and Bahrain) had been preying on British shipping. The British had launched naval patrols and a punitive naval campaign ten years ago, to no avail. This time the authorities resolved that Arabian threat had to be put down for good

 

[Wehrkraftzersetzer]

Smith of Bristol​

 

[5fish]

Here is pirate that refused a British pardon to keep his pirate ways. As the British took control of the Nassau, Charles Vane in the night sent out a ship that burst into fire and burned a British ship as he sail to freedom... He terrorize the Carolina's like Black Bread a friend and contemporary...

Charles Vane - Famous Pirate - The Way of the Pirates

www.thewayofthepirates.com

Charles Vane was certainly one of the most skillful pirate captains. His navigating and ship combat skills were unmatchable, and he successfully plundered a numerous vessels. However, he often didn't get along with his crew, which completely ruined him and put the end to his career.

Here is wiki...

Charles Vane - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Vane was likely born in the Kingdom of England around 1680. One of his first pirate ventures was under the leadership of Henry Jennings, during Jennings' attack on the salvage camp for the wrecked Spanish 1715 Treasure Fleet off the coast of Florida. By 1717, Vane was commanding his own vessels and was one of the leaders of the Republic of Pirates in Nassau. In 1718, Vane was captured but agreed to stop his criminal actions and declared his intention to accept a King's Pardon; however just months later he and his men, including Edward England and Jack Rackham, returned to piracy. Unlike some other notable pirate captains of the age like Benjamin Hornigold and Samuel Bellamy, Vane was known for his cruelty, often beating, torturing and killing sailors from ships he captured. In February 1719, Vane was caught in a storm in the Bay Islands and was marooned on an uncharted island. Upon being discovered by a passing British ship, he was arrested and brought to Port Royal where he was eventually tried and hanged in March 1721.

 

[5fish]

Here, I found this alphabetical list of pirates in the Age of Pirates... and links to much more... @rittmeister , @Wehrkraftzersetzer , @O' Be Joyful , @jgoodguy

Pirate History: Famous Pirates, Privateers, Buccaneers, and Corsairs G-I

Pirate History: Famous Pirates, Privateers, Buccaneers, and Corsairs G-I

www.privateerdragons.com

PIRATE: FESTIVALS | SONGS | HISTORY | DICTIONARY HOME | ABOUT US | PHOTOS | LINKS | SITE MAP

 

[5fish]

Here is a pirate that was hire by the British to hunt down pirates and capture them or kill...

Benjamin Hornigold - Famous Pirate - The Way of the Pirates

www.thewayofthepirates.com

Benjamin Hornigold is a typical example of a Caribbean privateer who turned to piracy after the War of the Spanish Succession had ended. However, fate brought him one more duty in career, he became a pirate hunter. People described him as a skilled captain who was kinder to the prisoners then other pirates. Perhaps Hornigold was most famous as a companion of notorious pirate, Blackbeard.

Here is wiki...

Benjamin Hornigold - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bahamas. He helped to establish the "Republic of Pirates" in Nassau and by 1717 was the captain of one of the most heavily armed ships in the region, called the Ranger. It was at this time he appointed Edward Teach, best known in history books as "Blackbeard", as his second-in-command. Mindful not to attack British-led ships during his career, his crew eventually grew tired of the tactic and Hornigold was voted out as captain.[citation needed] In December 1718, Hornigold accepted a King's Pardon for his crimes and became a pirate hunter, pursuing his former allies on behalf of the Governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers. He was killed when his ship was wrecked on a reef near New Spain during the hurricane season of 1719.