The Virtues of Piracy

How 17th-Century Pirates Can Inspire Young People Today

Full disclosure: I am a real, legitimate pirate and quite proud of it. My legitimacy as a pirate was confirmed in 2014 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Federal Court Judge Alex Kozinski, who wrote in his verdict that my actions in defending whales from the unlawful operations of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean were legitimately the actions of a pirate.

I was not charged or punished for being a pirate, although I was honored that he officially legitimized my status as a genuine bonafide pirate. This same judge was shamefully retired from the bench in 2017 for using court computers to download pornography, along with accusations of sexual harassment.

A person is a pirate if a government or a court declares that a person is a pirate. When pirates were useful, governments classified them as privateers. When they were no longer useful — for example, after the war of

by Captain Paul Watson

Spanish Succession in 1717 — they were fired as privateers and labeled pirates.

The simple definition of a pirate is a seafarer operating without a government license. The very act of taking a ship onto the high seas without a flag and registration is an act of piracy. Some pirates were traditionally given legitimacy with a Letter of Marque, allowing themselves to be called privateers. The founder of the United States Navy, Captain John Paul Jones, was labeled a pirate by the British government during the U.S. War of Independence. The only reason that he and the American revolutionaries were not punished as pirates, terrorists and traitors was because they were victorious.

Other privateers were Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh (yes, they were also knights). And in France, you had Robert Surcouf, who was given the Legion of Honor by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Pirates got things done and they cut through the red tape. Captain Henry Morgan, a pirate who ended piracy in parts of the Caribbean, was rewarded for that with the governorship of Jamaica. England created a fleet of pirates to war against the Spanish in the Caribbean and then dismissed them all when the Crown got what it wanted, forcing the unemployed privateers to take down the Union Jack and replace it with the black flag.

The 17th century, or the Golden Age of Piracy, marked a world defined by criminal and unethical behavior across the board. Slavery, genocide, racism, misogyny, corruption and violence were the norm. Within this context, pirates were remarkably democratic, humane and egalitarian. The life of a pirate was far more comfortable and profitable than the life of a merchant sailor or a member of the Royal Navy.

The pirates of the 17th century were way ahead of their time. Their ships were run democratically. Their captains and officers were elected, and women and non-whites were treated equally. Blackbeard intercepted slave ships and freed the captives and allowed freed slaves to rise in his ranks in accordance with their abilities. His closest friend was a former slave called Black Caesar.