Programme 3
Pirates and Buccanneers - Introduction
IntroductionHenry Morgan - Hero or Villain?
10 Reasons to regard Henry Morgan as a hero
10 Reasons to regard Henry Morgan as a villain
Your chance to vote!
The "Golden Age" of Piracy
Bartholomew Roberts
- Pirates
A lot of romantic notions have grown up about the activities of pirates in bygone days, but theirs was a dirty, bloody business.
In Wales, men such as Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart) have been regarded as heroes, being portrayed as rugged individualists who thumbed their noses at the establishment. However, greed was their primary motive, and of those who plundered ships through the ages.
Piracy was rife around the shores of Britain at the time of Elizabeth I, as is shown in the exploits of John Callice of Tintern. His career also demonstrates how the gentry also connived in piracy and profited from it.
- Pirates
Once the seas off Britain were cleared of pirates, they moved to other coasts, most notably the West Indies. Here there are three different terms used for sailors who raided other ships for a living - pirates, privateers and buccaneers - although in their actions all three categories behaved similarly.
Privateers held a "letter of marque" from a government, giving them permission to take ships that belonged to specified enemy countries. This was essentially a cheap way for the governments to wage war at sea, without having to go to all the expense of building and manning the ships themselves.
The term 'buccaneer' comes from West Indian method of preserving meat by roasting it on a barbecue and curing it with smoke. The strips of meat were known as 'boucan', and they were sold to passing ships by the motley collection of escaped slaves and criminals who roamed the coasts of the islands. These men became known as buccaneers and the term came to be used to describe the unscrupulous adventurers of the Caribbean.
Whereas privateers and buccaneers were tolerated by friendly authorities, pirates were outcasts: the enemies of all governments and all navies. They could only find refuge in places that were beyond the rule of law, but fortunately for pirates in the Caribbean there were plenty such islands to be had in the West Indies.
9:00PM Tuesday
Repeated on S4C Digidol 9:00PM Saturday
with English Subtitles