Pirate Secrets You Can’t Have At Sea

They worried their mates might steal a watch, not that their mates might be trans

Sail by Dirk Brechmann from Pixabay

Pirates were organized criminals. They surprised other ships, stole their cargo, and killed the crews if they had to.

Among themselves, they had strict behavioral codes with emphasis on not keeping secrets from each other. If a pirate found a gold pocketwatch while raiding a ship, he couldn’t just have it. He was supposed to tell his pirate captain and get permission to keep it. Otherwise, there could be deadly quarrels over who stole what from whose mattress.

Take a look at these no-secrets articles from the code from the 1721–24 career of Captain John Phillips.

• “If any man shall offer to run away, or keep any secret from the company, he shall be marooned with one bottle of powder, one bottle of water, and small arm and shot” — that is, he’ll be abandoned on a desert island with no real means of survival and only a suicide weapon. (Article II)
• Recognizing that they might someday meet a pirate who had been similarly abandoned by his crew, they were all to arrive at “the consent of our company” before taking him on board as one of their own. If one pirate were to bring the marooned pirate on board without first receiving general consent, the…