3 Chapter 2 The Pirate Way

Chapter 2 The Pirate Way Pirates have been a part of life at sea almost since people first started sailing. The ancient Greeks battled pirates as they sailed on the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Romans fought off pirates who wanted the valuable olive oil carried on Roman ships. The Vikings were pirates of a kind, sailing their warships to raid villages in Europe or capture ships they found at sea. In the 1500s, English and French pirates called buccaneers sailed the Caribbean Sea. They took their famous name from buccan, a Native

American word for how the men cooked the meat they ate on their ships. Buccaneers most often attacked Spanish ships and settlements in the Caribbean. English authorities let the buccaneers fight until 1681, when such attacks against Spain were outlawed.

Historians call the early 1700s the "Golden Age of Piracy." Pirates ventured wherever their ships could take them. They did not follow the rules of a navy or a government. Men like Benjamin Hornigold moved about freely, looking for ships to capture. Many sailors easily "turned pirate" because they could make much more money than if they stayed in the navy. In the navy, a sailor had to do whatever his officers asked of him. If a navy ship captured an enemy ship, the naval officers got most of the cargo and money. Regular sailors received only a small reward. The food on most navy ships was not very good, either. It might have included salted beef that had been stored in barrels for months. The bread was often so hard that it had to be soaked in water to soften it before it could be eaten. Many sailors died from scurvy because they didn't eat enough fresh vegetables and fruit. It was a hard life.

Pirate ships, on the other hand, were run by all the pirates working together as a committee. They voted one man as captain, but they could vote him out if they didn't like how he ran the ship. All the pirates shared what they stole. And because pirate ships could return to port often, they ate better and fresher food.

SCURVY SCURVY IS A DISEASE CAUSED BY A LACK OF VITAMIN C. IT WAS VERY COMMON IN THE 1600S AND 1700S, WHEN SAILING SHIPS WERE FAR FROM LAND FOR WEEKS AND MONTHS AT A TIME. SAILORS' TEETH WOULD FALL OUT. THEY WOULD BECOME EXTREMELY TIRED. AND THEIR SKIN WOULD BECOME COVERED IN SPOTS OR SORES. IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, MORE THAN HALF THE DEATHS IN THE BRITISH ROYAL NAVY WERE DUE TO SCURVY, NOT INJURIES RECEIVED IN BATTLE. FOR MANY YEARS, SHIPS' DOCTORS DID NOT KNOW THE CAUSE OF OR THE CURE FOR SCURVY. SAILORS WHO ATE FRESH FRUIT OR VEGETABLES SEEMED TO GET SCURVY LESS OFTEN. BUT CARRYING FRESH FOOD WAS DIFFICULT. THERE WERE NO REFRIGERATORS OR ICE TO PRESERVE IT. THE ROYAL NAVY FOUND ONE SOLUTION. THEY BEGAN SERVING LEMON JUICE TO SAILORS ON LONG VOYAGES.

THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHY AT THE TIME, BUT THAT WAS INDEED THE CURE. SAILORS WHO GOT THEIR VITAMIN C FROM LEMON OR LIME JUICE, OR FROM OTHER FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, WERE ABLE TO PREVENT SCURVY.