View source for Pirate

What most people think of as a '''pirate''' - tricorne [[hat]] or bandanna, [[wood]]en leg, [[gold]] [[coin|dubloon]]s, skull and crossbones [[flag]], [[rum]] etc. - didn't exist until at least the [[17th century]].  However raiders or pirates certainly plied their trade earlier.  Some just looked like a slightly more outrageous version of a [[courtier]] of the time, or when at sea were fairly indistiguishable from other [[sailor|seamen]] or mariners.

==Famous Pirates==
*[[Sir]] [[Francis Drake]]
*[[Wikipedia:Grace_o%27malley|Gr&aacute;inne Ni Mh&aacute;ille (Grace O'Malley)]]
*[[Wikipedia:Barbarossa_%28Ottoman_admiral%29|Khair ad Din (Barbarossa)]]
*[[Wikipedia:List_of_pirates|More ...]]

==Your persona is a pirate==
*You might call yourself a ''pirate'', ''raider'', ''[[corsair]]'', or ''adventurer'' (a [[captain]] who finances the expedition), but not bucaneer or privateer which are [[out-of-period]] terms.
*Your ship may ply the waters of the [[Caribbean]], Irish, [[Baltic]], North or Mediterranean Seas or the Indian waters near [[Persia]] or in the South [[China]] Sea or Sea of [[Japan]].
*[[Letter of marque|Letters of Marque]] were given in [[16th century|16th C]] [[England]], so you can operate freely against England's enemies for a small percentage [[tax]] to the [[crown]] (and what cargo they don't know about they won't miss the tax on). 
*If you are a [[Barbary]] [[corsair]], you will be working for the [[Ottoman Empire]] under a local governor. However, you may originate from a large variety of [[Europe]]an lands.
*Your [[weapon]]s of choice during a boarding action would be short [[sword]]s like the [[cutlass]], a boarding [[axe]], a flintlock [[pistol]] or [[muskatoon]]. When ashore you would prefer a short [[knife]] and/or belaying pin.
*You are probably male, but could be a female captain if you had the [[money]] (and didn't care about your reputation)
*This is probably not a full-time career - you're either a seaman on [[merchant]] trips or a gentleman when not on expedition
*At sea you [[clothing|dress]] sensibly like a [[sailor|mariner]] of the day - warm clothing, long [[shirt]], [[canvas]] slops (baggy [[breeches]]), [[leather]] or [[canvas]] sleeveless [[jerkin]], warm [[thrumm]] [[cap]] and depending on the region you are sailing in you may or may not wear shoes.
*When you go ashore you display the sucess of your mission - wearing the most outrageous and expensive clothes you've managed to [[plunder]], or bought with your booty.  These might be drawn from different cultures, but all reflect the styles available in your chosen region and time.
*If you are a [[gentleman]], your expedition pirating might give you some wonderful stories to tell at dinner parties for the next year.

==Good references==
* Jan Rogozinski, "The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates", ISBN 1-85326-384-2
*http://www.skraeling.sca.org/xiphias/newsletter/V4-1-pirate.html: SCA-targetted information about late period pirates, with varying degrees of accuracy
*[[Wikipedia:Piracy]]
[[category:occupation (medieval)]]

==SCA Pirates==
*[[Barking Spyder]]
*[[Cocomoré de Manió]][http://www.cocomoredemanio.com/]
*[[Drunken Skull]]
*[[The Flying Ypotryll]]
*[[Golden Peacock]]