Pirate laws
Before a campaign, pirates always entered into a special agreement (usually in writing), which stipulated important issues of the upcoming enterprise. It could be called by different names: charter, agreement, code (English code, French chasse-partie). It indicated what share of the spoils the captain and crew of the ship were to receive, compensation for injuries and injuries, incentives for those who distinguished themselves, and punishments for those who were guilty. In content, such agreements did not differ much from each other.
Here are the articles of Captain William Kidd's agreement (they were added to the criminal case file as evidence for the prosecution):
“If a person in the service loses an eye, a leg or an arm, he must be given 600 piastres or six healthy slaves.
The first person to spot a merchant ship should receive 100 piastres.
Any man who disobeys the commander must be deprived of his share of the spoils and punished as the captain of the ship sees fit.
Anyone who chickens out during an attack must be deprived of his share of the spoils.
Any person who was drunk at the time of the attack should be deprived of his share of the spoils.
Any person who incites mutiny should be deprived of his share of the spoils and punished as the captain of the ship sees fit.
Any person who cheats the captain or his crew in seizing booty, money, goods, or anything worth more than one piastre, shall be deprived of his share of the spoils and marooned on the nearest uninhabited island that comes in the ship's path.
Any money or other loot must be divided among the crew."
The trial of Captain William Kidd. 19th century drawing
And here are the rules on the ship of Captain Bartolomeo Roberts:
"Each member of the crew has an equal say in the daily affairs of the crew. Each member of the crew is entitled at any time to the fresh provisions and spirits captured and may use them at his pleasure, unless it becomes necessary to save them for general use, which is decided by vote."
Each crew member must be familiar with the list of prizes (boots - Author's note) on board, because in addition to their own share they are allowed to change clothes. But if they deceive their comrades for even a dollar in the form of dishes, jewelry or money, they will be marooned on a desert island.
It is prohibited to play dice and cards for money.
Candles and lamps must be extinguished at eight o'clock in the evening, and if any of the crew wants to drink after this hour, he must do so on the open deck in the dark.
Each crew member must keep his swords, sabers and pistols clean and always ready for battle.
Boys and women are prohibited from being among the crew. If anyone is caught seducing a woman and taking her on board a ship in disguise, he will be killed.
Anyone who leaves a ship without permission or gets out of hand-to-hand combat during a battle must be punished by death or landing on a desert island.
Fighting is prohibited on board, but every quarrel must be brought to an end on shore by a duel with sabers or pistols. At the quartermaster's command, the duelists, placed with their backs to each other, will have to turn around and immediately shoot. If anyone does not do this, the quartermaster must knock the weapon out of his hands. If both miss, they will have to continue fighting with sabers, and the first blood drawn will determine the winner.
No one can talk about changing their lifestyle until everyone's share reaches £1,000. Anyone who becomes crippled or loses a limb in the service should receive 800 piastres from the general supply, and for lesser injuries - in proportion.
The captain and quartermaster receive two shares of the prize each, the gunner and boatswain - one and a half, the other officers - one share and a quarter, the ordinary gentlemen of fortune - a share each.
Musicians have the right to rest on Saturdays. On other days - with permission."
If the agreement was in writing, all team members signed it. Illiterate people put a cross. It is curious that in the surviving pirate codes the paintings are not located as is customary (and in our time too) - at the bottom of the document, but chaotically throughout the free space. The pirates did this specifically in order to follow an important rule: on a pirate ship everyone is equal, there are no firsts and no lasts.
Very few pirate codes have survived to this day, since pirates, when attacked by navy ships, first tried to destroy the agreement. Otherwise, such an agreement could fall into the hands of the authorities, which served as irrefutable evidence of guilt and meant a quick path to the gallows.
The pirates themselves administered justice to those who violated the provisions of the charter. Here are the most common punishments that pirates applied to those who violated their laws, as well as to torture captured prisoners to obtain information about hidden valuables:
Bloodletting- numerous shallow cuts were inflicted on the offender with knives (as a rule, this did not lead to death).
Immersion in water- a person’s head was lowered into the water and kept there until he began to suffocate.
Flogging- whipping. If 40 blows were given, then this punishment was called the “law of Moses.”
Hanging- mainly used for the treacherous murder of a teammate (the most common type of death penalty at that time).
Hanged from the yardarm. 19th century drawing
Keeling (dragging under the keel)- with the help of a rope (under the keel ends), a person was dragged under the keel of the ship from one side to the other across the ship (often leading to death: if the person did not choke, he received serious cuts from the sharp edges of the shells that covered the bottom of the ship). It was carried out once, twice or three times depending on the offense.
Dragging under the keel
Throwing overboard- the person was simply thrown into the open sea.
Maroning (landing)- a person was left on a desert island.
A person landed on a desert island in those days, in most cases, faced a sad fate - slow death from hunger and thirst or many years of vegetating in primitive conditions. Therefore, according to pirate custom, they left him a loaded pistol and a bottle of rum. 19th century drawing
Beating with a nine-tail whip- a person was given blows with a nine-tailed whip (as a rule, when several dozen blows were given, it led to death, especially if the whip had hooks or blades). Among sailors, the punishment is also known as "Captain's Daughter". If after such an execution the offender remained alive, then his back was rubbed with salt - not to increase suffering, but to avoid blood poisoning from deep wounds.
The nine-tail whip is a short stick with leather straps, at the ends of which hooks, blades or pieces of metal are attached. Just the thought of being beaten with a nine-tailed whip was enough to cause panic fear in any person
"Island for One"- a man was thrown into the sea with a piece of wood.
Towing- a person tied to a rope was dragged behind the ship (sometimes leading to death: the person choked or could be attacked by sharks).
But the punishment in the form of “walking the plank” did not exist among the pirates. The first mention of such punishment dates back to 1785, after the golden era of piracy. Pirates never forced a person to walk along a plank - this punishment was attributed to them by artists at the end of the 19th century, and then it found its way into literature and cinema.
The punishment assigned to pirates by illustrators is “walking the plank.” 19th century drawing
To a modern person these punishments may seem cruel, but for their time there was no excessive cruelty in them. Rather, on the contrary, taking into account that in Europe in the 17th century. and partly in the 18th century. Such types of execution as wheeling and quartering were also used; pirate punishments look relatively humane.
Of course, the pirates also used other punishments, although not so common. For example, someone who hid part of the loot from his comrades could simply be kicked out of the ship and would never be accepted as a pirate in the future. For killing a member of his team, the culprit could be tied to a tree instead of hanging, and he himself chose the person who would kill him.
Behavior and morals
The order on a pirate ship was not much different from the life of peaceful sailors. Although, according to eyewitnesses, he was not distinguished by strict discipline. Everyone considered himself a free person, not obliged to obey anyone except the captain. And they often obeyed the captain reluctantly.
William Dampier, himself a famous pirate of the second half of the 17th century, describing a three-month voyage with filibusters off the coast of Panama, noted:
"They were the saddest creatures... And although the weather was bad, which required many hands above, most of them got down from their hammocks only to eat or relieve themselves."
“Everyone did what he wanted, without asking whether it was pleasant for his comrade. Some of them sang and danced, while others tried in vain to sleep, but this kind of inconvenience had to be endured without grumbling. Before the battle, the filibusters usually hugged as a sign of brotherly agreement or, holding hands, swore to stand by each other until death."
The pirate was a free man and could leave the ship at any time and join another crew that agreed to accept him. He could also go ashore at any time and leave the pirate business.
This is how the governor of Tortuga and the Coast of Saint-Domingue, Jacques Nepvey de Poincy, described the filibusters in a letter to the French government in 1677:
“There are still more than a thousand of these people here, who are called filibusters ... They travel wherever they want; at the same time, they are poorly subordinated as far as service on the ship is concerned, since everyone considers themselves bosses, but they are very good at undertaking and acting against enemy. Each has his own weapons, his own gunpowder and his own bullets. Their ships are usually not very strong and poorly equipped, and they have no other property than what they capture from the Spaniards."
Discipline was also not helped by the fact that pirates always drank a lot of rum. This often led to tragic consequences.
So, while off the eastern coast of Hispaniola during the campaign of Morgan's flotilla against the cities of Maracaibo and Gibraltar in 1669, the pirates got so drunk that they blew up the powder magazine on the flotilla's flagship - the royal thirty-six-gun frigate, handed over to Morgan for the expedition by the Governor of Jamaica, Thomas Modyford. About thirty pirates died, and Morgan survived only by luck.
One of the most famous pirates, Henry Morgan, had an amazing quality - he was always lucky. 19th century drawing
Sometimes drunkenness led pirates straight to the gallows. On November 15, 1720, while off the west coast of Jamaica in the area of Cape Negril Point, a crew of pirates led by John Rackham, nicknamed “Calico Jack,” staged a grand drinking party. By evening, the pirates were so drunk that most of them could not even climb onto the deck of their ship to repel the attack of the twelve-gun sloop Eagle, Captain Jonathan Barnet, who had boarded them at that time, who was sent by the Jamaican authorities to capture Calico Jack.
Alcohol also failed the pirates Bartolomeo Roberts (although Captain Roberts himself did not drink alcohol), nicknamed “Black Bart.” In early February 1722, Roberts' ships anchored in the bay off Cape Lopez on the west coast of Central Africa. There they were discovered on February 5, 1722 by the English warship Swallow under the command of Captain Chaloner Ogle. On the eve of the decisive battle on February 10, 1722, pirates captured a merchant ship with supplies of alcohol and got so drunk that at a critical moment many were not ready for battle. The pirates suffered a crushing defeat, and Black Bart himself was killed by a volley of buckshot from the Swallow while trying to escape from the bay.
The social organization of pirates was democratic. All positions on the ship (including captain and quartermaster) were elective. All important decisions were also made by a majority vote at the meeting. Anyone had the right to say whatever they considered necessary at such meetings.
Here is what Exquemelin wrote about the relationship between pirates:
“The pirates are very friendly and help each other in everything. Anyone who has nothing is immediately allocated some property, and they wait until the poor person has money.”
“The pirates treated each other with care. Those who have nothing can count on the support of their comrades.”
Conflicts between team members, unless the law was broken, were settled through duels. Since duels were generally prohibited on board a ship, rivals went ashore with pistols and knives (or cutlass). The quartermaster played the role of second. They usually fought until first blood.
However, this should not paint an idyllic picture of the fact that pirates were models of virtue and decency towards each other and nobility towards captives. The biographies of sea robbers are literally filled with stories of regular mutinies, betrayals, fights, quarrels over the division of booty and murders. Pirates for the most part were not at all the noble sea robbers that are constantly written about in novels and films.
According to eyewitnesses, the same Edward Teach, when robbing captured ships, did not even bother himself with waiting: if the victim could not quickly remove the ring from his finger, Blackbeard grabbed a saber, cut off his hand and threw it into his bag.
Blackbeard always had a cutlass with him, and when attacking he wore a sling with six loaded pistols
One night, Blackbeard was drinking in the wardroom with members of his crew, including the pilot and senior officer Israel Hands. During the drinking session, Blackbeard pulled out two loaded pistols and placed them on the table next to him. After some time, Captain Teach suddenly extinguished the candle and fired two pistols in the darkness, although no one gave him the slightest reason for such an act. As a result, Hands was shot in the knee and left crippled for life. When Blackbeard was asked why he did this, he said:
"If I don't kill one of my people from time to time, they will forget who I really am."
French pirate of the mid-17th century. Francois L'Olone, having captured a Spanish ship at the mouth of the Esther River, ordered the heads of all the Spanish sailors on board who surrendered and no longer posed a danger to be cut off. Although he could have received a ransom for them.
Pirates François L'Olone cut off the heads of captive Spaniards. Drawing from the 19th century.
In January 1722, ships under the command of Bartolomeo Roberts arrived at one of the slave trading centers of the Slave Coast - Vida. There, pirates captured eleven slave trading ships, after which they demanded ransom from the captains. Everyone paid what they could, except one Portuguese captain. Then Black Bart ordered both ships of this captain to be burned alive with sixty slaves in the holds. Which is what was done.
But, perhaps, Captain Edward Lowe, nicknamed “Ned Lowe,” who hunted in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic from 1721-1724, surpassed everyone in atrocities. Here are just a few of his "exploits".
One day he did not like the dinner that the ship's cook prepared. For this, he ordered the cook to be tied to the mast of one of the previously captured ships and burned along with the ship.
In another case, Ned Low ordered the lips of a Portuguese captain, who threw a bag of gold overboard during an attack by pirates, to be cut off. Lowe then fried them in front of the captain, after which he offered to eat them in exchange for mercy. He refused, then Lowe ordered to kill him and the crew of the captured ship.
In the end, Lowe's atrocities became so annoying to the crew that there was a riot and he was marooned on a desert island.
Edward Lowe, nicknamed "Ned Lowe". 18th century engraving
The pirates were real masters at torture. There are stories of pirates setting their victims on fire, gouging out their eyes, cutting off their limbs, and even shooting them out of cannons.
John Steele, who participated in Morgan's campaigns, wrote in a letter to the Secretary of State of England:
“A common practice among privateers, in addition to burning with a ignition fuse, was to cut a person into pieces; first the body, then one arm, the other arm, a leg; sometimes they tied a rope around his head and twisted him with a stick until his eyes popped out - this was called "wolding". This was done before the capture of Puerto Bello, because they refused to show the road to the city, which did not exist, and many times in the city itself, because they did not want to show wealth of which they did not know. A woman was sat there naked on a stone and fried, because she did not admit where the money was, which she owned only in their imagination; this, as he heard, some declared with boasting, and one patient admitted with regret."
Burning with a fuse, or the "torture of St. Andrew," was often used by West Indian freebooters to extract valuable information from captives by inserting fuse between the victim's curled fingers, which were then set on fire. The wicks smoldered, causing unbearable pain to the unfortunate victim.
Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica William Beeston, in an account of a French pirate raid on the island in 1694, reports:
“The blacks allowed some women to be raped, some they cut off their breasts, so even Turks or pagans never committed great inhumane cruelties.”
Thus, if pirates had concepts of honor and nobility, it was only in relation to themselves, and even then not always. Anything, any atrocities, were allowed in relation to the prisoners.
After a successful voyage, the pirates returned to their base ports, the largest of which at different times were: Tortuga, Port Royal in Jamaica, Petit Goave in Hispaniola, New Providence in the Bahamas, etc., where they organized grandiose revelries.
The joint drinking bout of pirates Edward Teach and Charles Vane on Ocracoke Island in the fall of 1718. 18th-century engraving.
Perhaps nothing is more synonymous with pirates than a bottle of rum. Rum was invented in the 16th century. in the West Indies as a by-product of cane sugar production. There are two versions of the origin of the word rum: according to one, the name comes from the Latin word succarum (sugar), according to the other, from the English word rumbullion (fight, disorder). The word rumbullion was used to describe the process of fermentation of sugar cane juice before distillation.
The name itself - rum (English rum) first appeared in the English colony on the island of Barbados at the beginning of the 17th century. Therefore, rum was sometimes called "Barbados water".
The raw material for the production of rum is molasses - molasses made from sugar cane juice. A ton of sugar cane produces 100 liters of rum. The largest centers of rum production in the 17th-18th centuries. were in Jamaica and Barbados.
Rum was stored in wooden barrels, from which it was poured into mugs. The first wine bottles resembling modern ones began to be made only in the middle of the 17th century. in England. Thanks to the invention of new technology, the strength of glass has increased significantly. Quickly becoming popular, the glass bottle from the second half of the 17th century. became the main container for bottling rum.
Vieux Rhum Anglais Rum 1830 Considered to be the oldest rum to date. Rum has been bottled in similar bottles since the second half of the 17th century.
The famous historian of piracy Jean Merien cites the following words of pirates to a contemporary when reproaching them for excessive drunkenness and wastefulness:
“Since dangers constantly await us, our fate is very different from the fates of other people. Today we are alive, tomorrow we are killed - what is the point in accumulating and saving anything? We never care about how long we will live. The main thing is to be as good as possible spend your life without thinking about preserving it."
Robert Louis Stevenson's wonderful novel "Treasure Island" very accurately describes, from the point of view of being true to history, how pirates wasted their lives. John Silver says this:
“It’s not the ability to earn money, but the ability to save... Where are the people of England now? I don’t know... Where are the people of Flint? Mostly here, on the ship, and they are happy when they get pudding. Many of them lived on the shore, like the last beggars. With they were dying of hunger, by God! Old Pugh, when he had lost his eyes, and also his shame, began to live on twelve hundred pounds a year, like a Lord of Parliament. Where is he now? Dead and rotting in the ground. But two years ago he had nothing left eat. He begged, he stole, he cut throats, and yet he could not feed himself!"
Indeed, in a short period of time, the pirates managed to squander (drink on drink, spend on prostitutes and gambling) all the loot during the campaign. They were helped in this by a whole system of drinking establishments and brothels, specially designed for pirates.
The following figures indicate the scale of drunkenness among pirates. By 1692, the population of Port Royal was, according to various estimates, from 6,500 to 10,000 people. At the same time, there were at least a hundred drinking establishments in the city, i.e. at least one tavern or tavern per hundred inhabitants, including women and children! And this is not counting brothels, of which there were not much fewer.
By the way, in the novel “Treasure Island” there is one fictional pirate attribute that has become universally famous - a black mark (English Black Spot), indicating an accusation brought by the pirate community (or individual pirates) to one of its members for violating the charter, orders, rules and customs Subsequently, the black mark was repeatedly used in literature and cinema.
In reality, there was no black mark. In the tradition of some pirates of the Caribbean in the 17th-18th centuries. there was a presentation of the death card, which was the ace of spades. If such a card was thrown to a pirate, it meant that he was in danger of death or that they did not want to see him here.
National composition
Surprisingly, among the pirates there were black Africans (usually former slaves), who were full members of the crew, had all the rights and responsibilities of other pirates, and participated in the division of the booty on an equal basis with everyone else. The existence of such an extremely unusual phenomenon for the 17th-18th centuries, and we are talking not only and not so much about the freedom of black Africans among pirates (this also happened in Europe), but to a greater extent the phenomenon of their absolute equality with whites, indicates that that the relationships within the pirate community were centuries ahead of their time. Moreover, there were quite a lot of blacks among the pirates.
For example, of the 272 pirates crewed by Bartolomeo Roberts captured on February 10, 1722, 75 were black Africans.
On almost every pirate ship in the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries. there were black pirates. 19th century drawing
Pirates had no racial tensions. Complete and general friendship of the peoples reigned on their ships.
Most pirates in the 17th-18th centuries. always consisted of the British (from England and from the colonies of the New World), and somewhat less the French and the Dutch. Modern historians give the following assessments of the national composition among pirates of the Caribbean and Atlantic in the period from 1715-1725:
35% are British;
20-25% - Americans (residents of the English colonies in New England);
20-25% - blacks (they were in almost every crew);
15-20% - French and Dutch (mostly natives of the West Indies);
5% - other nationalities.
To be continued.
Our ancestors were very inventive in terms of cruel bullying. It was considered quite natural to deprive a criminal of his life and doom him to as much suffering as possible. We have collected 15 of the most sophisticated types of execution, after learning about which you begin to understand that life in modern society is not so bad.
1. Death under an elephant
In Southeast Asia, execution with the help of an elephant, which crushed the condemned, was popular. Moreover, elephants were often trained to act in such a way as to prolong the death of the victim.
2. Walk the Plank
This form of execution - walking along a plank overboard - was mainly practiced by pirates. The condemned often did not even have time to drown, because the ships were usually followed by hungry sharks.
3. Bestiary
Bestiaries were a popular entertainment during the times of Ancient Rome, when the condemned entered the arena against wild, hungry animals. Although sometimes such cases were voluntary and entered the arena in search of money or recognition, mostly political prisoners who were sent to the arena unarmed fell to the mercy of the victims.
4. Mazzatello
This execution was named after the weapon (usually a hammer) used to kill the defendant in the Papal States in the 18th century. The executioner read out the accusation in the city square, after which he hit the victim on the head with a hammer. As a rule, this only stunned the victim, after which his throat was cut.
5. Vertical shaker
Originating in the United States, this method of capital punishment is now often used in countries such as Iran. Although it is very similar to hanging, there is a significant difference: the victim did not have a hatch opened under his feet or the chair was kicked out from under him, but the condemned man was lifted up using a crane.
6. Skinning
Flaying a person's body was often used to instill fear in people, as the flayed skin was then usually nailed to a wall in a public place.
7. Bloody Eagle
The Scandinavian sagas described a bloody method of execution: the victim was cut along the spine, then the ribs were broken out so that they resembled the wings of an eagle. Then the lungs were pulled out through the incision and hung on the ribs. At the same time, all the wounds were sprinkled with salt.
The victim was secured on a horizontal grate, under which hot coals were placed. After this, she was slowly roasted, often stretching out the execution for hours.
9. Crush
In Europe and America there was also a method similar to Indian elephant crushing, only here stones were used. As a rule, such an execution was used to extract a confession from the accused. Each time the accused refused to confess, the executioner added another stone. And so on until the victim died from suffocation.
10. Spanish tickler
The device, also known as a cat's paw, was used by executioners to tear and skin the victim. Often death did not occur immediately, but later as a result of infection in the wounds.
11. Burning at the stake
Historically popular method of capital punishment. If the victim was lucky, he was executed at the same time as several others. This ensured that the fire was much larger and that death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning rather than combustion.
12. Bamboo
Extremely slow and painful punishment was used in Asia. The victim was tied over pointed bamboo shoots. Considering that bamboo grows phenomenally quickly (up to 30 cm per day), it grew directly through the victim’s body, slowly piercing it.
13. Buried Alive
Colombian tie tattoo.
Drug cartels in Colombia and the rest of Latin America practice similar executions of traitors who give information to the police or competitors. The victim's throat is cut and the tongue is pulled out through it.
Historical cases
"Walk the Plank" plays a large role in the awareness of pirates in popular culture. In reality, this type of execution was used very rarely. Most pirates did not scatter their victims. Even those few who enjoyed the spectacle of torture (such as Edward Lau) used longer methods.
see also
Notes
Literature
- Don Carlos Seitz, Under The Black Flag, Dail Press, 1925 (republished by Dover Publications in , ISBN 0-486-42131-7)
- Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, “Pirates: 2. Walking the Plank”, The Mariner's Mirror, vol. 80 (May,1994), p. 204
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The pirates' main weapon was fear. Blackbeard, for example, inspired such terror that often all he had to do was simply raise his flag, and the unlucky enemy would immediately surrender without engaging in battle. One day, Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, entering New Foundland’s Trespass Bay, robbed and sank 21 ships there without encountering any resistance: the crews simply fled when they saw him coming.
Among the pirates there were outright sadists, such as or, who tortured their captives as entertainment. For the majority, however, torture was only a means to maintain their reputation. Known as fearsome monsters, cruel pirate captains encountered less resistance, which meant saving men and ammunition. However, many of them were once sailors, and the abuse they suffered on board merchant ships turned them into ruthless and very dangerous killers. As David Cordingley wrote in his book Life Among Pirates, "the true world of pirates was often closer to today's horror films than to romantic plays and adventure novels on the subject."
In general, those who make pirate stories the basis of their own works, as a rule, provide them with a romantic aura and add decency. For example, there was John Gow, also known as John Smith. He had just turned thirty-five years old when, on November 3, 1724, he mutinied aboard the George Galey and then sailed the ship to the Auckland Islands. Along the way, he kidnapped three women from the island of Kawa. This is what Daniel Defoe wrote about the attitude of this cruel pirate towards women: « the women were kept on board for some time, used in such an inhumane manner that when they were put ashore they could not only walk, but even stand; then we found out that one of them died right on the shore, where we left them". Despite this evidence, a century later Walter Scott, using Gau's story for his historical novel The Pirate, omitted these atrocities.
Cordingley, as an example of the cruelty common among pirates, cites the sworn testimony of two sailors about how they were treated by Charles Vane. One of them, Nathaniel Catling, was on board the Bermudian ship Diamond when it was attacked by Vane's Ranger in April 1718. The captain and crew were killed, and the pirates took one black man and 300 coins. Catling pretended to be dead, but through negligence showed signs of life, and one of Vane’s team cut his shoulder with a saber. After this, the pirates burned the Diamond. The second witness, Edward North from the Bermuda ship "William and Martha", saw with his own eyes how one of the crew members was pirated tied to the bowsprit, put a pistol in his mouth, and then burned his eyes with a fuse to force him to say how much money was on board.
Such treatment of people cannot be called anything other than cruel, but its motives were clear: to intimidate the captives and quickly find out from them where the valuables were. Cordingley also names a third motive: “The pirates retaliated mercilessly for any attempts to cross their activities and committed more atrocities than usual when they attacked the islands where their comrades were hanged or the ships that captured them.”
Edward Lowe surpassed all other pirates in cruelty. His sadism became the talk of the Caribbean. In March 1742, Governor Hart left a description of Lowe's capture of a Portuguese ship returning to Brazil. After the captain threw a huge bag of gold into the sea, Lowe cut off his lips, fried them in front of him, and offered to eat them in exchange for a pardon. Refused, Lowe killed both the captain and all thirty-two members of his crew.
There is evidence that even, who boasted that he treated prisoners well, brutally tortured people he captured in the Spanish city of Porto Bello. He burned women’s private parts, and even burned one in the oven because she refused to tell him where the gold was hidden.
Torture and torture were very varied. Sometimes the victim was stretched with ropes tied to the arms and legs, and then with sticks and sabers. Sometimes heavy stones were placed on the chest until the person lost the ability to breathe.
Exquemelin describes the pirate torture of captives called "wulding": “a thin cord or fuse was wound around the head and tightened until the unfortunate eyes popped out of their sockets”. One particularly terrible torture was invented by Montbard of Languedoc. He nailed a person's rectal outlet to a mast and then forced her to dance a jig around it until the entire intestine was wrapped around the mast; At the same time, the unfortunate man was beaten with burning sticks.
Montbar Languedoc
I believe that any of the readers can easily understand this man: being ardent and noble by nature, and Once having read to his heart's content the writings of Bartolome de Las Cassas, who spoke about the atrocities of the Spanish conquistadors, this young man was inflamed with fierce hatred of the Spaniards as cruel murderers and sadists. Adding fuel to the fire was the death of his uncle off Santo Domingo, when, having sailed to the New World to serve in the Royal Navy in the war with Spain, their ship was attacked by the Spaniards. Since then, Montbar fulfilled a vow of revenge, and having moved to the pirate bay, he soon became famous and acquired the nickname “Monbar the Fighter” for the fact that he brought terror to the entire Spanish coast, killing and torturing the Spaniards wherever he met them.
The described execution, by the way, was a kind of honorable execution among the Vikings, namely: the prisoner's stomach was ripped open, his rectum was nailed to the mast, and then he was driven around it until he fell dead. Somehow this doesn’t really seem like the behavior of a noble person, right? This story teaches us about what a person becomes when he takes revenge. Montbar of Languedoc went missing at the beginning of the 18th century, and no one knows which of the seas laid his ashes to rest, and how much he left behind.
Most of the real, cruel pirates were like that. If you have small children, then think carefully before letting your child go to a children's party dressed as a sea robber.
Hewing boards in a dream means a quarrel, sawing them means a deceased person, splitting them means a wedding or christening. Gluing a broken board together means making peace with someone. To break is to lose friendship. Drilling a board means a bold intention brought to fruition. Buying boards means sadness.
Walking on planks in a dream is a sign that in reality you should be more careful in conversations and not be frank with those who are unable to keep secrets.
If in a dream you walk along the rotten planks of an old bridge with caution and still fall through, it means that in reality you will acutely experience the indifference towards yourself of those whom you treat with love and respect.
A washboard in a dream foreshadows difficulties in the near future. Seeing someone wash it or wash it yourself means you have to come to terms with the fact that your rival was more successful. A broken washboard warns of a dissolute life and the resulting troubles.
A chalkboard foretells bad news about someone's illness. To dream that you are writing on it with chalk means that in reality you will make a profit and all that, provided that the board is not black, otherwise it will only mean failure. A cutting board is a sign of troubles in anticipation of an upcoming family celebration.
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Dream Interpretation - Dirt
Seeing dirt in a dream foretells misfortune.
Walking through the mud in muddy roads is a threat to lose the favor of friends, the trust of your superiors, love and respect in the family, and not through anyone else’s fault, but through your own fault.
Seeing others kneading mud in rainy weather foretells that you will be denigrated among your colleagues by one of them.
Getting splashed with mud on the street means that your reputation is in danger from malicious neighbors.
Cleaning dirt from clothes means dispelling doubts about your integrity. Taking mud baths and generally undergoing mud therapy is a sign of happiness and good luck.
Household dirt means well-being.
Cleaning up dirt in an apartment means losing your usual benefits.
Dirty water in a dream portends illness. Seeing dirty, filthy kittens in a dream means making a mistake in reality, succumbing to the first impression, which turns out to be deceptive.
A dirty, unkempt horse in a dream means deception and envy on the part of those you trust are possible.
A dream in which you see a car towing in the mud foreshadows hardships and hardships, after overcoming which life will seem beautiful and wonderful to you.
Seeing building materials dumped in the mud means a bad deal.
Rolling around in the street dirt means profit.
Seeing your hands dirty means sorrow.
Dirty nails are a shame if in reality you do not change your point of view in accordance with objective circumstances.
Dirty curtains seen in a dream foreshadow humiliating reproaches and quarrels based on mutual misunderstanding.
Seeing dirty, shabby houses means deterioration of health, decline in business and quarrels with a loved one.
Being in a dirty room in a store or any other public institution means that an enemy, under the guise of a friend, will gain confidence in you, which will cause considerable damage to your interests.
Dirty clothes always portend deception and warn you to be careful when dealing with strangers. Such a dream may also portend an action that could tarnish your reputation.
Dirty dishes are a harbinger of a disappointing future.
