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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9778000" data-attributes="member: 4937">I mean some of this happened but that's not really an accurate description of the mechanism of pirates in the Golden Age of piracy.  Those smaller targets generally had to do with the age of criminal pirates post 1730 when pirates couldn't be expected to have safe ports or government backing.  During the Golden Age of Pirates, armadas of 12 ships and more than 1000 men weren't unknown, with targets varying from treasure fleets to towns.  This "gritty" or "realistic" piracy where you are stealing a load of sugar or tobacco or lumber from a merchant and selling it for a fraction of its value to a dishonest fence is hardly what pirate movies show.  Rather, the buccaneers and corsairs of Hollywood fantasy have the eventual backing of England and the ability to obtain pardons, and are going after Spanish treasure galleons.  And the thing is, a lot of that actually happened, including raiding Mogul treasure fleets in the Indian Ocean.As for shares, it wasn't unusual for shares to not be equal, and indeed it was necessary that the master of the ship receive additional shares in order to pay for the ship generally as well as provisions like food, rum and water.  A good Captain gets the big shares, but then buys a keg of room and a few pigs and throws a party to show his generosity.  The point is only that the shares were more equal than they would have been if you were a sailor in the Navy where the ratios on a large ship could be 1000's to 1 between the captain and a crew member.</blockquote>

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