MyWiki:WikiProject Piracy

This WikiProject discusses high seas piracy. For trademark and copyright infringement, see WikiProject Law.

WikiProject Piracy

This WikiProject covers pirates and piracy-related topics.
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WikiProject Piracy is dedicated to improving and maintaining articles about Pirates and Piracy here on Wikipedia. We aim to improve the quality and general coverage of waterborne piracy articles, develop guidelines and recommendations to support a comprehensive coverage of the topic, and serve as a central location for discussion of issues related to piracy and pirate pages.

This WikiProject was originally proposed by MadMax in March 2006 and merged with a project begun by Piratedan (as requested by Awiseman) in May 2007. The present-day project supports multiple highly popular pages alongside a small but treasured collection of Featured and Good articles.

Wikiprojects related to this one include WikiProject Crime, WikiProject British crime and WikiProject History.

Scope

The current scope of WikiProject Piracy is anything relating to piracy at sea or on major waterways.

Categorization

Piracy related topics can be placed in a range of categories, ranging from specific (individual privateers, buccaneers, corsairs, etc.), to broad (regions and historical periods). The subjects include, but are not limited to:

• Historical periods:
  • Piracy in the Ancient World (pre–1000)
  • Piracy in the Middle Ages (1000–1500)
  • Piracy on the Barbary Coast (1492–1595)
  • The Spanish Main (1570–1650)
  • The Buccaneering Era (1640–1690)
  • The Golden Age of Piracy (1690–1730)
  • Decline of Piracy (1730–1900)
  • Modern (1900–present)
• Individual pirates (captains, sailors, victims, etc.)
• Pirate vessels (boats, ships)
• Pirate havens (Port Royal, Tortuga, etc.)
• Pirate culture (organizations, laws, customs, songs, etc.)
• Piracy in popular culture:
  • Piracy in the Film and TV
  • Piracy in Games
  • Piracy in Literature

Privateers

Inevitably there will be some overlap between piracy and privateering. We fully expect to cover many privateers in our articles. However, for a given privateer to be included in the project, he should have been at risk for execution or other punishment as a pirate if captured, whether because his targets' government did not recognize his letter of marque, or because he exceeded his commission and crossed the line into piracy.

Thus, for example, Henry Morgan and his crew would be within our purview, because their attack on Panama was not authorized by Morgan's letter of marque. The project probably also covers John Paul Jones, because Britain did not recognize the Continental Congress's right to grant letters of marque, and thus Jones would likely have faced trial and execution as a pirate had the British caught him. On the other hand, any Saint-Malo or Dunkirk corsair whose sole claim to fame is legally plundering Britain’s commerce during the Wars of the Grand Alliance or Spanish Succession would not be considered a pirate here, because Britain did not treat such privateers as pirates.

Intellectual property piracy

Copyright and trademark piracy is not part of this project. That topic is best covered by WikiProject Law.

Pending tasks

Open tasks

Here are some tasks you can do to help with WikiProject Piracy:

• Requests: John Lopez (pirate), Lords of the Spanish Main, Benjamin Bennett (governor) (see What links here), Thomas Walker (pirate), Richard Bishop (pirate)
• Expand: Charles Vane, Edward England, Emanuel Wynn, George Lowther, Pierre Le Grand, Roche Braziliano, Thomas Cocklyn, Woodes Rogers, Piracy in the Indian Ocean
• Verify: Daniel Johnson (pirate), Henry Jennings, François l'Olonnais, Olivier Levasseur, Edward Davis (buccaneer)
• Copyedit: Golden Age of Piracy
• Images: MV Delight, MV Powerful,

Participants

See: List of Participants

Articles

{{Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Piracy articles by quality statistics}}

Featured articles

• Edward Low
• Stede Bonnet
• Jack Sparrow
• Woodes Rogers

Good articles

• Roberto Cofresí

Requested articles

See: Requested articles

Article assessment and re-assessment

See: Assessment

Article alerts

{{Wikipedia:Article alerts/Status}} {{Wikipedia:Article alerts/Report section header|DYKN|Did you know}}

• 11 Dec 2025 – United States seizure of the oil tanker Skipper (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by PizzaKing13 (t · c); see discussion

{{Wikipedia:Article alerts/Report section header|MRG|Articles to be merged}}

• 01 Mar 2025 – Isse Mohamoud Yusuf (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Piracy off the coast of Somalia#List by Klbrain (t · c); see discussion

{{Wikipedia:Article alerts/Report section header|SPL|Articles to be split}}

• 22 Oct 2025 – Piracy (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Kowal2701 (t · c); see discussion

Templates

A list of all the WikiProject's templates can be found in Category:WikiProject Piracy templates.

Project banners

• {{WikiProject Piracy}} – Our project banner
• {{WP:WikiProject Piracy/Welcome}} – A welcome message to invite new users to join WikiProject Piracy

Userboxes

• {{User Pirate}} – A project member userbox

Article pages

• {{Pirate-stub}} – A stub template for individual pirates
• {{Piracy-stub}} – A stub template for any article that falls under our scope
• {{Portal}} – A portal box
• {{Pirates}} – A navigational box
• {{Piracy in Somalia}} – A navigational box

Infoboxes

• {{Infobox Pirate}} – An individual pirate infobox

Categories

Piracy

Piracy by body of water

Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean

Piracy in the Baltic Sea

Piracy in the Black Sea

Piracy in the Caribbean

Piracy in the Indian Ocean

Piracy in the Mediterranean

Piracy in the Pacific Ocean

Piracy in the Persian Gulf

River and lake piracy

Piracy in the South China Sea

Piracy by country

Pirates by nationality

Piracy in Australia

Piracy in China

Piracy in Nigeria

Piracy in Somalia

Piracy in the United Kingdom

Piracy in the United States

Piracy lists

no subcategories

Piracy by period

Piracy by year

Pirates by period

Ancient piracy

Medieval piracy

Pirates

Pirates by nationality

Pirates by period

Pirates whose existence is disputed

Female pirates

Cultural depictions of pirates

Fictional pirates

Caribbean pirates

People executed for piracy

Filibusters (military)

Pardoned pirates

Privateers

Wikipedia categories named after pirates

Acts of piracy

People captured by pirates

People killed by pirates

Naval battles involving pirates

Ships attacked and captured by pirates

Terrorist incidents against shipping

Anti-piracy

Operation Atalanta

Barbary Wars

Piracy law

Naval battles involving pirates

People involved in anti-piracy efforts

Ships involved in anti-piracy efforts

Books about piracy

Children's books about pirates

Pirate comics

Non-fiction books about piracy

Novels about pirates

Pirate customs and traditions

Jolly Rogers

Pirate dens and locations

Islands of the Florida Keys

Jolly Rogers

no subcategories

Pirates in popular culture

Fiction about piracy

Cultural depictions of pirates

Pirate festivals

Privateering

Privateers

Privateering in the American Revolutionary War

Privateering in the Gunboat War

Privateer ships

Pirate ships

Ships attacked and captured by pirates

Privateer ships

Spanish relations with the Barbary Coast

no subcategories

Pirate treasure

Buried treasure

Piracy stubs

no subcategories

WikiProject Piracy

WikiProject Piracy participants

no subcategories

WikiProject Piracy articles

Piracy articles by importance

Piracy articles by quality

Pages using WikiProject Piracy with unknown parameters

Piracy articles needing expert attention

WikiProject Piracy templates

no subcategories

Resources

Bibliography

• Botting, Douglas. The Pirates (The Seafarers; v.1). Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1978. .
• Burnett, John (2002). Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas.
• Butler, Lindley S. Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
• • Pages xiii–xvi, xl–xliii and lviii are parlicularly useful.
• • Pages x, xv–xxiii, xxxi, xxxiii, lv–lvi and 514–515 are parlicularly useful.
  • Also available here and here.
• Cawthorne, Nigel (2004). History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas.
• Cordingly, David (1997). Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Harvest Books.
• Earle, Peter (2003). The Pirate Wars. Methuen.
• Ellms, Charles. The Pirates [Originally published as "The Pirates' Own Book"]. New York: Grammercy Books, 1996. .
• Exquemelin, Alexander O. The Buccaneers of America. Anapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1993. . (available in many translations and editions, full text online here.)
• (misidentifies Edward Davis (buccaneer) of the Bachelor's Delight as John Davis (alias of Robert Searle))
• Jameson, J. Franklin (1923). Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents. MacMillan. OCLC 2778131
• Johnson, Captain Charles. A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. New York: The Lyons Press, 1998. .
• Konstam, Angus (2006) Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. Wiley.
• Konstam, Angus (2003). The Pirate Ship: 1660-1730, Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd.
• Konstam, Angus (1998). Pirates: 1660-1730. Osprey Publishing Ltd.
• Konstam, Angus (2001). Privateers & Pirates, 1730-1830. Osprey Publishing, Ltd.
• Konstam, Angus (2000). Buccaneers: 1620-1700. Osprey Publishing, Ltd.
• Lane, Kris E (1998). Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750. M.E. Sharpe.
• Langewiesche, William (2004). The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime. North Point Press.
• Little, Benerson (2005). The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730. Potomac Books.
• Rediker, Marcus (1987). Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750. Cambridge University Press.
• Rediker, Marcus (2004). Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Beacon Press.
• Ritchie, Robert (1986). Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates. Harvard University Press.
• Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates! An A-Z Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. .
  • Rogozinski, Jan. Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
• Rogozinski, Jan (2000). Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean. Stackpole Books.
• Sherry, Frank (1986). Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy. Hearst Marine Books.
• Stephens, John R. (1996). Captured by Pirates: 22 Firsthand Accounts of Murder & Mayhem on the High Seas. Fern Canyon Press.
• The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet, and Other Pirates. London, Printed for Benj. Cowse at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard, 1719. OCLC 85801912
• Turley, Hans (1999). Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and Masculine Identity. New York University Press.
• (may be unreliable when discussing Jacobitism with regard to Lord Archibald Hamilton (in fact a Whig) and his brother (whom he apparently muddles with another George Hamilton))
• Zacks, Richard (2002). The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd. Hyperion.

External links

• General history and other information:
  • Pirates and Privateers - The History of Maritime Piracy (highly recommended, lots of research resources)
  • Pirates: Fact & Legend
  • Rob Ossian's The Pirate King
  • Isle of Tortuga
  • Pirates of the Carribean, in Fact and Fiction
  • Brethren of the Coast
  • Lots of older pirate books now freely available - and a good source of free images - on Project Gutenberg and Google Books

• Historical periods:
  • 1680-1730: Pirates and Anglo-American piracy in the Atlantic, largely a digest of Rediker's Marxist interpretation
  • Buccaneer Trading Company: The Golden Age of Piracy

• Specific regions:
  • Pirates and Piracy in early Newfoundland history

• Pictures, maps, documents and other images:
  • Beej's Pirate Image Archive, Great source for images, all old and in public domain.

• Misc.
  • IMO: Piracy and Robbery against ships
  • Piracy timeline
  • Le Diable Volant (in French and English)
  • Pirates Message Board
  • Pyracy Pub