Basic Information
From the 1650s to the 1720s, the seas were a particularly dangerous place. Pirates and Privateers roamed the waters of the Carribean and Indian Ocean, as well as the waters of the Atlantic off the American coast. This ships engaging in Triangular Trade were vulnerable to attack by otherwise unemployed sailors since the end of Queen Anne's War. The tropes and characters of many a pirate tale are based upon this era.
Here's how the Golden Age of Piracy came about, in a nutshell: There was a series of wars in Europe and The Colonies, and those wars needed sailors. So, many men were trained in the military and nautical arts. But then the wars ended, and the men were no longer needed. They had skills and ships, but no way to make an honest living. Piracy was the result.
Famous Pirates of the Era
- "Black Sam" Bellamy
- Stede Bonnet
- Anne Bonney
- William Fly
- William "Captain" Kidd
- Edward Low
- Henry Morgan
- Calico Jack Rackham
- Mary Read
- Bartholomew Roberts, aka "Black Bart"
- Edward Teach aka Blackbeard
See Also: Barbary Pirate and Piracy
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Numerous RPGs are set in this era, or some fictionalized version of it. My favorite is 7th Sea, but there's also Pirates of the Spanish Main and half a dozen d20 System takes on the era.
- The era can be transplanted to another setting easily enough. The campaign doesn't have to end just because the war did. Picture Star Wars 6 months after the Battle of Endor, or Star Trek 6 months after the Dominion War. There's all these heavily-armed spacecraft out there, and no more enemy to battle. So the PCs paint a skull and crossbones on their transparent aluminum prow…
