piracy
The taking of a ship, aircraft, or any of its contents, from lawful ownership, punishable under international law by the court of any country where the pirate may be found or taken. When the craft is taken over to alter its destination, or its passengers held to ransom, the term is hijacking. Piracy is also used to describe infringement of copyright.
Piracy in history
Algiers (see
corsairs), the West Indies (see
buccaneers), the coast of Trucial Oman (the Pirate Coast), Chinese and Malay waters, and such hideouts as Lundy Island, southwestern England, were pirate haunts for many years. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Barbary states of North Africa (Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli) were called the Pirate States. Piracy in the Atlantic reached a peak from the 1650s to the 1720s, when there were as many as 2,000 pirates. These were largely eliminated by the British Navy; over 400 men were hanged for piracy 1716–1726. The best-known contemporary account of piracy is Capt Charles Johnson's
General History of the Pyrates 1724.
Piracy in 1990s
Modern communications and the complexities of supplying and servicing modern vessels tend to reduce piracy or confine it to the immediate vicinity of a harbour. However, incidents are increasing in the waters of Hong Kong, West Africa, and Brazil, and particularly in the Southeast Asian region, where piracy cost $200 million in 1990. In Indonesian territorial waters alone, 200 pirate attacks were reported in 1991. A pirate-monitoring and warning centre was opened in 1992 by the International Maritime Bureau. Piracy on the high seas almost doubled 1993–94 – the number of attempted boardings declined, but the number of successful boardings (60 ships), hijackings, and attacks in anchorages rose. Most targets were dry-cargo vessels.
| The US sent a fleet to fight the Barbary pirates 1800–15, its first overseas naval and marine war, which was successfully concluded when Capt S Decatur forced the bey of Algiers to cease the practice of holding US sailors hostage until tribute was paid. |
