Much pirate news coverage has a somewhat “zany” tone to it, the kind of inflection that TV news anchors use during live remotes from a day before Thanksgiving sale or in coverage of the President’s new dog. Because of that, and the joking among many (including me) that this is just an amusing diversion, I thought I might be useful to highlight that these pirates arnt cartoon characters, they are dangerous and desperate men. From Kaplan’s Op-ed:

Somali pirates are usually unemployed young men who have grown up in an atmosphere of anarchic violence, and have been dispatched by a local warlord to bring back loot for his coffers. It is organized crime carried out by roving gangs. The million-square-miles of the Indian Ocean where pirates roam might as well be an alley in Mogadishu. These pirates are fearless because they have grown up in a culture where nobody expects to live long. Pirate cells often consist of 10 men with several ratty, roach-infested skiffs. They bring along drinking water, gasoline for their single-engine outboards, grappling hooks, ladders, knives, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and the mild narcotic qat to chew. They live on raw fish.

It is also important to remember that pirates were ALWAYS dangerous and desperate men (and women). Though they have been partially disneyfied and completely romanticized, pirates as we think of them were never anything like Captain Jack Sparrow. Under the Black Flag, an excellent history of Caribbean pirates, gives some descriptions of what they were really like:

The overwhelming majority were seaman… analysis of the Anglo-American pirates operating in the western Atlantic and Caribbean at the time shows that 98 percent were formerly seamen in the merchant service or the Royal Navy or had served in privateers… Their faces and arms were burned and weathered to the nut-brown color of Robert Louis Stevenson’s sea captain Billy Bones… They were tough and ruthless men capable of savage cruelty and murder… Most pirates were by nature rebellious and lazy. They were notorious for foul language, and for prolonged bouts of drinking, which frequently led to quarrels and violence. They came together in an uneasy partnership, attracted by the lure of plunder and the desire for an easy life.

The practice of going into action armed to the teeth is confirmed by numerous accounts of pirate attacks. The carrying of several pistols was not simply to frighten the enemy but was also a wise precaution… Pirates were also in the habit of wearing their weapons when they were off duty.

Pirates were mostly young men in their twenties… most of the men in the buccaneer ships were French and British, but all crews tended to be multinational… A considerable number of the men on the pirate ships were black.

If all that doesn’t do it for you, maybe the best way to disabuse yourself of the idea that pirates were romantic figures is to think about what raping, pillaging and plundering really means.

One thing that Kaplan didn’t go into in his Op-ed is how many of the Somali pirates used to be fisherman or come from fishing villages (f0r more insight into the Somali pirates, read this GQ article on them). When you add that fact in, there really are enormous similarities between the two groups. In both cases, you are dealing with young men with few skills or jobs prospects who know a lot about boats and sailing and turn to crime at first out of desperation but later because of the lure of being rich. Because there are so many similarities, (though there are key differences, like the ships of Somali pirates being primarily short-range and having bosses who are land-based) I would imagine that there are lessons that we can draw from how classical piracy was stamped out as we try to curtail piracy in Somalia. More on that later as I continue rereading Under the Black Flag.

Editors Note: I really thought my post about Under the Black Flag would be a chance for me to blog something (relatively) original, but stupid Matt Yglesias has already read and recommended it over at his blog. Also, while I was writing this post, the AP reported that Capt. Richard Phillips was freed by a U.S. raid. Doesn’t do much to change the underlying situation but good for him and his family!