Caspian sea pirates?

[smoolie671]

Can anyone here shed any light on pirates that operated in the Caspian sea.

I'm most interested the type of vessels that were generally used by mariners. Where they square rigged or of the lateen rigged variety?

[LadyBarbossa]

Are ye talking about around the GAoP? Or any other era?

Indeed a toughy, too, cause of the wide variety of cultures along this Sea.

~Lady B

[smoolie671]

I suppose the GAoP would be as good a place as any to start. I'm having a difficult time finding much of anything in the way of visual representation on the type of ships used.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Any current World Civilizations textbook will provide this information. I had that class last semester and the cover of our book shows just that very thing, although it be a Mediterranian vessel, little if any differences would be seen.

[smoolie671]

I was just curious to know if the fact that it was an inland sea had any bearing on the design of the vessels used. Or if they suffered from the lack of innovation due to the builders not being able to see an example of different ships from other areas of the world.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Trade routes in this region were well established and there was no such isolation. There was plenty of exchange of technology and information long before the ethnocentric european caucasians started telling the world how great they were. Kind of like claiming Lewis and Clark "discovered" the western U.S. This is the kind of myth that really screws history up for the average joe.

Bo