Pirates Creed of Ethics

[Capt.mino]

About the year 1640 the pirates formed a kind of democratic confraternity. Their vows formed the Custom of the Brothers of the Coast, often called the Pirates Creed of Ethics. It was in fact the social contract of the expedition. It was always signed by the whole ship's company before any departure when the elected Captain and the officers prepared a charter-party. Every decision of importance was discussed, followed by a vote. Courage alone conferred distinction. a pirate ship was an extremely well-ordered floating community.

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1-Ye Captain shall have full command during the time of engagement, and shall have authority at all other times to conduct the ship accordingly. He who disobeys him may be punished unless the majority vote against the punishment.

2- If ye Captain's vessel is shipwrecked, the crew pledges to remain until he has possessed himself of a vessel. If the vessel is the common property of the crew, the first vessel captured shall belong to ye Captain with one share of the spoil.

3- Ye ship's surgeon shall have two hundred crowns for the maintenance of his medicine chest and he shall receive one part of the spoil.

4- Ye other officers will receive each single part, and if ye distinguish yourself, the crew will determine how much reward to be given to ye.

5- Ye spoil taken from a captured ship is to be distributed in equal portion.

6- Ye who shall be the first to signal the appearance of the vessel that is captured, shall receive 100 hundred crowns.

7- If ye lose an eye, or a hand or leg in ye said service, ye shall receive up to six slaves or six hundred crowns.

8- Ye supplies and rations are to be shared equally.

9- If ye introduce on board a woman in disguise, ye shall be punished to death.

10- If one Brother steals from another, his nose or ears are to be cut off. If he sins again, he is to be given a musket, bullets, lead and a bottle of water and marooned on an island.

11- If there is any doubt in a dispute between ye Brothers, a court of honor is to decide the verdict. If a Brother is proved in the wrong, the first time he shall be pardoned, but should he offend again, he shall be tied to a gun, and there shall receive from each of the ship's company one strike of the lash. The same punishment shall be given to ye among us, including officers, who shall get drunk, while on the ship, to the point of losing ye senses.

12- Whoever shall be placed on sentry, and upon his post shall go to sleep, shall in the first case be lashed by all the Brothers, and should he again offend, his head shall be split.

13- All ye who shall plot to desert, or having deserted shall be captured, shall have ye heads split open.

14- Quarrels between several Brothers whilst aboard ye ship shall be settled ashore with pistol and sword. He that draws first blood shall be the victor. No striking another whilst aboard ye ship.

[Fox]

That set of rules looks like a combination of things from other sets of articles with a bit of imagination thrown in for good luck. May I ask if there is a source for them?

Also, I don't buy the idea that there was a formal brotherhood of pirates in the 17th century (or any other time) with a creed of ethics or widespread contracts. Different sets of articles were signed at different times and by different people and the buccaneers banded together in different groups for different expeditions. I think any feeling of brotherhood was much less rigid and formal.

It's all a bit POTC if you know what I mean

[corsair2k3]

Well said, Foxe!

The Corsair

[Capt.mino]

The source is easy to get:

Go to yahoo, alta vista and about.com...type in all of them, one at a time: Pirates code of ethics.

After that you will find a lot of information, wich as the good investigator that you look you are, you will read it, compare it, you will take dates to confirm , and finally you got your own conclusions, as i did.

Then you can post your finds that enrich the minds of the seamans and Ladys of this great group with your well intentioned comments, so everybody coul get more closer to the truth of how pirates & Corsairs live and behave in that era.

You can also correct the finds of others, giving more light with more "up to date " finds & discovers" of the topic in vogue.

..........is very easy.

[Fox]

It's getting closer to the truth that I'm most interested in, which is why I asked if you had a source. It's all very well to suggest that I go on the hunt on the net, but you ought to be prepared to give your own sources for anything you say on this board, that way the rest of us can all sort out what we think is reliable and what isn't without having to spend hours searching the net. That way, we can all get closer to the truth.

But please don't be offended by my request. I thought the set of articles you posted looked a bit dodgy so I asked where they came from - that's all.

However, I followed your advice, trawled through a lot of stuff related to software piracy etc and finally found the set of of articles you posted.

For the benefit of everyone else who might be interested, they are the articles of a fine bunch of people called the Pyrates of the Gulf Coast. The POGC are a Florida based group of philanthropists who regularly don bandannas and eye patches and invade Hooters (and do other things too) to raise money for charity. They seem to work very hard to raise money for some very good causes and if any of them are reading I applaud them. However, historical integrity does not seem to be their top priority.

[Captain Jim-sib]

Via Foxe Posted on Dec 9 2004, 05:43 AM

but you ought to be prepared to give your own sources for anything you say on this board

Here Here !

As I advise my students, documentation is important for it gives the reader a follow up source on a particular topic that they may have not encountered...not just to hold one accountable. The Pub is a good historical research tool, and I be grateful to all who have shared their sources on which I have looked up and found very interesting tangents and supplemental data.

[the Royaliste]

It's getting closer to the truth that I'm most interested in, which is why I asked if you had a source. It's all very well to suggest that I go on the hunt on the net, but you ought to be prepared to give your own sources for anything you say on this board, that way the rest of us can all sort out what we think is reliable and what isn't without having to spend hours searching the net. That way, we can all get closer to the truth.

But please don't be offended by my request. I thought the set of articles you posted looked a bit dodgy so I asked where they came from - that's all.

However, I followed your advice, trawled through a lot of stuff related to software piracy etc and finally found the set of of articles you posted.

For the benefit of everyone else who might be interested, they are the articles of a fine bunch of people called the Pyrates of the Gulf Coast. The POGC are a Florida based group of philanthropists who regularly don bandannas and eye patches and invade Hooters (and do other things too) to raise money for charity. They seem to work very hard to raise money for some very good causes and if any of them are reading I applaud them. However, historical integrity does not seem to be their top priority.

As usual, your research is appreciated, mate.......Contrary to some opinions, may webtime is valuable to me, and you've saved me some cybertime. Keep up the good work!..My present research in more 'hands on', back to replankin'!

[Desert Pyrate]

Through some webtrawlin', it appears that these articles are taken from various merchants (as well as the Gulf Coast crew mentioned). Without an exception (that I found), these "pirate ethics" are printed on parchment that you can buy for your wall/desk/whatever. I'd be interested to see if these have any historical provenance.

The use of "ye" throws me and casts doubt on the historical accuracy.

There are two forms of the word "ye". One of them is a way to write an article (e.g. 'ye olde coffee'). It's a transliteration of the Old English letter called "thorn". Our current "th" sound comes from it... in Old English it was used much like the Greek letter theta.

The second form of "ye" is a second person plural. However, that does not mean that it can be used whenever you need to say "y'all." Ye is not a possessive second person... for that the standard "your" is used. By 1600, most uses of "ye" had dropped out of formal writing. So to recap: we can't use "ye" to mean "your". So the first code of ethics can't mean "Your captain".

Let's look at the use of "ye" in these "ethics". Most of the "ye"s can be accounted for if you replace them with "the." Not historically likely, and the fact that the word "the" appears in other places in the document means this is really unlikely, but I'll go for it. The fourth article is where things get sketchy.

"Ye other officers will receive each a single part, and if ye distinguish yourself, the crew will determine how much reward to be given to ye."

"Yourself" is a singular second person reflexive pronoun. I can't find someplace saying it's ever been plural. So we're in the singular, but still using "ye". That's incorrect, it should be thou or thee, depending on the usage. Now, all this is not saying that ye can't be used as a singular in colloquial speech, but here's what the document would be if we were using ye as colloquial as well:

We'd have *three* different uses of "ye". It'd be used to signify a letter that had been out of use since the 12th/13th century. It'd be used as a colloquial "you" (singular). And it'd be used as a more formal plural "you". And all this for a word that is passing out of use by the 1650s anyway.

So without any historical provenance, and with this incorrect grammar (and unlikely grammar even if the pirates are just uneducated), I'm going to have to call it a modern invention by someone who didn't know their Early Modern English grammar.

[Captain Tito]

Aye mateys I do own such parchment and have it, as was said, hangin on me wall. I will say that the co who prints it, Historical Documents Co, DOES have a whole bunch of other parchments that ARE historically correct such as the series of Civil Wall recruitment posters, and even some from documents from the Revolutionary period.

I got a bunch of them when I went to Gettysburg as a younger buck.

I did just take a close gander at my "Creed" and it includes a little discussion in fine print at the bottem about how in 1640 many pirates formed such social contract. As for the rest, couldn't tell ya much more than that.

[Patrick Hand]

I am prabably totaly wrong about this...... but I always thought that the "ships Articles" were different acording to what ship you happened to be with...... they all had some things in common, but were not the kind of things you picked up at the local office supply.......

I thought they were drawn up by some of the crew and or officers, and if you joined with that ship and signed; you lived by them.... if you disagreed... don't sign and go find another ship.........

unfortunatly..... that is my "gut feeling" and I have absolutly no documintation about it.............

[HarborMaster]

The "Code" as it were .,

be fairly accurate to that which was indoctinated under the command of Bartholemew Roberts..,After all he had a hand in its creation.

If anyone here is interested in THE TRUTH and Histiorical accuarcy then *Read Under the Black Flag * ., I cannot give you specifics without opening the book again., and I will again in my time.

However David Cordingly does give referance to its origins and usage in his 2 books UTBF and Terror on the High Seas.,

Under The Black Flag is geared more for the person interested on the Caribbean.

Terror on the High Seas covers the world.

These are the two most accurate and respcted books youre gonna find.,

ALL OF CORDINLYS INFORMATION IS BACKED BY 20 Pages at the end of his books giving the "Refrences" in case youd like to go to the said courthouses .,museums and states and admiralty and check his homework.

THERE WAS A CODE ., sometimes agreed to willingly and others were forced to sign the articles of piracy..., the code

If you wanna know something about pirates and Piracy I suggest you read these. Otherwise your going on what YOU do or dont believe. These two books are FACT not Fiction books.

The Code Existed. It began toward the end of piracy however..,1640's ..,piracy started becoming less an less popular in the new world after that. A serious decline after the 1720's.

These books are wonderful keepsakes .,make great Christmas gifts and can be bought in coffee table version (Lots of Pictures,.Lithographs.,art ., paintings).

[crow]

Aye Harbour Master I think that you have the right of it . I have read David Cordingly's books and he seems to be a right thorough bloke as to his reference materials . Most of the listings at the back of his books tend to take up about a quarter of the books .

[Fox]

Cordingly is indeed an excellent well researched source. With regard to pirates articles he says on p118 of Life among the Pirates (the English edition of UTBF)

"The articles differed from ship to ship, but they all followed similar lines"

So, there was not ONE code for all pirates, there several, and there is also no evidence that EVERY pirate crew signed articles.