ask'n a question ..

[the_seeker]

What do ya call a pirate .. that no longer wishes to be a pirate?

That is .. one who has been a pirate (for years) .. then decides to leave the ship? The pirate is not forced to "walk the plank"; not "thrown overboard" .. the pirate just leaves?

Is there a "pirate term" for that?

Is there a "pirate term" for desertion?

[William Brand]

A Politician. Kidding.

It's a good question, but I would only be guessing. I suppose there are a great many who retired early enough to not be hunted later and hanged, but there are probably many more still who's plans to retire were cut short all at once by their unplanned demise. There are a few pirates who made it back into public life by pardon or pure luck.

[Blackfoot]

Hello "The Seeker",

To simply answer your question is yes, a pirate can "walk away" but could cause some type of consequence later. Permission was never given and secondly it would anger some higher ranking crews. If they see you later in a pub or on the street, you might have a fight on your hands. Walking the plank is more of a Hollywood thing and rarely, if ever at all, would take place.

Normally, a man would go from ship to ship as a man might go from one job to another in this day and age. Simply, if a captain was paying more with better benefits, one might be inclined to leave their present ship for another.

Specifically on a pirate ship, their are no rules. If you are on a government or state ship, you need permission to attack certain ships. You might be out to sea for months or years with only seeing a handful of ships and these ships are not on the list to attack. You might be starving or dying and your shipmates around you have died. You would probably get angered with the captain hoping to attack "just one" ship so you can all survive. It normally never happened or that captain would lose his "proper" status in society and probably get hung for piracy if he was convicted.

If a pirate survived through whatever was dealt to them, they would normally retire. If they were well-known, they would retire in a "normal" life (farmer, store keep, blacksmith, so on) with a great interest from the community they lived in as if a famous movie or rock star moved in the same block you live in. If they were not rich or famous, they would work in any means to survive which would include slavery or becoming a thief in the later years. Regardless, they would have to be careful with strangers in fear of some type of retaliation.

I can go on, but hopefully this has answered your question.

[Captain Jim]

Blackbeard retired once. Got himself a pardon from the governor and all. Became a landowner and influential in politics. Couldn't abide life ashore and went back to pyratin'. There are many other instances of pyrates giving up the life to recieve pardons. Some stayed ashore, some went back.

As to retiring without the benefit of a pardon, some pyrate articles included the option of leaving the ship only after a certain ammount of plunder had been gotten by the crew. From Roberts' articles:

"No man shall talk of breaking up their way of living til each has a

share of £1,000. Every man who shall become a cripple or loose a

limb in the service shall have eight hundred pieces of eight from

the common stock, and for lesser hurts proportionately."

What were they called? If I were a retired pyrate, the last thing that I would want is to draw attention to my former status by using some sort of title or label.

[Rumba Rue]

What do you want, a letter of Mark? Well I'm sure I could get him to do one, just as soon as I find a guy named Mark.

Just kidding.

Well I don't quite understand why you are here, if you walked away from it. Are you coming back to it in another form? Beginning a new character or similar?

Help us out here, explain please.

[The Doctor]

A pyrate that no longer wishes to be on the Account? Not much different than a Mafioso (and we all know there's no such thing as the "Mafia") wanting to go "legit". Your surest bet is to lay low, and fade into the obscurity of history. It's been done before, with varying degrees of success. Sticking one's neck out is to invite the gibbett.

[oderlesseye]

Truth be told Pirates did not "stay at sea" nor even stay on board. When they wasn't they was rabble rousin wit wenches in da pub, spendin there plunder on pleasure and drink. The smarter ones invested in homes and plantations ect. Geting established legitamatley. The ones who continued on "other piratety adventures, more than likely met their demise onthe execution dock, scurvy,or even forced to repent of their sins- in some cases I have read about. So with all that said , perhaps ye have seen Jesus. :) non the less would be x-pirate in my eyes.