The buccaneers were pirates who lived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and in the 1600's, they attacked any Spanish ships heading back to Spain from South America, which were mostly laden with treasure. They took over many of the Caribbean islands and used them as a base to travel all over the world. If you take a look at their dress, you will see cutlasses and head scarves that are so well depicted in today's pirate costume outfits.
By the early 1700's our pirates were covering half the globe in their search for treasure and they would typically travel as far as 40,000 kilometers over many years. Of course, in their day the vessels needed wind and currents to power them along. A well known type of voyage was the pirate round which went from North America to Africa up the Arabian seas and all the way back home again. As they came across vessels they robbed them. With this type of action, their ship needed to be small and fast. They would either steal them or alter existing ones. One of the main advantages of such ships was that they could sail in shallow waters and hide in creeks, just waiting for any unsuspecting sailors.
But keeping these types of ships in good condition was a hard task and each pirate had to know how to repair sails and keep his ship watertight.
A pirate's flag was called the Jolly Roger and usually showed a skull and crossbones in order to frighten their enemies. Captain William Kidd's ship was called the Adventure Gallery. Built in 1696, he sailed it to the Indian Ocean where is was abandoned in Madagascar because it leaked so badly.
Life on board ship was tough and uncomfortable. In good weather when the ship could not move due to lack of wind, pirates would spend their time drinking and playing cards, and this is when fights would break out. As there was no medicine in those days, those who became ill usually died of their injuries.
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