Pirate business is also a business
One of the main obstacles that pirates have tried to maximize profits in a looting journey is to reduce costs. In addition to the various costs, the cost of piracy includes the costs of fighting against potential prey, so it is necessary to reduce violent conflicts as much as possible because fighting with the target prey means that the crew may have casualties.
The result of violent battles is that pirate ships are likely to be damaged, and pirate ships are stolen. If the hull is damaged, it is not so easy to rob another ship. Maintenance costs also cost time and money. And if you start the war, you will not be able to damage the spoils. In some extreme cases, the target vessel will also be sunk, resulting in the entire ship's loot.
In order to reduce costs while capturing prey, the pirates managed to surrender the victim without violent means. It is not easy to do this. Merchant ships are not without resilience. Pirate ships generally only have one-third more manpower and firepower than merchant ships.
To this end, the pirates of the 17th century West Indies first set up a red pirate flag, sending a message to the prey: if the prey daring to resist, they would have no mercy.
In the 18th century, the red pirate flag was replaced by a black flag, usually embroidered with skull and other bones intertwined patterns, which is the most popular "Happy Roger" flag.
Everyone who has seen the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" knows that the flags of the nine pirate heads are different. Although the flags used are varied, the purpose behind each banner is the same. The hourglass suggests that there is not much time left, and the sword and the skull suggest that the rebels will die.
The signal that the pirate flag sends to the target prey is the one who came to attack, but a group of people who are not bound by anything. If the crew dares to resist, they may kill all the people.
Where is the notoriety of pirates?
How do pirates spread their brands, the same way they use modern businesses: word of mouth and advertising. The victims of the pirates and the 18th-century newspapers inadvertently acted as pirate spokespersons, allowing the pirates to spread the reputation of the fearsome violent madman.
The Boston Newsletter reported that the merchants who had resisted were brutally massacred, and the pirates did not show a trace of kindness to them. This really scared our sailors, so they refused to make them in the face of pirates. resistance.
The use of cruel torture by pirates to torture people has another purpose: to bring those ill-fated captains to justice. Snellgrove said that "the excuse they found for these evil deeds is to provide justice for the sailors." There are more personal factors involved here. Some of the pirates who started the pirate business were the unfair treatment of the captain.
The organization on the merchant ship is different from that of the pirate ship. The level is strict, the top is the captain, and under him is the other leader. Below this is the ordinary crew. The hierarchy gives the captain the power to exercise dictatorship over the crew. The captain’s power extends to all aspects of life on board, including job distribution, food distribution, payroll, and discipline. It can be said that the captain has a lot of room for exploiting the crew.
After occupying a ship, according to the pirate tradition, the pirates will interrogate the crew to find out how their captain is facing them. If the crew told the pirates that the captain had a bad behavior, the pirate would punish him.
On the contrary, if the crew caught by the pirates speak good things to their captain, the pirates will not only punish the captain, and sometimes even reward their good behavior. In the later period when Snellgrove was detained, he gave him a good impression of the pirates, and they simply gave him a ship full of valuable cargo.
By punishing the abused merchant ship captains, the pirates can also establish a positive reputation among the merchant sailors, which will make the merchant ship crew more willing to surrender, and even let them tell the pirates where valuable goods are hidden.
In the case of this obligation to uphold justice, it seems that the pirates did not always think about the benefits. In fact, this does not mean that the pirates punish the captains entirely out of altruism.
The fear of pirate justice by the captain of the merchant ship may indeed make them less harsh when it comes to sailors. Of course, pirate justice does not bring "bright and beautiful" things, and piracy justice will cause many problems because it is completely uncontrolled.