Why have pirates been romanticised?

[Huw the Poo]

(This most irritating of days has reminded me to ask something I've been meaning to ask for ages)

Why have pirates been romanticised?  I don't know much about their history, but it seems to me they were (are) just a bunch of thieves and murderers.  So why has it become cool?  You even get pirates in children's TV shows!  Am I ignorant of something the whole of the rest of the world seems to know about?

[Jarhead0331]

You can thank Johnny Depp.

[Huw the Poo]

You can thank Johnny Depp.

Heh.  It was long before he minced along. :)

[undercovergeek]

i thought we'd sorted this out!!!

[Huw the Poo]

i thought we'd sorted this out!!!

I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks matey. :)

[GDS_Starfury]

Blame Disney and Key West fantasy fest.

[bob48]

oo arrrr

[undercovergeek]

i thinks that farmers bob

and people from Ipswich  ;)

i thought we'd sorted this out!!!

I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks matey. :)

just teasin' - you know how heartily i defended Francis Drake!

[LongBlade]

You can thank Johnny Depp.

Heh.  It was long before he minced along. :)

I've read at least a dozen books on pirates and piracy. At least one of them addressed it.

There's no good answer. Probably for the same reason vikings and ninjas gladiators are romanticized.

Time diminishes the pain. 300 years ago pirates were scum an villainy. But...keep in mind that there were pirates and then there were privateers. There were also letters of marque which were state-sanctioned piracy against a specific nation.

Captain Morgan practically had a monopoly on every pirate in the Caribbean for a brief period of time. He managed to pull off one of the richest and most infamous assaults on the Spanish in history and was made governor for the trouble.

That he did so with dubious authority from the crown was secondary to his success.

Given that mixed pedigree, some role confusion over how glorious were the days of the golden age of piracy is understandable.

[undercovergeek]

i think Robert Newton took a lot of the raping, pillaging, scum and villainy away and made pirates more cuddly, humourous and loveable rogues

[LongBlade]

Well, 1930s Hollywood probably did some serious rehab of them, too.

[eyebiter]

.

[LongBlade]

Think it goes back further, the novel Treasure Island(1883) has been a popular source for movies and plays.

Agreed. I was thinking of that, but the author's name escaped me and I didn't have time to google.

[MikeGER]

...its about personal freedom, answering to nobody then the elected captain from the crew
(who can be overturned, if he turns out to be bad choice by the crew and left behind at an island ,  ...try to do this with the CEO and CFO of the big company you are unlucky to be one of their hundreds hire 'n fire or soon to be outsourced anyway cubical working ants)
as a pirat you live by the agreed upon rules given by the community to itself, pay no taxes, and in addition had the chance to gain a fortune ...or die trying. 
compare that with being a poor simple sailor in that times on a miltitary ship or merchant vessel ...or even beeing a working bee today   
IIRC the historic pirates also had an early kind of 'health insurance' or  'retirement plan' ... i once read that if someone lost a limb or an eye, that crewmember got some fixed sum payment in compensation for his loss .... a very 'modern' thinking in that century.

[Huw the Poo]

These are interesting thoughts, thanks guys.  None of it changes my mind in that it isn't justified, but it was interesting to read. :)