Pirate ships varied in size, and the same crew would often go through several different ships in their careers, often seizing a small vessel and then using that one to capture a bigger one. read more
Pirate ships varied in size, and the same crew would often go through several different ships in their careers, often seizing a small vessel and then using that one to capture a bigger one. We know a bit more about the big ships than the small ones. read more
A good pirate ship needed three things: it needed to be seaworthy, fast, and well-armed. Seaworthy ships were especially necessary for the Caribbean, where devastating hurricanes are a yearly occurrence. Since the best ports and harbors were usually off-limits to pirates, they often had to ride out storms at sea. read more
English pirate Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard, captured the Concorde, a French-owned slave ship, in the West Indies in 1717 and made the vessel his flagship. Slave ships, which often featured a central partition to protect the crew against a slave uprising, made good pirate ships because they were built for speed. read more