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Tony Miksak's
Words on Books
as broadcast weekly on KZYX radio

Aaargh...

To order any of the books mentioned in this article, see the links at the bottom of this page.

When I first heard about modern pirates successfully stopping merchant ships on the high seas and ransoming them for serious bucks I thought of those other Muslim pirates, the ones for whom we built Old Ironsides and invented our navy and marines, the Barbary Pirates, operating off what was then called the Barbary Coast of North Africa.
Plundering successfully for almost 300 years in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Pirates did amazing things. Not good things, but amazing things. It is estimated Britain, France and Spain lost thousands of ships and hundreds of sailors. Miles of coastline in both Italy and Spain remained uninhabited for fear of raids. Pirate raids reached as far as Ireland. Coastal watchtowers and castles can be seen today dating from those fearful days.
In his exciting and unusual history Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, historian Edward Kritzler has an interesting take on the origins of the Barbary Pirates. When Spain ejected the Moors and then the Jews in the 15th and 16th centuries, many escaped to North Africa where they lived and worked together under the Ottoman Turks.
Khair-ed-Din or Barbarossa ("red beard" as he was known to Christians) was one of the most famous and fearsome pirates of this era. "Barbarossa himself claimed to have ferried over (from Spain to Africa) 70,000 Mudejares (Spanish Moors who stayed faithful to Islam)," Kritzler writes. Other Jews had long since settled in North Africa and in ports around the Mediterranean.
"Together, the two exiled immigrant groups forged a formidable force. Positioned to wreak havoc on those who labeled them infidels and heretics they partnered in the region's most profitable industry -- piracy."
The European maritime nations fought back as cruelly as the pirates plied their trade. While continuing to pay bribes and ransoms to local rulers they also intimidated them with ships and soldiers. The Europeans captured pirate corsairs and cruelly sacked uncooperative towns along the African coast. But they were not able to maintain or follow up these efforts. The pirates faded into the desert, and returned to their trade when the European navies left.
In 1784 the first American ship was seized by Moroccan pirates. Negotiation and ransom followed. Soon other American ships had their goods sold and crews enslaved.
President Thomas Jefferson pressured Congress, which reluctantly authorized the construction of six frigates for the express purpose of deterring the Barbary Pirates.
Distinguished local author David Weitzman wrote and illustrated a lovely book about the most famous of these frigates, the US Constitution. In "Old Ironsides, Americans Build a Fighting Ship" Weitzman's character, the boy John Aylwin, is amazed to see an outline of the future ship traced on a workshop floor.
" 'She is a big one, alright,' the kneeling man said as he deftly drew a graceful, sweeping line against a thin wooden ship's curve. 'She is a frigate and the largest ship ever built on these shores.' "
Nathan Miller in his book Broadsides, The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815 gives an accurate and stirring account of the US Navy's forays into Barbary waters. His book reads like a thriller in places.
A longer view of the times is available in the scholarly and highly readable Osman's Dream, The History of the Ottoman Empire by Caroline Finkel.
Once again pirates are working the coast of Africa, this time from the east.
Let's send the navy after them again, some say. Well, that could be a problem. The Indian Navy, flush with success just last week, now appears accidentally to have attacked and sunk a Thai fishing trawler and its crew.
No doubt military minds are inventing ingenious ways to take on these high seas bandits. Military suppression won't solve the underlying problems of East Africa: decimated fishing stocks and unemployed fishermen, lack of government authority, eroded land, factional warfare, disease and famine. Solve these problems, and the pirates will fade away.

Aired Sunday November 30, 2008 at 10:55 am and Wednesday December 3, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Orders/Information:

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom -- and REVENGE by Edward Kritzler. Doubleday hardcover $26. ISBN 9780385513982.
Old Ironsides: Americans Build a Fighting Ship by David L. Weitzman. Sandpiper paperback $7.95. ISBN: 9780618311156.
Broadsides, The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815 by Nathan Miller. John Wiley & Sons paperback $18.95. ISBN 978-0471078357.
Osman's Dream, The History of the Ottoman Empire by Caroline Finkel. Basic Books paperback $18.95. ISBN 978-0465023974.
No one asked me, but I'd try one or more of these:

Proceed through the Gulf of Aden only in convoys, guarded by destroyers or the like.

Station an aircraft carrier group nearby, and use the planes and helicopters to patrol the waters. Have small fast boats ready to move when needed.

Try deception: Secretly arm a fat-looking merchant ship with hidden cannons and marines. When the pirates board: surprise!

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