‘We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot,” runs the theme song to Pirates of the Caribbean, “so drink up me hearties, yo ho/ We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot/ Drink up me hearties, yo ho.” To which the obvious response is: where do I sign? The buccaneering life has recently been given something of a PR boost. Last week Johnny Depp reprised his Keith-Richards-with-a-cutlass role, while next week sees the opening of a new pirate play at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Simon Bent’s Under the Black Flag.

So why, you scurvy seadogs, are we so fascinated with pirates? In the centuries since their freebooting peak, the reputation of Captain Kidd, Calico Jack, and co has endured a remarkable transformation. In the 18th century, pirates were the baddest of the bad guys. They created a crisis in world trade: between 1718 and 1722, they captured and plundered more than 2,400 vessels on Atlantic trade routes. According to American preacher Cotton Mather, “all Nations agree to treat [pirates] as the Common Enemies of Mankind, and to extirpate them out of the world”. The modern parallels are there, as playwright Simon Bent points out: “For pirates to take out merchant ships returning laden with gold from the New World would be like taking out the Twin Towers in our era.” So will the Johnny Depps of the future play raffish versions of Osama bin Laden in Hollywood blockbusters?

Of course, it’s a long way from Blackbeard to the lovable cartoon star Captain Pugwash, but Capt Johnson’s caricature was a first step. He didn’t condemn piracy out of hand; his cast of renegades were as charismatic as they were dastardly. Might this be because Johnson had been a pirate? Nobody knows. Johnson’s identity remains as hidden from history as buried treasure – and no X marks the spot.

Writers and artists greedily plundered his book – and sometimes struck gold. Byron sold 10,000 copies in a day of his poem The Corsair. The Pirate, based on the adventures of real-life Orkney freebooter John Gow, was one of Sir Walter Scott’s most popular novels. The makeover of piracy, from a criminal activity into a romantic one, continued into the early 1900s when JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan, whose hapless old Etonian Captain Hook became one of the most famous pirates of all. Around the same time, American artist Howard Pyle painted his iconic images of outlaw life on the high seas.

In the process, cliches have stuck to piracy like barnacles to the hull of the Black Pearl. In truth, there are no documented instances of anyone walking the plank, nor of a single treasure map. Women were seldom seen aboard pirate ships, and when they were – as with cross-dressing female cut-throats Anne Bonny and Mary Read – they bore scant resemblance to Keira Knightley. But – avast, ye historian varlets! – pirate fiction proved more potent than fact.

Year zero for buccaneer mythology, of course, is 1883, when Robert Louis Stevenson coined the phrase “yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum” in his adventure yarn Treasure Island.  See the full article here. 

Of course, the invention of movies and television brought life to the romanticized version of the Pirate stirring the imaginations of young and old, male and female, adult and child alike.  Women swooned and men identified with the swashbuckling anti-heroes on the screen and children played-out their adventures in backyards and fields everywhere.

We’ve all been mesmerized by the amazing adventures of swashbuckling buccaneers sailing the seas and stealing away with the beautiful maiden. That is the fantasy, but it is so far from the reality it is unimaginable.  We have lived so long with fantasy and makebelieve, we can no longer distinguish it from the truth.  

The truth is that Pirates are EVIL and by no stretch of the imagination can you make them into anything good.  Even if you might find some area large or small where they might have done something good or kind, it CANNOT make up for ALL THE EVIL THEY DID.  If we are extolling and celebrating these evil Pirates, who do you suppose is behind it?  The devil knows that if you can imagine it in your heart, and you can see it with your mind, then you have already done it.   That is what the Word of God says.  And what we practice, is what we become.  

YOU should be able to judge just by the words associated with them.  

Pirate – noun

1. a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.
2. a ship used by such persons.
3. any plunderer, predator, etc.: confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.

Plunder – verb (used with object)

1. to rob of goods or valuables by open force, as in war, hostile raids, brigandage, etc.:to plunder a town.
2. to rob, despoil, or fleece: to plunder the public treasury.
3. to take wrongfully, as by pillage, robbery, or fraud: to plunder a piece of property.

Pillage – verb (used with object), pil·laged, pil·lag·ing.

1. to strip ruthlessly of money or goods by open violence, as in war; plunder: The barbarians pillaged every conquered city.
2. to take as booty.

Fraud – noun

1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
2. a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
3. any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.

Robbery – noun, plural rob·ber·ies.

1. the act, the practice, or an instance of robbing.
2. Law. the felonious taking of the property of another from his or her person or in his or her immediate presence, against his or her will, by violence or intimidation.

Rob – verb (used with object), robbed, rob·bing.

1. to take something from (someone) by unlawful force or threat of violence; steal from.
2. to deprive (someone) of some right or something legally due: They robbed her of her inheritance.
3. to plunder or rifle (a house, shop, etc.).

Steal – verb (used with object), stole, sto·len, steal·ing.

1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.
2. to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.
3. to take, get, or win insidiously, surreptitiously, subtly, or by chance: He stole my girlfriend.

in·sid·i·ous – (ĭn-sĭd′ē-əs) adj.

4. 1. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: insidious rumors; an insidious disease.
5. 2. Intended to entrap; treacherous: insidious misinformation.
6. 3. Beguiling but harmful; alluring: insidious pleasures.

sur·rep·ti·tious –(sûr′əp-tĭsh′əs) adj. 

1. Obtained, done, or made by clandestine or stealthy means. See Synonyms at secret.

Theif – noun, plural thieves.

1. a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force; one guilty of theft or larceny.

Bandit – noun, plural ban·dits or (Rare) ban·dit·ti [ban-dit-ee] /bænˈdɪt i/.

1. a robber, especially a member of a gang or marauding band.
2. an outlaw or highwayman.

Terrorist – plural terrorists:

an advocate or practitioner of terrorism as a means of coercion

Terrorism – noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

Terror – noun

1. intense, sharp, overmastering fear: to be frantic with terror.
2. an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror:to be a terror to evildoers.
3. any period of frightful violence or bloodshed likened to the Reign of Terror in France.

Rapist – noun

1. unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body parts, or foreign object, without the consent of the victim.
2. statutory rape.
3. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation:

Homosexual – adjective

1. Older Use: Sometimes Disparaging. sexually attracted to members of one’s own sex: homosexual students.
2. Older Use: Sometimes Disparaging. of or relating to sexual desire or behavior directed toward members of one’s own sex: the homosexual subculture.
3. Archaic. of, relating to, or noting the same sex:

Sodomite – noun

1. an inhabitant of Sodom.
2. (lowercase) a person who engages in sodomy.

Murderer – noun

1. a person who commits murder.

Murder – noun

1. Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).
2. Slang. something extremely difficult or perilous: That final exam was murder!
3. a group or flock of crows.

Rebel – noun

1. a person who refuses allegiance to resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country.
2. a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

Rebellion – noun

1. open, organized, and armed resistance to one’s government or ruler.
2. resistance to or defiance of any authority, control, or tradition.
3. the act of rebelling.

Scoundrel – [skoun-druh l] noun

1. an unprincipled, dishonorable person; villain.

Cad – [kad] noun

1. an ill-bred man, especially one who behaves in a dishonorable or irresponsible way toward women.
2. British Archaic.
3. a local town boy or youth, as contrasted with a university or public school student.
4. a servant at a university or public school.

Hellion – [hel-yuh n] noun Informal.

1. a disorderly, troublesome, rowdy, or mischievous person.

Anarchist – noun

1. a person who advocates or believes in anarchy or anarchism.
2. a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed.
3. a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.

Maniac – noun

1. a raving or violently insane person; lunatic.
2. any intemperate or overly zealous or enthusiastic person: a maniac when it comes to details.

Lawless – adjective

1. contrary to or without regard for the law: lawless violence.
2. being without law; uncontrolled by a law; unbridled; unruly; unrestrained: lawless passion.
3. illegal: bootleggers’ lawless activity.

Godless – adjective

1. having or acknowledging no god or deity; atheistic.
2. wicked; evil; sinful.

Pervert -noun

10. a person who practices sexual perversion.
11. Pathology. a person affected with perversion.
12. a person who has been perverted, especially to a religious belief regarded as erroneous.

If you examine the life of the Pirate, and you study the Word of God, then you know this is not something that should be lifted up and glorified.  This is something that should be shunned and looked upon with disgust and scorn. You certainly do not want to encourage any of the behaviors of the Pirate or teach them to your children.   

Here is what God’s word says about those who do such things:

Rev 22:15  Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Cor 6:9-10   9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous1 will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,2 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 15:19-21  19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,1 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do2 such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Eph 5:5 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

1 Tim 1:9  9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

Heb 12:14  14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Origin of “Sea Dog” as a Derogatory Term for Pirates

The term “sea dog” first appeared in English in the 1590s as a literal reference to a harbor seal, from sea + dog Online Etymology Dictionary. By the 1650s, it was also used to mean “pirate” Online Etymology Dictionary, and in the early modern period it carried a derogatory or contemptuous tone when applied to seafarers.

Early derogatory use
Historical sources confirm that in the 16th and early 17th centuries, “sea dog” was often used insultingly to describe pirates, buccaneers, or privateers — men seen as rough, uncivilized, and dangerous iere.org+1. The label reflected a perception of these men as living outside the law, relying on cunning and aggression to survive, and lacking the civility of “proper” sailors iere.org. This derogatory sense was reinforced by the fact that many “sea dogs” were engaged in illicit activities such as slave trading and raiding enemy shipping Wikipedia+1.

“Sea Dog” originated as a derogatory name for pirates and other rough seafarers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Online Etymology Dictionary+2. It began as a literal animal term, then became a pejorative for pirates, before evolving into a romanticized title for experienced sailors

Sea Dog

The term sea dog has a number of definitions. In England, for years, it was derogatory slang used to describe a seasoned sailor as an unsavory character. Queen Elizabeth took the phrase and flipped it to mean sailors who bravely defended England.

In the late 1500s, Spain attempted to conquer England covertly by fomenting insurrection in Ireland and Scotland. Finally, Queen Elizabeth’s patience wore thin. She understood war with Spain was inevitable. Against her counselor’s advice, she ordered the building of warships. While her armaments were stockpiling, she needed a diversion and with it, private financing.

Elizabeth appealed to Sir Walter Raleigh for assistance. He agreed to help finance her privateers for a percentage of all confiscated treasure.

Elizabeth then commissioned her most loyal subjects: Sir Francis Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir John Hawkins, Thomas Cavendish, and all English sailors (popularly called sea dogs). Issuing letters of marque, the orders were to harass the Spanish wherever encountered and degrade their sea forces.

Thus, the famous Elizabethan sea dogs sailed. These men were more than happy to comply with the queen’s orders. Each man knew they would be considered pirates by the Spanish, and if captured they would be killed. This knowledge did not stop them, and many sailors signed on to the English crews. (Selinger 57)

Under Elizabeth I in the latter half of the 16th century, England challenged the naval supremacy of Spain. English “sea dogs,” notably Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, attacked Spanish shipping with the queen’s approval, although England and Spain were not at war. The spoils from these raids helped finance construction of the English fleet that defeated the Armada in 1588, thus speeding Spain’s decline as a world power. (Encyclopedia Americana, Pirate)

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