Being a pirate, in real life, may not have been all that it’s cracked up to be.
Weeks and months at sea, evading the authorities, (once you were renown enough) and usually not having the means to combat naval ships if they did find you. Pirates operated by boarding ships and taking hostages, and they avoided unnecessary combat if possible since their manpower was relatively small. What they stole were things like medicine, food, water, clothing and ship equipment.
They were victims to dehydration, malnutrition and other pleasant things that came with being out on the sea for too long. And I believe that they got a lot of their coin by smuggling and illegally importing goods. (fancy costumes come from captains posing as noblemen when trading their shit with high society)
Still, the freedom must have been something, if you could hack the price…would I fall in love with a pirate? A lot of pirates opted for this kind of life to raise up enough to eventually go off and settle down, like start a farm or a shop somewhere. Pirates typically never lived very long, so the profession, if you want to call it that, wasn’t a long term thing, although I bet many were pirates far longer than they ever planned…but I could admire the defiance in the face of common life, even if most pirates probably did not do this out some glamorized idea that is often attributed to them.
If a man I loved was willing to sail the seven seas to raise up enough coin to eventually settle down with me, well…I’d feel actually pretty bad, but awed at the same time. Problem is, pirates often spent their dues quickly, since their lives was so…wild. You’d have to have a lot of dedication and skill to be a pirate for real, with the idea of coming out of piracy to do something else, later.
I could fall in love with a pirate, but I think I’d be dying with anxiety all those years, knowing he could be killed any day, wondering if I’d see him again…or if he’d have a bird in every port, so to speak haha.
Chances are though, I’d be a pirate myself haha…there are known women pirates, although they often had to pretend to be men. Anne Bonnie yo.
Booya.
