According to CNN’s top story a modern day pirate can make up to $40,000 per year. I’m assuming this is a low-level pirate not a First Mate. The article has some real gems such as these:
Why Piracy?
Since the days of Blackbeard, who sailed the seas in the early 18th century in a period known as the Golden Age of Piracy, countries with coastlines beefed up their navies and generally routed the robbers.
Yet analysts say two recent trends have led to a rise in piracy: access and opportunity.
As global commerce picks up, more and more of the world’s fuels, minerals and other crucial commodities travel by ship. Ninety-five percent of America’s foreign trade, for instance, moves by water, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
And this:
And although the motive is still money, today’s pirates are a far cry from the eye-patched, peg-legged swashbucklers of Hollywood.
Awesome. But there’s hope right? Loannis Michaletos, security analyst for Greece-based Research Institute for European and American Studies doesn’t think so:
There’s a humanitarian crisis. There’s a food crisis, you have people who are desperate, and this is an easy way to supplement their income.
I am not optimistic for the future.
Either am I, Mr. Michaletos… either am I.
The article says they are “no romantic figures”, but seems confused about what romance is. Seems to me these pirates aren’t actually killing people, just stealing from them. And the people they are stealing from are rich enough to be insured or to avoid reporting the trouble so as not to have their insurance go up.
The only evidence offered is that they don’t wear eyepatches or have peglegs. Both of which, I suspect, have nothing to do with romance, and may not even be true.
They are criminals, sure, but they sound like they may well be enterprising, improvising, romantic sorts of criminals.
Meanwhile, the “romantic” pirates in movies seem to kill people and steal plenty of loot. So… what is the difference?
What makes pirates romantic is that they are doing something they aren’t supposed to be doing. They have seized authority. Of COURSE the Establishment will say they aren’t romantic– and that makes pirates MORE romantic.
If you don’t think eyepatches and peglegs are romantic then I don’t know what is.
I would say that the crew of this British tug boat weren’t ‘rich enough to be insured’ as they were held captive for over 45 days. Not much romantic about that.
Also, I’m pretty sure modern pirates murder.