My son David has recently gone through an obsession with pirates.  It started when he received a collection of books summarising the plots of some Pixar and Disney films, one of which was Peter Pan.  (That I don’t like Peter Pan can be shared in another blog.)  During his recent drama class lessons, there had also been a game or skit about pirates.  It seemed innocent enough, but I noticed that David was drawing pirates, playing pirates, acting pirates; I was rather disturbed.  He would ask me, “Papa, which pirate do you want to be?”

“I don’t like pirates,” would be my initial response.

Innocent fun?

After some failure to convince David of my distate for pirates, another response evolved: “David, pirates are glorified criminals.”

Why do adults continue to peddle a myth to children that pirates are a bit of fun?  Children wearing pirate costumes are not cute.  The jolly roger represents the antithesis of joy.  Pirates are theives.  Pirates are rapists.  Pirates are murderers.  Pirates are barbaric and cruel.  Notice I use the present tense: I’m not talking about a Johnny-Depp-caricature prancing around in the 18th Century Carribean, nor am I talking about someone who sells dodgy DVDs hidden in their jacket, because piracy – criminal violence at sea – is very current.  Somali pirates are currently holding captive 130 people, including the British couple Paul & Rachel Chandler.  Captain Pugwash they are not.

I remember visiting the Willesden Green library as a young boy, borrowing books about pirates.  The history of privateers and piracy is very murky.  I remember asking my father what keelhauling meant; click on the phrase to look up the meaning if you don’t already know.  This was just one example of the many horrifying things I discovered about pirates, easily dispelling the romance attached to piracy.  Reading about the likes of Blackbeard and Henry Morgan made me realise that instead of heroes (and indeed many were honoured and knighted as such) these people lived dark, sad lives.

A very low spirit world surrounds anything to do with piracy.  This must be the main reason why I prefer my children not to play pirates.

Romantic nonsense

A real threat