Buried treasure. Ragged clothed , hairy men sweating away as they bury or recover a buried treasure of gold, silver, jewels etc. This was simply not the realistic case, burying treasure is basicly burying hard earned goods or gold that many sailors rissked their own lives for and all the sudden their captain gives them a order" Mates I feel like an idiot today, so lets bury all our treasure and sail away and in a few years and hopefully if most of us survive we will dig it up and spend all of it within the week!, So how does that sound?" Burying treasure is not realistic first of all in rare cases pirates would get gold,silver was slim, mostly trade ships carried regular goods: Cloths, salt, sugar, Oil, fruit, fish, cotton, tobbaco, Cacao beans, household goods, and sometimes money.
Pirates were not picky when it came to taking goods, they took sailcloths,planks, anchors and cables, any goods wether from wine to sugar. Though in some cases gold was sometimes easy to find near Africa and Brazil- where Gold dust, Elephant teeth, Gum, iron, plate, Blacks, wee traded for large sums of money. EstIndiamans carried valuable cargo but were mostly too large and too havily crewed to even attempt to capture it, these sort of vessels carried silk, indigo, gold, iron, cannon, rupees, rare cloths and passengers. Dutch indiamans carried Large amounts of silver to pay for future cargo and their crews.
Pirates normally captured small merchantman sloops, schooners, brigantines, Pinks, and river shallops all from between 6-to 12 guns and crews from two to 18 or 30 men that carried regular goods in chests and boxes and barrels. These were the main targets of small time pirates: Charles Vane, Calico jack Rackham, Richard Worely,etc. Though some pirates like Black Bart and edward Teach who took huge ships and converted them into warships Edward Teach and the Queen Anne's Revenge of 40 guns and other sloops in his fleet, Black Bart's The Royal Fortune of 42 guns, the french ship Ranger of 30 guns, The Small storagee ship Little Ranger, etc. These two took several ships though Black Bart did many daring assualts like capturing one of the Portguese Treasure ships filled with gold cross sets meant for the king of Portugal, Sugar, Tobbaco and gold, and capturing 11 slave ships at Whydah.
Howell Davis was also very brave too capturing many ships, his flagship the 32 cannon and 28 swivel gun ship The Rover, Davis and his crew raided the Gambia Castle using wits and the element of suprise to capture the governor and trap the soilders of which they got 2,000 pounds in bar gold and some goods.These corsairs were lucky though they all met their death at the hands of Authorities. Even if gold was gotten it would be spent withen a week since it was "easy" money, so it did not last long. To sum it all up, the fairy tales Hollywood likes to show children and adults the buried treasure and the honest pirate crap its all a big trick.
Pirates were not picky when it came to taking goods, they took sailcloths,planks, anchors and cables, any goods wether from wine to sugar. Though in some cases gold was sometimes easy to find near Africa and Brazil- where Gold dust, Elephant teeth, Gum, iron, plate, Blacks, wee traded for large sums of money. EstIndiamans carried valuable cargo but were mostly too large and too havily crewed to even attempt to capture it, these sort of vessels carried silk, indigo, gold, iron, cannon, rupees, rare cloths and passengers. Dutch indiamans carried Large amounts of silver to pay for future cargo and their crews.
Pirates normally captured small merchantman sloops, schooners, brigantines, Pinks, and river shallops all from between 6-to 12 guns and crews from two to 18 or 30 men that carried regular goods in chests and boxes and barrels. These were the main targets of small time pirates: Charles Vane, Calico jack Rackham, Richard Worely,etc. Though some pirates like Black Bart and edward Teach who took huge ships and converted them into warships Edward Teach and the Queen Anne's Revenge of 40 guns and other sloops in his fleet, Black Bart's The Royal Fortune of 42 guns, the french ship Ranger of 30 guns, The Small storagee ship Little Ranger, etc. These two took several ships though Black Bart did many daring assualts like capturing one of the Portguese Treasure ships filled with gold cross sets meant for the king of Portugal, Sugar, Tobbaco and gold, and capturing 11 slave ships at Whydah.
Howell Davis was also very brave too capturing many ships, his flagship the 32 cannon and 28 swivel gun ship The Rover, Davis and his crew raided the Gambia Castle using wits and the element of suprise to capture the governor and trap the soilders of which they got 2,000 pounds in bar gold and some goods.These corsairs were lucky though they all met their death at the hands of Authorities. Even if gold was gotten it would be spent withen a week since it was "easy" money, so it did not last long. To sum it all up, the fairy tales Hollywood likes to show children and adults the buried treasure and the honest pirate crap its all a big trick.
