Barbary Pirates off the West of England

[Montero]

Barbary Pirates and English Slaves

For over 300 years, the coastlines of the English Channel and south west of England were at the mercy of Barbary pirates. Men, women and children were kidnapped to be sold as slaves...

www.historic-uk.com

Not something I ever knew until I tripped over it thanks to not pocket as I originally posted, but from a Butterfly Conservation newsletter which mentioned the importance of Barberry bushes and that led into Barbary.

 

[sknox]

Thanks for that reference. It's too bad the article jumps a whole century, from 1675 to 1801. That's an important period in the development of the British Navy. I wonder if the key changes were in naval technology or if they lay more in the realm of politics, allying with Muslim powers to take down the pirates.

In any case, Muslim pirates on the Cornish coast must surely provide fodder for some rousing historical fiction!

 

[jd73]

Muslim pirates on the Cornish coast must surely provide fodder for some rousing historical fiction!

More material for my soon-to-be-evolved-past-a-title-and-vague-concept Berber-punk epic, The Great Simoom

 

[The Judge]

Yep, I knew about the pirates raiding for slaves along the British Isles, and it's strange how it's been largely forgotten, even in the places where the raids happened.

In any case, Muslim pirates on the Cornish coast must surely provide fodder for some rousing historical fiction!

Not the Cornish coast, and not at all rousing since it's told from the POV of one of the victims, but in The Sealwoman's Gift Sally Magnusson has written about an incident in 1627 when 400 people from Iceland were taken, out of a population of only 40,000, and that included practically everyone on the island of Heimaey. The facts are well known there, and she posits that it's a memory kept in the collective psyche because the effects were so devastating to a place that was already the poorest in Europe.

 

[sknox]

>it's strange how it's been largely forgotten, even in the places where the raids happened.
A great many things are largely forgotten. That's why you keep historians around, even though we are generally ignored (except by high school students, whom we generally annoy).

I always smile and shake my head at the endless stream of "forgotten history" shows or articles about how this or that person or event has been lost or is unknown hitherto. Every one of them has had at least a dozen Master's theses written about them and probably a dissertation or three. People forget (largely, largely), but historians record.

 

[svalbard]

A fleet of Barbary pirates sacked Baltimore in West Cork , Ireland in 1631. It was commanded by a Dutch Captain and included a few different nationalities. Something that gets forgotten in the popular telling.

 

[AllanR]

When I play the game Europa Universalis IV, I shut down the Barbary pirates as fast as I can. They don't have the range in the game like they did in real life, but they are terrible neighbours to have as they constantly raid your coasts.
If I play, say, Morocco, I expand the range so that I can raid even into the Baltic...

 

[Bowler1]

I was beaten to the Irish raid, but until the English fleet improved enough to keep English waters safe it seems life on the coast had unexpected risks.

 

[Lostinspace]

The event that can be hesitantly said to end the Barbary raids on the British coast was Blake's voyage in the Mediterranean Blake in the Mediterranean 1654-5.

 

[Vladd67]

Is this shores of Tripoli mentioned in the US marine hymn to do with putting down the barbary pirates?

 

[AllanR]

Once America became independent, their merchant fleet lost the protection of the French navy. America refused to pay tribute to Tripoli (Libya) and thus their merchants were subject to raids which lead to the First Barbary War - Wikipedia