#barbary pirates

[ltwilliammowett]

USS Enterprise battling the Barbary Pirates, 1801, by Patrick O'Brien (1960-)

[illustratus]

Barbary pirates terrorising the coast of the Mediterranean, kidnapping the inhabitants to sell as slaves

by Albert Robida

[aikoiya]

Part 1 of how America became the world police.

[pitch-and-moan]

Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates and Islamaphobia and Jingoism

A faithful film adaptation of Brian Killmeade's terrible and terribly written book about the Barbary Wars, but with VH1 Pop-Up video style bubbles explaining the nuance missed by the book, and correcting the racism and idiocy in the book, until by the end the actual film is completely obscured by the bubbles trying to explain things.

[qbdatabase]

Ahoy, mates and mutineers!

This month’s list features some of my top picks for women who rule the high seas–and the occasional space ship. Or really fucked up ghost ship. Plus a couple extra disaster male pirates 😘

Book descriptions and rep for lesbian, bisexual, butch, disabled, autistic, and women of color below the cut!

*Barbary Station / R. E. Stearns: Sci-Fi; grad students turn to space-piracy to pay off their debts but find they’re trapped on-station by an evil AI, feat. autistic lesbian x bi girlfriend

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea / Maggie Tokuda-Hall: YA Fantasy; a genderfluid pirate accidentally bonds with their noble Lady passenger, set on a wild escape, and free a captured mermaid

Ship of Smoke and Steel / Django Wexler: YA Fantasy, Action; Asian bisexual crime boss fights a ghost pirate ship (yes, the ship itself) with her lesbian healer girlfriend

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy / Mackenzi Lee: YA Historical; an aro-ace lady schemes to become a doctor, but she’ll settle for being a pirate!

The Fifth Season / N. K. Jemisin: Fantasy, Dystopia; a poly bisexual woman sets out on a vengeance quest to rescue her kidnapped daughter the day the world ends

Compass Rose / Anna Burke: Fantasy / Sci-Fi; a black lesbian goes undercover as a pirate in the 26th century

Windfall / Shawna Barnett: Fantasy; a secret-princess pirate Captain is blackmailed into protecting a runaway real princess in bisexual love square

A Song of Silver and Gold / Melissa Karibian: Fantasy; retelling of The Little Mermaid with enemies-to-lovers, butch lesbian pirate Captain x siren warrior who must cut out her heart

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach: Sci-Fi; bisexual dead cop comes back wrong and works w/pirates to stop a plague

*Captain Raven and the All Girl Pirate Crew: YA graphic novel; Raven needs revenge against her brothers, so she hires a female crew, feat. Deaf, lesbian, and women of color

(extra) The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue: YA Historical; alcoholic bi male x epileptic biracial gay male; the first in the series by Makenzie Lee

*(extra) Kidnapped by the Pirate / Keira Andrews: Romance; a young gay man offers himself as hostage to an older pirate Captain to save his sister

*titles with an asterisk next to them have been featured on QBdatabase.com as a daily book; this lists the book's full jacket summary, detailed notes on representation, and a link to its goodreads page!

[sins-of-the-sea]

You like cats, right, Giovanni? Have you ever heard of the nekomata? They're two-tailed cat spirits from Japan!

"I have! One of the older thralls the Master had when I rejoined him in Sugbu was a Japanese pirate named Akitake! I think he was a disgraced lord from Edo who joined Datu Dalugdog and many other pirates of the South China Seas by the time. Either way! He told me about the nekomata and other creatures in Japan like the tanuki and the Orochi beast! Supposedly when a cat has lived a long enough life, its tail will split in two! I think they also become especially wise or powerful!

"Ohhh, I'd love to befriend a nekomata! I will give it all the love and hugs and cuddles and pets and treats it will ever ask for!!"

[the-delta-42]

#kleeware #shipsofhistory #santamaria #barbarypirate #mayflower #ussconstitution #kleewareshipsofhistory #modelships #kleewaremodels

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[ltwilliammowett]

Hark Olufs a pirate victim sold into slavery

Hark or Harck Olufs was born in July 1708 in Süddorf on Amrum. At that time, the island of Amrum was under Danish rule, a time when the island was always fought over and regularly changed crowns.

Now Hark's father was "Captain Oluf Jensen" and as a sought-after North German captain he owned several ships, including "die Hoffnung /the Hope", on which he sent his son Hark Olufs on board as a sailor in 1721. Three years later, what many sailors of that time truly feared happened. When Hark was on his way from Nantes to Hamburg, two of his cousins and the crew fell into the hands of the notorious Barbary pirates and were taken as slaves to Algiers to extort ransom.

Front of Hark Oluf’s talking gravestone (x)

"Here lies the great war hero, resting gently on Amrom Christenfeld. The blessed Harck Olufs was born there on Amrum in 1708, 19 July. Soon afterwards, in his younger years, he was taken prisoner by the Turkish pirates in Algiers on 24 March 1724. In such imprisonment, however, he served the Turkish Bey of Constantine as a casnadaje for 11 and a quarter years, until this Bey finally gave him his freedom in 1735 on 31 October out of kindness to him, since he then happily returned here the following year as A[nn]o 1736 on 25 April. April, he happily arrived here again on his fatherland, and thus in A[nn]o 1737 entered into holy matrimony with Antje Harken, who is now in a sad widowhood together with 5 children. In such marriage, however, they have begotten a son and 4 daughters. Thus they must all feel the death of their father, since he died in 1754 on 13 October, and brought his life to 46 years and 13 weeks.

Of course, Hark's desperate family tried to buy him free, but simply could not raise the enormously large sum demanded, although large fundraising campaigns were initiated. But Hark and his cousins were not the only ones, and since each of them was asked for about 6,000 marks, it was almost impossible to raise this amount. But his family did not give up and even turned to the Danish government, which had a special department for kidnapped sailors. But now there was a problem. The Hope was not sailing under the Danish flag, but under the free flag of Hamburg (the reason why his father was also allowed to call himself Captain, because this title was only allowed to Hamburger merchant Captains, others were only Commanders) whereupon Hark Olufs' application for release was rejected. As if this were not dramatic enough, the Olufs family was further dogged by bad luck. When Hark's father finally had the required sum of money together, he arranged for his son to be ransomed. And indeed, a Hark Olufs was also ransomed, but not his son, just someone else with the same name. All hope for the real Hark Olufs seemed lost and with each passing day, the hope of seeing him alive again faded. But Hark was lucky -

The following text is written on the back of the gravestone: (x)

"May God grant the body a joyful resurrection on the last day.

To my own I call back from the grave these lines for remembrance: Alas, in my younger years I must go to the robbery of the Algiers And hold almost twelve years the Slaverey. But God made me free by his hand. Therefore I say again: I know, my God, I must now die. I will, but one thing I ask. Let not mine own perish. Keep the widow's house. Oh God, because I cannot provide, take thee wife and children."

After being sold as a slave, he worked as a servant to the Beys of Constantine until 1728. On behalf of his owner, he killed many people and gained the trust of his master. Thus Hark not only rose to the position of treasurer, but between 1724 and 1732 he became commander of the bodyguard. Incidentally, he also took part in a pilgrimage to Mecca, from which it can be concluded that he converted to Islam. After Hark had helped in the conquest of Tunis in 1735, he was released in gratitude on 31 October and returned home to Amrum in 1736 as a very wealthy man.

However, he did not seem to leave voluntarily, because shortly after he was released, the Bey died. And with that, Hark lost his protector and leader, which threatened his own life again, and so he returned.

Title page of the first edition of Hark Olufs' Autobiography, 1747 (x)

When he returned to Amrum, he stayed there. He only married after a thorough examination by the pastor and the elders, but after proving that he was still a Christian, he was baptised and accepted back into the church and community. Once and for all fed up with dangerous seafaring, he held several offices on Amrum and even met the Danish King Christian VI. He told him his story and in 1747 his own autobiography was published. Hark Olufs died in Süddorf on Amrum on 13 October 1754. Even today his gravestone, which is one of the talking stones, stands in Nebel in the cemetery at St Clement's Church.  

But it doesn't stop there, because since his death he has been sighted again and again wandering around the cemetery and between the dunes in search of his treasure and obviously cannot find any peace.

[illustratus]

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have any fun fact about Libya, please tell us and I'll reblog it!

Be respectful in your comments. You can criticize a government without offending its people.

[ancientorigins]

Much attention and condemnation has been directed towards the tragedy of the #African slave trade , which took place between the 16th and the 19th centuries.

[calabria-mediterranea]

Calabrian Proverb: "simu cumbinati comu i santi 'i Rriggiu" (in Calabrian dialect)

Siamo ridotti come i santi reggini. (in Italian)

We’ve been reduced to such a state, like the saints in Reggio. (in English)

This proverb refers to the historical vandalism committed by Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates, who defaced religious paintings and chopped the heads off of and otherwise damaged sculptures in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

At the San Paolo Museum, in Reggio Calabria, amongst the many paintings, San Michele che uccide il drago (St. Michael Killing the Dragon), a large image on a wooden panel stands out for both the beauty of the work and its history. Dating from 1470, this painting of Saint Michael the Archangel was for many years attributed to Antonello da Messina. For this reason, the piece was analyzed in great detail. Even though it was determined not to be of the hand of the renowned artist, which is of no great surprise, the physical state of the image was studied more than perhaps it otherwise would have been.

At first glance, coming across this painting in a museum, you might just think that due to its more than 500-year existence, a little paint had chipped off here and there. However, the damage to the saint’s face has actually been ascribed to historical vandalism. In the 16th century, Reggio suffered terribly from attacks by Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates. These invaders defaced, literally, religious paintings and chopped the heads off of and otherwise damaged sculptures. Thus, Saint Michael the Archangel suffered from this collateral damage.

Today, these events might seem like ancient history. However, their memory is still very much alive in the common saying in the local dialect:

Simu cumbinati comu i santi 'i Rriggiu

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