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Crime and Criminal Biography High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of crime and criminal biography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Crime and Criminal BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyCrime-related High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Piracy Top‑importance This article lies in the latitude of WikiProject Piracy, a crew of scurvy editors bound to sharpen up all Wikipedia's piracy-related articles. If you want to ship with us and help improve this and other Piracy-related articles, lay aboard the project page and sign on for a berth.PiracyWikipedia:WikiProject PiracyTemplate:WikiProject PiracyPiracy Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Piracy To-do: edit history watch purge Here are some tasks you can do to help with WikiProject Piracy: Requests: John Lopez (pirate), Lords of the Spanish Main, Benjamin Bennett (governor) (see What links here), Thomas Walker (pirate), Richard Bishop (pirate) Expand: Charles Vane, Edward England, Emanuel Wynn, George Lowther, Pierre Le Grand, Roche Braziliano, Thomas Cocklyn, Woodes Rogers, Piracy in the Indian Ocean Verify: Daniel Johnson (pirate), Henry Jennings, François l'Olonnais, Olivier Levasseur, Edward Davis (buccaneer) Copyedit: Golden Age of Piracy Images: MV Delight, MV Powerful, Transport: Maritime High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Transport, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TransportWikipedia:WikiProject TransportTemplate:WikiProject TransportTransport High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by the Maritime task force (assessed as High-importance). Oceans Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Oceans, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of oceans, seas, and bays on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.OceansWikipedia:WikiProject OceansTemplate:WikiProject OceansOceans Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Oceans To-do List: edit history watch purge Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : List of oceanographers, create a comprehensive article on Concentrations of marine debris out of all the gyre and "garbage patch" articles Copyedit : Draft:Terrance (octopus) Expand : Coral Sea, Endeavour Strait, Greenland Sea, Solomon Sea Photo : find images for Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in the oceans Stubs : Oceanography stub articles, Marine geography stub articles, Aleutian Trench, Bellingshausen Sea, Caernarfon Bay, Gerlache Strait, Gulf of Oman, Iceland Sea, Draft:Terrance (octopus) Update : Botany Bay, Wilkins Sound, Mariana Trench, Challenger Deep Verify : Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Bering Sea, Gulf of Aden, Iceberg B-15, Ionian Sea, Japan Trench, Moreton Bay, Sound (geography), Timor Sea Other : add ISBNs and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from Aral Sea; check La Belle (ship) for GA status; improve citations or footnotes and remove excessive or inappropriate external links from MS Estonia Military history: Maritime This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status: Referencing and citation: criterion met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met Associated task forces: /  Maritime warfare task force

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Section sizes Section size for Piracy (57 sections) Section name Byte count Prose size (words) Header Total Header Total (Top) 7,775 7,775 500 500 Etymology 2,577 2,577 91 91 History 102 85,905 0 7,466 Europe 14 25,565 0 1,594 Antiquity 4,642 4,642 386 386 Middle Ages 8,374 8,374 949 949 Mediterranean corsairs 12,535 12,535 259 259 Southeast Asia 13,414 13,414 1,039 1,039 East Asia 4,322 12,977 527 1,549 Piracy in the Ming dynasty 2,042 2,042 184 184 Illegal trade and authority 2,117 2,117 235 235 Hierarchy and structure 1,302 1,302 184 184 Clientele 3,194 3,194 419 419 South Asia 4,073 4,073 310 310 Persian Gulf 1,873 1,873 185 185 Madagascar 1,224 1,224 83 83 Caribbean 18,915 18,915 2,170 2,170 Canary Islands 4,797 4,797 264 264 North America 2,965 2,965 272 272 Culture and social structure 34 18,097 0 1,657 Rewards 10,228 10,228 1,058 1,058 Loot 1,531 1,531 205 205 Punishment 1,302 1,302 189 189 Role of women 1,334 1,334 135 135 Democracy among Caribbean pirates 714 714 58 58 Pirate Code 2,954 2,954 12 12 Known pirate shipwrecks 5,065 5,065 10 10 Privateers 6,626 6,626 592 592 Commerce raiders 1,314 1,314 107 107 Contemporary piracy 18,621 18,621 1,198 1,198 Anti-piracy measures 6,098 24,586 382 1,496 Self-defense 11,289 11,289 708 708 Self protection measures 5,318 5,318 303 303 Patrol 1,881 1,881 103 103 Legal aspects 19 14,467 0 1,093 United Kingdom laws 1,191 3,811 100 411 Definition of piracy jure gentium 569 569 65 65 Jurisdiction 244 244 31 31 Piracy committed by or against aircraft 102 102 9 9 Sentence 471 471 55 55 History 1,234 1,234 151 151 United States laws 3,321 3,321 315 315 International law 59 7,316 0 367 Effects on international boundaries 419 419 60 60 Law of nations 2,019 2,019 149 149 International conventions 35 3,408 0 120 Articles 101 to 103 of UNCLOS 3,373 3,373 120 120 IMB definition 627 627 8 8 Uniformity in maritime piracy law 784 784 30 30 Cultural perceptions 6,339 6,339 488 488 Economics of piracy 1,264 4,048 56 109 Piracy and entrepreneurship 2,784 2,784 53 53 See also 804 804 0 0 References 16 3,694 0 0 Notes 25 25 0 0 Bibliography 3,653 3,653 0 0 External links 1,688 1,688 0 0 Total 201,606 201,606 14,807 14,807

I've deleted 2013 POV & TONE templates to this section, which directs me here to explain my bold move. Seems those templates had stayed after a large section merger, and the section has been edited since. There seems no TALK History of either notice, and the labels no longer seem relevant. Thanks for your words, Smyrno347 (talk) 22:32, 22 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Piracy in India which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 06:52, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Explosion following the plane impact into the South Tower (WTC 2) - B6019~11 (cropped).jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:40, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The redirect Pirate and Piracy has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 October 21 § Pirate and Piracy until a consensus is reached. consarn _{(talck) (contirbuton s)} 18:16, 21 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Article's too long. I think a lot of this, the history section at least, should be split into History of piracy and then summarised here per WP:SUMMARYSTYLE. As for structure of the new article, I assume we'd have level two headings for regions, but idk whether we ought to split off the culture section into that article as well. Kowal2701 (talk) 09:15, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'd also suggest we merge Timeline of piracy and all of its relevant children to the new article, they're very underdeveloped. Irrelevant ones can be linked from Piracy in the 21st century Kowal2701 (talk) 09:21, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'll defer to those more familiar with the article to decide. It is always a bit weird to split off a history article for a topic like piracy that is largely (although not entirely) historical, but it seems like a reasonable enough approach to cut down the size. Just be sure you're clear-minded about (and ideally document your vision for) which content belongs in the sub-article versus the main one. Sdkb ^talk 20:48, 3 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"William Hawkins said that under common law, piracy by a subject was esteemed to be petty treason. The Treason Act 1351 provided that this was not petty treason."

William Hawkins lived well after the act of 1351, so which is it? The answer, as stated by Hawkins, is that piracy by a subject was a treason before the act and a felony afterward. The 1351 act delimited only high treason, i.e. "Treason which extends to our Lord the King." Neither Hawkins nor Blackstone state that the treason of a pirate was petty. The passage should make this clearer. ~2025-31640-38 (talk) 22:39, 13 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]