ShareThisBy RACHEL LEIBROCK
Sacramento Bee
Thursday, May 24, 2007
There's more to pirates than just "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" and Johnny Depp in a headscarf. So in honor of this week's opening of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," here's a treasure trove of trivia to float your pirate boat.
-- Julius Caesar was captured by pirates. In 75 B.C., the man who would become Rome's emperor was taken hostage during a trek across the Aegean Sea, then held captive on an island for more than a month. Legend has it that when Caesar learned that his captors were demanding a ransom of 20 units of gold, he insisted that they raise the price to 50.
-- As part of the pirate code, these seafaring buccaneers were among the first businessmen to offer insurance to employees injured in the line of duty.
-- According to the International Maritime Bureau, modern-day pirate attacks are on the decline. In the first quarter of 2007, there were only 41 reported pirate attacks, compared with 61 attacks in the first three months of 2006.
-- Nigeria and Somalia are the regions currently most susceptible to pirate attacks.
-- Famous female pirates include Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Read, a widow who dressed like a man and once served as an English foot soldier, was aboard a ship that was captured by "Calico Jack" Rackham and his wife, Anne Bonny. Befriended by Bonny, Read quickly took to the pirate life. Read and Bonny were eventually captured by authorities and forced to stand trial. Both women reportedly avoided execution after it was discovered that each was pregnant.
(Sources: "The Government's Manual for New Pirates," Andrews McMeel Publishing, $10.95, 125 pages; the International Maritime Bureau; "Seafaring Women" by David Cordingly, Random House, $14.95, 286 pages.)
