Archer W.: What is the difference between a pirate and a privateer?
Petula Dvorak: Hmm. Pirates and privateers actually shaped some of America’s most exciting nautical history. What’s the difference? Well, pirates are basically sea bandits. You probably know all about “arr” and eye patches, gold and parrots. Some of them actually had that much charisma. Blackbeard, one of the most notorious to raid America’s coastline, was a guy named Edward Teach, who stole a lot of stuff from ships he raided. He put candles and fuses in his thick beard and lit them to look smoky and demonic and fearsome when he was about to attack. So that’s where those legends came from.
Pirates served no one but themselves. Privateers, however, might have been rough around the edges, too, but they were hired by governments to do a lot of pirate things. When a government or monarchy wanted someone else to do their dirty work, they’d hire a privateer to overtake other vessels, do dangerous exploring, or even pillage cities and settlements.
One of the most famous to work in America is Sir Francis Drake. He has a sea passage in the Caribbean and even a street in California named after him.
Archer W.: Thank you, Petula. That was Petula Dvorak from The Washington Post.
