Vernon Hills kid asks: Are pirates real?
"Are pirates real?" asked Ryan Hauptman, a third-grader at Mundelein's Diamond Lake School. Hauptman, 9, lives in Vernon Hills.
Pirates have been stealing ships and their contents for centuries. The vast oceans have made it easy for lawless seafarers to surprise unsuspecting ships ferrying valuables and marketable items.
The word "pirate" brings to mind men with wide flared pants cinched by a sash used to holster a cutlass. Pirates are known as villainous characters who force their prisoners to walk the plank; men who'd kill for riches like gold doubloons and who say things like "Shiver me timbers" and "Ahoy matey."
Today's pirates are more interested in ransom money than the valuables on a ship. Daily life for pirates is operated like a businesses. Investors give money to the pirates so they can purchase a ship and outfit it with sailors. They stand to gain large returns if the ship's mates are successful at winning a large ransom. Those who take the most risk in the hijacking are paid the most. Even the ship's cooks are paid out of the pirate's booty. Negotiators bring an end to a stand off and hostages are released when a bounty is agreed upon. Sometimes the pirates are captured and everyone lands in jail.
Newspaper headlines carry reports about the pirates who roam off the shores of Somalia and Kenya in western Africa. Extreme poverty has drawn people into the lawless pirate profession. Last year, pirates took in an estimated of $150 million by hijacking ships in the western Africa.
The pirates' code and their dastardly ways have captured the imagination of many a storyteller. Pirates weave wily plans in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." Bigger-than-life pirates capture young Wendy and her brothers Michael and James in "Peter Pan." Jack Sparrow and his ghostly pirate crew prove more cunning than British soldiers in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.
Do real pirates say "Ahoy!"? "Ship ahoy" is what a sailor yells when he spies a ship from atop the crow's nest. Today's pirates are likely to use technology like sonar and electronics to locate their prey.
Other titles
The Fremont Public Library District in Mundelein suggests these titles on pirates:
• "Pirate Life," by Michael Teitelbaum
• "A Day in the Life of a Pirate," by Emma Helbrough
• "A History of Pirates," by John Hamilton
• "Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World," by Jane Yolen
• "Pirates Don't Change Diapers," by Melinda Long