10. Original Pirate Material
Lock down your aerial
It’s show time! This is when you take everything you’ve learned so far and put it to work. But exactly how are you going to be more pirate in the long shadow of a Monday morning? How will you ever remember whether you’re supposed to be Rebelling or Retelling or one of those other R’s? Where is the illustrated flat-pack guide to causing good trouble?
Yet again, Golden-Age pirates have the answer, this time in the form of the Pirate Code, which was a sort of immutable manifesto of pirate law. This chapter will draw on original and authentic versions of the code from the Golden Age to inspire you to build your own, a personalized pirate code that will help you turn your dreams and schemes into reality. At the end of the next chapter you’ll be ready to create your own bespoke code, a Pirate Code 2.0 upgraded for the twenty-first century. With the pirate framework for change behind you, and your very own Pirate Code ahead, soon you will be ready to take on your world and win.
The five stages and chapters we’ve just worked through replicate the steps that pirates took to create lasting change. However, the pirates’ ideas that have inspired us so far, the ones that started out at the edges and went on to permeate mainstream culture, were successful and stood the test of time only because they were enshrined within the Pirate Code.
The Pirate Code is also known interchangeably as the Pirate Articles, Articles of Association, Code of the Brethren or Code of the Coast. To keep things straightforward, though, we’ll use Pirate Code as the overall term for each set of rules, and ‘articles’ to refer to the individual elements, clauses or bullet points that made up each code.
Completing the workshop challenge sections at the end of the last few chapters will already have provided you with a few potential articles of your own in development for you to draw on as we examine in depth three authentic eighteenth-century codes in this chapter, and then some great examples of contemporary twenty-first-century codes in the next will inspire you to assemble your personal code. But first, in order to become the architect of your own world-conquering code, it’s essential to appreciate how the pirates used theirs.
The Pirate Code has always been part of the pirate story. Throughout the Golden Age its contents inspired much taproom gossip and its legendary lore helped make many memoirs of pirate adventure into the best-selling books of the time. It’s easy to see why: the radical reorganizing principles of the code were almost seditious and the sharp references to pirate mischief and misadventure were salacious. It was a winning combination.
When Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, was published over one hundred years after the Golden Age of piracy, these infamous piratical principles were subsumed into wider popular culture. The book became the Harry Potter of its day as grown-up tales of good and evil were made into children’s adventures. In more recent history, the code was name-checked in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, when Captain Hector Barbossa, played by Geoffrey Rush, inaccurately stated that ‘the code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules’. Hollywood once again sells the pirate story short. Make no mistake, ‘more what you’d call guidelines’ these were not. Rules enforced on pain of a frightful death they absolutely were.
The Pirate Code was the backbone of the Golden-Age pirates’ success. Each code was reformulated afresh at the start of every new mission and also remained remarkably consistent over time. The codes were worked out collaboratively by the crew and enshrined fundamental pirate principles, such as transparent and dynamic pay structures alongside occasionally very specific and bespoke rules such as not smuggling women aboard dressed as men or not getting drunk before tying up prisoners. These and others illustrate a responsive and tactical nature to the code as well as the broader strategic consistent themes.
Often the codes were oral contracts, because written records would have provided cast-iron proof of being a pirate, which was enough to warrant a death sentence. They had to be concise and memorable, and focus laser-like on the essential issues.
The Pirate Code was flexible and fluid yet rigorous and robust. It was a system that created consistency but also allowed for change. Each code was fiercely enforced, but its articles were updated and adapted to accommodate the needs and experience of the individuals who made up the crew. The Pirate Code was mandatory, made by many, bespoke to all. It gave the pirates order amidst chaos, rules amongst the unruly and trust amongst the untrustworthy. Not that I’m suggesting any one of you is more untrustworthy, chaotic or unruly than I am, but the times we’re living in most certainly are, and this is why we need a system with flexibility and fluidity, and a structure that will help us navigate the choppy seas ahead.
Living and working by your Pirate Code will help you organize, mobilize and realize your dreams without sacrificing your ideals or individuality to the collective strength that you need. This is how pirates found fair governance instead of following flawed governments. This is how they kept it light whilst remaining strong, how they moved so fast but packed such a big punch.
To illustrate the power the pirates harnessed through this somewhat radical operating system, I’m going to present three classic codes for comparison. They are from Henry Morgan, William Kidd and Bartholomew ‘Black Bart’ Roberts, three legendary pirates whose consecutive adventures span the full forty-year duration of the Golden Age.
Henry Morgan’s code from the 1670s kicks off with the core articles we see appearing time and time again across all crews in the subsequent thirty years. His code is a short one with nearly every article containing some element of social justice from fair pay to workplace compensation.
Kidd’s code dates from 1696. As a pirate and a privateer, Kidd was infamously untrustworthy, and the detail within each article perhaps shows both his crew’s wariness of him and Kidd’s desire to assert control.
The code of Bartholomew Roberts from 1722 seems to me particularly poignant as he was sailing after the Pirate Republic had been crushed and many of the most famous pirate heroes killed. Consequently, his code has the scent of the end being nigh.
Taken as a snapshot together, these three codes demonstrate how their dynamic structure allowed small groups to overcome huge odds and effectively accommodate a wide spectrum of ideals and agendas successfully for half a century.
I have left out the long administrative articles concerning unloading at docks, victuals, wear and tear, etc., etc., which is why the numbering is not consecutive. (And I know you would have skipped them anyway, being the pirate that you are by now.)
Deep trust is the basis for everything (and don’t mess with it)
Introducing the Pirate Code of Henry Morgan – 1670 something
Captain Morgan was that rare breakthrough pioneer who achieved mainstream success without selling out. His code became a benchmark for all other pirate crews and was recorded by his frenemy and unofficial biographer, Alexander Exquemelin, a physician who sailed with Morgan for many years and published The Buccaneers of America in 1678, wherein the following is recorded.
THE ARTICLES OF HENRY MORGAN AND OTHER BUCCANEERS – 1670s
Hold up! Before we move on, we have to address the reference to slaves as a form of compensation payment which wholly undermines that otherwise progressive article. In the 1600s, slavery was a massive international, if wholly immoral, commercial operation earning many middle-class families a small fortune. This doesn’t excuse the pirates’ approach but it does reveal the inescapably ugly historical context of the day. However, as time passed, after about 1700 when the Golden Age really got underway, the option of payment in slaves disappeared altogether from subsequent codes. Indeed, the number of freed slaves joining pirate crews rose significantly, with equal say and pay for all becoming commonplace.
The fact of pirates’ participation in slavery cannot be ignored or erased, but at least their relationship with it evolved and improved over time, and much, much faster than the rest of the ‘civilized’ world. Historians such as Kenneth Kinkor, who argued that ‘the deck of a pirate ship was the most empowering place for blacks within the eighteenth-century white man’s world’,1 believed that, as the Golden Age progressed, so did the pirates’ attitudes, evidenced by their regularly freeing slaves and giving them equal say. Marcus Rediker, Colin Woodward and other prominent pirate historians also lend their weight in this direction. Arne Bialuschewski, on the other hand, cites evidence that human trafficking continued on pirates’ watch throughout the Golden Age.2 Clearly, some pirates were less progressive than others, and no excuses can be made for slavery.
With that acknowledged, let’s start unpacking the code to identify which parts will be most useful for you. Whilst the early instance of fair-pay principles, the sliding scale of injury compensation and the overall equality of the arrangements between members are all striking, the most important point for you to chew over now is the final section of Article V …
it is severely prohibited to everyone to usurp anything, in particular to themselves … If afterwards any one is found unfaithful, who has contravened the said oath, immediately he is separated and turned out of the society.
All ideas of pirates as anarchic, chaotic and despotic are buried here for ever and for good. At the end of the pirate day, their strength was built on trust, their community was connected through collaboration and their culture was created safe in the knowledge they had each other’s backs and weren’t going to prize individual gain over shared values. These communities were such sophisticated systems with strong bonds and fair rewards, that the worst punishment one could endure was to be removed from them. On such simple ideas do strong societies flourish.
As your ideas turn into adventures, and as your adventures gain a following and a community, governed by your own Pirate Code, you’ll know you’re successful when remaining in that group becomes motivation enough to keep your team accountable. Business and management guru Peter Drucker once famously said, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’, demonstrating that an organization’s success is founded on its shared values and beliefs, not its targets and tactics. The buccaneers who paved the way for the Golden Age of Piracy are early proof of this. If you think of your team as a collective, or even as a society, and the individuals within it as citizens where deep trust is the ultimate currency, then the secret of lasting success is secured and all subsequent strategies will be infinitely more successful.
Enshrine your essentials (and learn from your mistakes)
Introducing the Pirate Code of William Kidd – 1696
Captain Kidd is amongst history’s best-known pirates, but his true story is a sad and complex affair. World famous when he was on the account, infamous for killing one of his own crew with a bucket (don’t ask), he developed a reputation for seeking the odd pardon and passing the buck for his deeds.
Kidd started out as a privateer (the officially sanctioned type of pirate) but quickly switched sides (more than once). When he eventually found himself on trial for piracy, Kidd claimed innocence and blamed the whole thing on his crew (see what I mean about passing the buck?). Some of Kidd’s successes were in part due to the backdoor deals he made with senior politicians and the Lords of Trade back in London, who at the time controlled the shipping lanes. As the resentment between the American governors and their colonial masters continued to brew, Kidd unwittingly became a pawn in a Game of Thrones-level web of double crossing, deception and disguise that was ultimately his undoing.
Kidd had to watch his back, and his crew had to watch Kidd, which in part might explain some of the detail in this code, a sort of added protection amongst pirates, but most interesting to see is the development, evolution but also consistency from Morgan’s code to Kidd’s.
THE ARTICLES OF WILLIAM KIDD – 16963
Articles of Agreement concluded upon this tenth day of September Anno Domini 1696 between Captain William Kidd, Commander of the good ship the Adventure Galley, and John Walker, Quartermaster to the said ship’s company, as followeth:
These articles were formulated about two decades after the original code set down by Morgan, with no formal published records or pirate secretariat to maintain a link between the two. There was no WikiPirate available to make a quick check of what the rules were, so pirates needed codes that whole crews could remember. They would have been shared by word of mouth by what were predominantly illiterate pirates, which makes it even more remarkable that so many specific articles retain consistently sharp focus across different crews’ codes. The takeaway from this is to focus on the principles that you think are worth preserving over time. Ask yourself what are the fundamentals you’d want your crew to remember verbatim.
Whilst there is an impressive degree of continuity between these codes, at the same time you can see evolution, layers and added sophistication as the needs of the crew change and lessons are learned from previous adventures and misadventures.
Point XI, for example, which threatens punishment to anyone who gets drunk during ‘an engagement’ (a fight) before any prisoners have been ‘secured’ (tied up or locked away). I mean, that’s so specific it’s impossible not to imagine that something very bad had happened to demand its inclusion. It sounds to me like the pirates won a fight and, whilst in the process of taking care of their new prisoners, got so shitfaced that the captives then either escaped or, worse, turned the tables and attacked their captors.
I’m guessing that challenges around drinking, fighting and tying up your team is not why you’re here, but I’m also guessing you’ve made a mistake or two in your time that you never want to repeat. When your crew gets bigger, you don’t want them making the same mistakes as you, so how you help them avoid those pitfalls is all important. Hey, guys, let me tell you about the time I was SOOO smashed I couldn’t tie up the prisoners and they ended up tying me up! is not a good look.
It’s easy to see from looking at these two codes that the pirates learned from their mistakes and tied up their prisoners before opening the rum, but the major evolution from Morgan’s blueprint I want to draw attention to is the idea that friend or family can receive social compensation for those killed in action. If such considerate, compassionate inheritance arrangements don’t sound like the pirates we’ve grown up hearing about, then remember ‘matelotage’ – pirates’ same-sex ‘marriages’. Clearly, the pirates formed relationships with each other sufficiently close that they warranted an inheritance clause.
Tight-knit communities that rely on each other for survival need to trust each other implicitly and feel safe in the knowledge that they will look after each other when seas get rough. When it comes to building a team or a following, take time to consider the incentives, the rewards and the reassurances you build into your community. If you really listen to what matters to yourself and your team, and provide it, you’ll build deep and powerful motivation, trust and appreciation well beyond the essential but transactional incentives of pay, promotion and pensions.
Go hard on your values
(and don’t forget the band)
Introducing the Pirate Code of Bartholomew Roberts – 1722
Bartholomew ‘Black Bart’ Roberts, aka Black Barty, aka Barti Ddu (Bart’s Welsh name), was sailing the high seas some forty years after the original code was laid down by Morgan.
His code is remarkable for two things in particular. Firstly, the essentials have been not only maintained but also given razor-sharp focus; the very first article is a clear statement of total equality in both reward received and decision-making power.
Secondly, Bart’s code shows a real sensitivity to the ever-shifting needs of a specific mission. We see, as with Kidd’s code, that the pirates learned from their previous mistakes, and adapted the code to refine their values whilst voyaging, in this case with a ban on gambling.
THE ARTICLES OF BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS, FEBRUARY 17224
- Every man has a vote in affairs of moment; has equal title to the fresh provisions, or strong liquors, at any time seized, and may use them at pleasure, unless a scarcity makes it necessary, for the good of all, to vote a retrenchment.
- Every man to be called fairly in turn, by list, on board of prizes because (over and above their proper share) they were on these occasions allowed a shift of clothes: but if they defrauded the company to the value of a dollar in plate, jewels, or money, marooning was their punishment.
- No person to game at cards or dice for money.
- The lights and candles to be put out at eight o’clock at night: if any of the crew after that hour still remained inclined for drinking, they were to do it on the open deck.
- No woman to be allowed amongst them. If any man were to be found seducing any of the latter sex, and carried her to sea, disguised, he was to suffer death.
- No striking one another on board, but every man’s quarrels to be ended on shore, at sword and pistol.
- No man to talk of breaking up their way of living, till each had shared one thousand pounds. If in order to this, any man should lose a limb, or become a cripple in their service, he was to have eight hundred dollars, out of the public stock, and for lesser hurts, proportionately.
- The captain and quartermaster to receive two shares of a prize: the master, boatswain, and gunner, one share and a half, and other officers one and a quarter.
- The musicians to have rest on the Sabbath Day, but the other six days and nights, none without special favour.
Over forty years after Captain Morgan inspired the Pirate Code, Bartholomew Roberts keeps the faith with such an impressive degree of diligence and consistency on the big issues like fair pay, a clear system of social insurance and participatory and representative democratic decision-making.
And then, these prescient parts of the Pirate Code that appear across multiple crews and many decades are accompanied by articles so very specific as to almost feel random. But they nonetheless demonstrate that the power of the Pirate Code was its ability to cover simultaneously both big issues and the all-important detail.
Article VI makes clear the threat of death for mistreating or ‘carrying to sea’ any woman, especially one dressed in men’s clothing. By most accounts, pirate ships were predominantly male environments, sometimes progressively so, as we’ve seen with the instance of a same-sex civil ceremony, and sometimes the norm was broken by legends like Anne Bonny and Mary Read. But on the whole, women on board were a rarity and therefore provision for their treatment must have been occasionally essential. Some pirates liked to show off their gentlemanly credentials with the good treatment of their female captives, and also some real horror stories exist. It is therefore interesting to see a clause in protection of women in this instance, although it is a rare one and, like the other articles we’ve looked at, it was probably put in place to overcome previous problems on board.
The last article is also worth a moment of your time: to see, amongst all these detailed articles about robbing, sharing stolen goods and accountability held through violence, a) that Black Bart gave the band a break on Sundays and b) the fact that Black Bart had a band. An actual band on a pirate ship. Playing six days a week? See what I mean about poignant?
I know that was a lot of sometimes torturously seventeenth-century language where any person that shall have to read of such a thing may have to read of it two times or more to know what such thing meant in the first place. Sorry about that. But I wanted you to be able to taste the blood, sweat and salt of the real-deal authentic and surviving Pirate Code in all of its wordy glory.
Confusing yet consistent, progressive yet prejudiced, fair but fierce, the Pirate Code is a fascinating reflection of the times. It’s worth an investigation all of its own, and there is a lot written about it, but if you’re interested to find out more I would specifically point to E. T. Fox’s dissertation ‘ “Piratical Schemes and Contracts”: Pirate Articles and their Society, 1660–1730’ for a robust examination and a deeper critique of some of the potentially progressive interpretations of the code.5
For our purposes, though, once again, we’re accepting that there is moral relativity between the Golden Age and the modern age, and trying to draw through the strategic lessons relevant to surviving in uncertainty and sailing into uncharted horizons, and in that, the Pirate Code holds many useful attributes. It successfully held a crew to account, it successfully allowed dynamic structures, it ensured democratic principles were enshrined and, at the most positive and profound end of its impact, its influence can be felt in a number of movements and moments across history when humanity has taken a real step forward.
From codes to cooperatives
We’ve seen how Pirate Codes developed over a span of forty years and at many points in this book we’ve looked at the profound impact that pirates’ policies had on the world. Many pirate historians and economists have pointed to the commonality between some of the pirates’ innovative and progressive practices and social developments that occur later in mainstream civilization, for example the implementation of workplace insurance. They’ve argued that Captain Henry Morgan’s was the first use of a compensation payout, long before the Employers’ Liability Act that came into law in America in 1850 and then in the UK in 1888. Some even point out that the pirates’ approach to compensation is further mirrored in Article 22 of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights that states that ‘Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security’, some 250 years after every pirate citizen assumed the same right, signed up to in blood in their Pirate Code. But the pirates weren’t intent on creating principles that would one day become inalienable human rights, they were generating clear, simple rules that would make their own lives fairer.
We could spend a long time looking at each article across all the Pirate Codes, tracing their influence over time, illustrating how ideas born on a pirate ship went on to permeate the mainstream so profoundly that they sparked particular social reforms, but there are such things as editors, word counts and your attention span to consider. If you’d like to dive deeper and learn more on the subject then I highly recommend you listen to the Pirate History Podcast that I’ve already mentioned, or go to www.bemorepirate.com, where there are all manner of links and articles on the influence individual Pirate Codes have had on society.
But there is one such link that I’ve uncovered that I think is worth sharing with you here, because it’s a point I don’t think has ever been made anywhere else. Informed by my perspective as a social entrepreneur, pioneering change from the edges of capitalism, I was inspired by the idea of pirates as metaphor, but as I spent more time deep in the many sets of secondary sources, learning about their history and in particular the Pirate Code, I came to realize that piracy is not just a metaphor for mission-led businesses and social enterprises, it’s a bloodline. Way back, long before they were social enterprises, the original purpose-driven business model was the cooperative movement, and from what I can see, before there was the cooperative movement, there were pirates.
Most people are aware of the cooperative principle, whereby the employees of a company are also its owners. Most people are not aware of how many of these companies exist, or the extent to which their founding principles are borrowed from the Golden-Age pirates.
From humble beginnings in the early 1800s on the west coast of England, Scotland and Wales, the movement now operates across all major sectors in every global economy and is worth about $20 trillion.6 The founding father of the movement was Robert Owens, a Welsh textile manufacturer who dedicated his life to improving the conditions of his factory workers and developing and promoting a form of socialism. Owens was born just a few miles from Henry Morgan’s birthplace in Wales, a country that was also home to so many of the other pirate legends from Henry Avery to Bartholomew Roberts, whose stories and success would have been well known throughout such a small and close-knit country.
At the end of the Golden Age, when many pirates returned home to England, they found the Industrial Revolution in full swing with England’s ‘dark satanic mills’ offering the same sort of working conditions they’d suffered in the navy a generation before. The ideas of workers defending their rights or attempting any form of shared ownership were considered revolutionary by those in power and carried the threat of punishment. The returning swashbucklers were met once again with a broken and abusive Establishment, but this time they had stories to share with local workers about an inspiring, authentic and credible alternative.
Morgan and the other pirate legends would have been working-class local heroes in the small Welsh communities they came from, and the ideals he pioneered and sailed under would have been well known to those who lived close by. It’s hard to imagine that their more progressive principles wouldn’t have captured the imagination of the oppressed workers back home when they had been ubiquitous amongst sailors the world over, and hard to believe Robert Owens wouldn’t have been aware of, and indeed influenced by, Morgan’s and other pirates’ principles. If we look at the seven founding principles of the cooperative movement it’s not difficult to see the similarity between them and the Pirate Codes:
- Voluntary and open membership – Everyone is welcome to join the alternative society.
- Democratic member control – Everyone gets a fair say.
- Member economic participation – Everyone gets a fair share.
- Autonomy and independence – Free from authority, controlled by their members.
- Education and training – Everyone is encouraged to work effectively together.
- Cooperation amongst cooperatives – Scale is achieved through their network.
- Concern for the community – Everyone is looked after.
Given the extreme similarity in principles and the proximity of location between Owens’s, Morgan’s and so many of the best-known pirates’ home towns, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the cooperatives’ code is so closely aligned with those of the Golden-Age pirates; it seems to be clearly inspired by them.
Excited to have made this discovery, but concerned not to overstate myself, I spoke to Gillian Lonergan, the Librarian at the Co-operative Heritage Trust and National Co-operative Archive, who’s heard the comparison before. As she said, ‘The equality, collaboration and standing up against the status quo are all obvious connections.’
Gillian also helped me find the missing link I was looking for. The principles are the same, but the approach to their implementation differed vastly: pirates create change through conflict, cooperatives achieve their goals through, well, cooperating.
In addition, she gave me a missing part of the story: at sea the radical reorganizing principles of the pirates had become the norm, but back on land they could get you arrested, if not executed. The early cooperatives were inherently peaceful movements, but that doesn’t make them any less radical than their predecessors, as Gillian told me:
One factor that has always seemed important to me is the timing of the cooperative movement. It developed at a time when the British government was seriously concerned that the British population would follow France into violent revolution and upheaval. When the Fenwick Weavers [the earliest documented cooperative society] held their meetings in the 1760s, working people were actively discouraged from gathering for meetings, so they held them outdoors, by a wall at a place where five roads met, so that if official intervention came, they could scatter.
The pirates didn’t bring back just gold when they returned to England, but interesting ideas that went on to inspire and influence future generations. They sought solutions to their problems, coming up with alternatives that would make their own lives better, and ended up changing the lives of so many more people as a consequence. Their ideas changed society, and so can yours. Now, fascinating diversions into working-class history aside, it’s time to get back to the point of the whole thing.
The point of the whole thing
The Pirate Code allowed pirates to agree upon the shared values and rules of their community in a clear and easy-to-follow way. The pirates knew what was expected of them, and what punishment they would receive if they went rogue, as they all played a part in creating and signing off on the articles. They used their code to ensure their missions were a success and they made sure to update and adapt them to prevent them from becoming redundant, limiting or outdated.
Here we are, some three hundred years later, championing the need for agile networks, facilitative leadership, person-centric organizations and other buzzwords. Most of our organizations are addicted to pointless policy. Our suffocating environment can’t escape the chokehold of a global economy that depends on it. In far too many cases, politics, business and society go round in circles in terms of procedures and process, designed to help us but that might actually harm us.
We’ve allowed ourselves to become convinced that there is no alternative to the systems, processes and rules we’ve been given and that this is as good as it gets, even when it’s obvious that it’s always the same people who suffer and the same people who win or lose. We often shrug and accept that those are the rules.
But pirates don’t.
By rewriting the rules and creating a code, these eighteenth-century pirates, whom we once believed were all mayhem, booty and timber shivering, turned their dissatisfaction and rebellion into a sophisticated societal structure that changed the course of history. They proved you can create alternatives, that a small group can opt out, start something new and their ideas eventually influence the mainstream. This really is the point of the whole thing. Their code never mutated into a painful bureaucratic policy that held them back because they continually updated it, stress-testing it to make sure it was working for them and offering better alternatives when it wasn’t. The Pirate Code is robust yet flexible, strict yet adaptive, accessible and simple yet sophisticated, and can be just as effective now as it was three centuries ago at accommodating ambitious agendas, egos and ideals whilst also protecting, testing and expanding good ideas to allow them to become great ideas.
The code you create will not suffocate decision-making or stifle creativity like so many organizations’ and authorities’ policies tend to. Your code will keep you moving with the times and provide a blueprint for your road to success. You’ve learned how a code can guide adventure, preserve ideals and compound good ideas; now it’s time to go back to the future and look at some modern pirate articles that you can steal in the creation of your own code. Your Pirate Code 2.0 awaits.