Category: Corsairs

In this post, we get back to basics. Barbary corsairs are also often called Barbary pirates, but they were not[…]

(This post is a continuation of Corsair Ships: Square-Rigged Vessels – Part 1. If you haven’t done so already, it’s[…]

By the early decades of the seventeenth century, Barbary corsairs were employing two very different types of ships: oared galleys[…]

(This post is a continuation of Oared Galleys – The Story of La Real: Part 1. If you haven’t done[…]

(This post is a continuation of The Dutch Connection: How Seventeenth Century Dutch Privateers Became Barbary Corsairs in North Africa[…]

The idea that Dutch privateers should have ended up among the Barbary corsairs of North Africa may at first seem[…]

Barbary corsairs weren’t just pirates. They were part of a larger enterprise. There was a religious element to that enterprise:[…]

In 1612, the republic of the Netherlands negotiated a treaty with the Ottoman Sultan that guaranteed trade privileges for Dutch[…]

In Algiers in the seventeenth century, piracy was big business. Algerian corsairs brought back enormous amounts of booty and hundreds[…]

Have you ever wondered how much it cost to outfit a ship for a pirate cruise in the seventeenth century?[…]