An historical account of piracy has been revealed in an informative webpage ‘What do pirates do?‘ The page has been created by the Royal Museums Greenwich and is one of many educational themes on offer on their website. The following topics are covered in the introduction:
- What is a pirate?
- Where did pirates live?
- Did pirates bury their treasure?
- Who were the first pirates?
These questions are addressed in the opening section and there are also videos and audios to keep pupils engaged in the study.
There are three podcasts to listen to – audio recordings relating pirate history.
The first one is called Pirates, the Origins. It is really interesting to get a different understanding of Francis Drake from the first of these recordings and a much clearer understanding of what a pirate really was.
The second one is called Pirates, the Golden Age. This podcast talks about the famous pirates and explains the myths surrounding the infamous pirates. Why and how they perpetuated the image of the threatening, brutal pirate to be feared by all. This podcasts introduces the idea of British people being taken away and sold as slaves!
The final podcasts is Pirates, the Truth! This one examines a little more about the actual life that pirates lead. This podcast questions whether pirates actually made any money. It does rather clear the shine from the idea of a pirate life but does explain the pirate code. This would make a great introduction to creating a class code!
After the podcasts there are more sections covering:
- Where did pirates come from?
- What sort of booty did pirates seize?
- How did pirates attack other ships?
What do pirates do? is a clear historical account of piracy from the Maritime Museum of Greenwich.
