P is for Pirates

Buckets of blood and pieces of eight! Paula Hammond straps on an eyepatch and sticks a parrot on her shoulder to look at the treasures to be found collecting pirate-themed stamps

Thanks, in part, to Robert Louis Stevenson, popular images of pirates usually involve hirsute men with peg legs, who use phrases like ‘avast’ and ‘yo-ho-ho’. Piratical sea people begin to appear in contemporary accounts around the Bronze Age, and by time of the golden age of piracy (1650s-1720s) pirates dominated almost every ocean. Despite their ominous reputations they weren’t simply cut-throats, however. In fact, The Pirate Code afforded a ship’s crew much more democracy and equality than was the norm at the time!

A pirate thematic therefore offers a fascinating insight into some of fact – and fiction’s – most intriguing and colourful characters.

Stevenson’s fictional pirate, Long John Silver, has proved to be popular with many postal authorities. The British Virgin Island’s 1969 release marks the 75th anniversary of Robert Louis Stevenson’s death with a wonderfully evocative set that features Silver, Jim, and Ben Gunn. Samoa – where Stevenson spent his later years – also released an appealing four-stamp issue with a jaunty looking Long John on the 3c stamp. The Royal Mail’s own Long John Silver stamp (1993) reimagines Stevenson’s murderous anti-hero as a rather charming chap, complete with a twinkle in his eye.

It’s easy to see why pirates are such a stalwart of fiction. What’s interesting is how they’ve morphed from thieves and murderers into more benign figures. Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance (GB, 1992) are both comic and kind-hearted. And in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, the pirates are the heroes of the franchise.

Imaginary pirates may be fun, but this is a theme where reality really is stranger than fiction. Anne Bonny and Mary Read (2008, Jamaica) were just two of the women who found themselves drawn to the pirate life. And, as might be expected, these ladies lived incredible lives. Read, for example, wasn’t just a pirate. She spent much of her life disguised as a man, serving as a foot-man, soldier, and sailor. From Blackbeard (Antigua, 1970) to Barbarossa (Algeria, 1966) the lives of pirates was every bit as wild as their fictional counterparts. Their deaths, however, were not nearly as glamorous, as the Nevis Millennium 1700-1750 issue shows. The 30-cents stamp in the series shows the body of Scottish pirate and privateer Captain Kidd hanging on a gibbet.

Whether you choose to focus on fictional pirates, their real-life counterparts, the ships (Bahamas, 1987), pirate mythology, or the infamous pirate flag, the skull and crossbones (GB, 2001), this is a theme that’s broad enough to build into a large and diverse collection. So, who’s up for a little treasure hunting?