Pirate

Pirate, person who robs ships at sea. Pirates were active in the sea routes of trading ships. They also attacked and plundered coastal villages. Although piracy still occurs in such waters as the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, it no longer occurs on the scale it once did. In Roman times, pirates along the Eastern Mediterranean Sea robbed ships from importing goods into Rome. From the 1500s through the 1700s, pirates from the Barbary Coast of northern Africa roamed the Mediterranean to plunder European ships. During that same period, English, Dutch, and French pirates sailed the Caribbean to rob Spanish ships carrying goods from the Spanish-controlled West Indies islands and South America. During the 1700 and 1800s pirates attacked ships carrying cargo between North America and Europe. By the mid-1800s, the navies of various countries successfully rid the sea of pirate ships.