I saw an interesting history show about pirates on TV. It claimed that very few pirate ships carried large naval cannons, because the last thing the pirates wanted was to actually sink their quarry. Instead, they would pepper the ship with musket and grapeshot, maybe tear up the sails, hoist the black flag and hope that the crew became terrified enough to surrender. Then of course, would come the looting and pillaging. Contrary to the pirates of today, the ships crews usually were not killed, as that was considered bad etiquette even for pirates and besides, they WANTED the crew left alive to tell terrifying tales of their piracy. That way the next ship out of port might surrender even easier. Captured crews were sometimes set adrift in the boats if the pirates wanted the ship itself, or they might just burn and scuttle the ship for entertainment and fame. But make no mistake; pirates would certainly kill you if you didn’t surrender the booty.
Although some far more interesting pictures showed up ander a search of that phrase. ;^)
Interesting, I didn’t know killing the people wasn’t the norm. What about rape? Is that common?