Life at sea was very hard. Long periods of sea gave the seaman spoiled food, putrid drinking water, long hours on watch in all manners of weather in a crowded, and damp ship. National navies operated in an autocratic society based on harsh discipline. Breaking of rules or regulations could cause the seaman to be punished in ways that ran from denial of rations or rum to flogging. Still, in many cases, life in this wooden world was preferable to life of unemployment in the streets of London, Paris, Madrid or any number of other European cites. The seamen always had food, as bad as it was, a place to sleep and meager pay while learning and working in a professional trade.

Pirate life evolved into a somewhat better lot for seamen in that trade. Pirates generally stayed near population centers where they could take fresh food and drink from the merchant ships they took. They were a democracy where each seaman had a say in where the ship went and when and who to attack. Instead of the low pay of merchant ships and lower pay of the national navies the pirate shared in the spoils of his trade.

Pirates worked hard, fought hard and when the opportunity presented itself they played hard. Many were or became alcoholics who spent most of they plunder share on drink and women. Piracy was a dangerous but profitable business while the chance of dying at the end of a rope increased as countries intensified their fight to stop the profitable illegal trade.

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