Tall Ships and Pirates

I saw the Lady Washington being built in Aberdeen, Washington. In my former life in Seattle we would stop by Aberdeen to see the ship’s progress on our way to the ocean. She was launched there March 7, 1989. She is a reproduction of the original built in the 1750’s in the British Colony of Massachusetts. Now she is famous for her appearance in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” flicks and others. And she tours, and she is coming our way. My hubby and I are going to get tickets to ride. It’s a little pricey for us but will be a great 5th anniversary outing. I’m really excited. She will be sailing the Columbia River and stopping various places from Astoria, Oregon to Pasco, Washington, an hour from here. I wanted to take the 3-hour Battle Cruise. http://www.ladywashington.org/

I liked the “Pirates of the Caribbean films, the first one anyway, the other two were attractive but lame. We are a long time fans of Johnny Depp so we went to see them all. However after watching the news about the Somali pirates and their latest hostage Captain Richard Phillips, I wonder why it is we romanticize pirates or outlaws the way we do. The news says the pirates are holding about a dozen ships and 200 or more of crew. And they have completed six attacks this week and 66 this year per Ken Silverstein in his online Harper’s Magazine article ‘Pirates and the CIA: What would Thomas Jefferson have done?’ http://harpers.org/archive/2009/04/hbc-90004751

So I wanted to take the tall ship battle cruise and imagine what? That we’re pirates? I sure don’t want to be the pirated. The old time pirates took their loot and often threw all aboard overboard, men, women, and children, unless they were saleable too, then burned the ship and sent it to the bottom. Or, they came ashore and burned, looted, and killed. I’ve been pondering this conundrum all day as I churned my way through tasks I didn’t need to think about. We loved the scoundrel Captain Jack Sparrow, but now Captain Richard Phillips, a human with a home and family is imprisoned in a floating cell, hopefully still alive. Pirates of the past were just as hideous than these modern day ones, maybe more so. Desperate people do desperate things and in the Somalis case do them quite well. They are after money rather than carnage but it’s the price of doing their business.

I will keep Phillips in my prayers and all those other 200 kidnapped people as well. I think it’s time we got over our admiration of the bad guys. I wonder how much that admiration has contributed to the anything goes philosophy of people like Bernard Madoff who merrily pirated his clients’ money and retirement funds away. In many ways he and the Somalis are not so different. Meanwhile I keep watching this growing disaster. Maybe I will go on the Romantic Evening Cruise with hubby after all and skip the cannons. What a world.