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Many pirate crews of the late 1600s and early 1700s signed written 'articles' before they sailed. These set out how loot was shared, how officers were elected and how much a man would be paid if he lost a limb.

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One of the most detailed surviving sets belonged to the Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts and was printed in 1724 in A General History of the Pyrates, a London book by an author writing as Captain Charles Johnson. It gave every man a vote on important matters. The captain and the quartermaster, an officer elected by the crew who could overrule the captain except in a chase or a fight, each received two shares of the plunder; ordinary crewmen got one. A man who lost a limb received 800 pieces of eight, Spanish silver coins, from a common fund, a kind of injury insurance. Each recruit signed or made his mark and swore an oath; John Phillips's crew, having no Bible, swore on an axe. The economist Peter Leeson has argued that such written rules made pirate crews unusually well organised for criminals of their time.

Türkçe oku
1600'lerin sonunda ve 1700'lerin başında birçok korsan tayfası, denize açılmadan önce yazılı bir sözleşme imzalardı. Sözleşmenin maddeleri ganimetin nasıl paylaşılacağını, kaptan dâhil görevlilerin nasıl seçileceğini ve kolunu ya da bacağını kaybeden korsana ne kadar ödeneceğini belirlerdi.

Günümüze ulaşan en ayrıntılı örneklerden biri, Galli korsan Bartholomew Roberts'ın tayfasına aittir. Bu maddeler 1724'te Londra'da, Captain Charles Johnson takma adıyla yazılmış A General History of the Pyrates (Korsanların Genel Tarihi) adlı kitapta yayımlandı. Maddeler, önemli konularda her adama oy hakkı tanıyordu. Ganimetten kaptan ile quartermaster ikişer, sıradan tayfalar birer pay alırdı. Quartermaster, tayfanın kendi seçtiği görevliydi; takip ya da çatışma sırasında değilse kaptanın kararlarını bozabilirdi. Kolunu ya da bacağını kaybeden korsana ortak kasadan 800 “pieces of eight”, yani İspanyol gümüş sikkesi ödenirdi; bu bir tür sakatlık sigortasıydı. Her yeni tayfa maddeleri imzalar ya da altına işaretini koyar, ardından yemin ederdi; John Phillips'in adamları, İncil bulamayınca bir baltanın üzerine yemin etmişti. İktisatçı Peter Leeson'a göre bu yazılı kurallar, korsan tayfalarını çağlarının suçluları arasında alışılmadık ölçüde düzenli kılıyordu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Pirate code
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