BEASTLY TALES

THE BARBARY CORSAIR

With axe, musket and scimitar too,
Aboard their Galliots sailing near the coast will do.
Along the Mediterranean coast with both oars and sails,
The Barbary Corsair captain rants and rails,
The Barbary Coast extended along Africa’s North,
This was the area from which Corsairs set forth.
For over 300 years Corsairs dominated the Mediterranean,
Sending themselves and victims subterranean.

But finally the newly independent U.S.A.,
Declared war on the Corsairs, and saved the day.
By 1815 the rule of the Corsairs was over,
But it meant, by no means, they were rolling in clover.
First came the Corsairs, then English privateers,
They were not so dissimilar, they were, in fact peers.
Navigator Sir Francis Drake was the “Queens Pirate”,
Hounding Spanish Galleons, both angry and irate
Spanish Galleons comprising the Treasure Fleet,
Of around 100 ships were hard to beat,
From South America to sunny Spain,
They were attacked, their treasure to drain,
Into the coffers of the privateer ships,
Most successfully, not many slips.
These became the targets for Pirates and Corsairs,
The Spanish revoking their “graces and airs”.

The great age of Caribbean piracy had begun,
Treasure Galleons had to turn and run.
The English privateers had a “letter of Marque”,
Which legalized their attacks as a quite proper lark.
In the pirates code it was apparent quite soon,
That a participant could be a subject of maroon,
If they didn’t keep well to the code,
It certainly could be the end of the road!