To most modern societies, the mention of pirates conjures up the image of swashbuckling men in eyepatches with peglegs and tricorn hats, perhaps with parrots perched on their shoulders, robbing ships in the Elizabethan era of their treasure. Piracy dates as far back as ancient Greece, or possibly beyond, however, and its "golden age" ran from approximately 1650 to 1720, a period when the Atlantic was terrorized by 2,000 or so pirates (Adams, 2007). Pirates were not the amusing Pirates of the Caribbean variety but were "murderous and cruel," perpetrating attacks that were "frequently accompanied by extreme violence, torture, and death" (Adams, 2007). Interestingly, though, there has been a resurgence of piracy in recent years that has made the issue a modern problem as well. In fact, so far in 2009, the International Maritime Bureau reports a minimum of 80 commercial cargo ships attacked in the Gulf of Aden, along with 19 successful hijackings; 2008 saw 111 ships attacked and a total of 42 successful hijackings (Kellerhais, 2009).
The differences between pirates of old and those of today are largely ones of technology and strategic planning. While Captain Hook may have sailed in a creaking wooden ship, today's pirates "attack from speedboats, armed to the hilt with automatic weapons, mortar shells and even attack rockets," and they use Global Positioning System technology to find their quarries, escaping pursuing ships via radar (Cottrill, 1997, p. 1). Cottrill (1997, p. 1) reports that "There are even accounts of pirates boarding ships with computer printouts of cargo stored in specific locations." Even more startling, James Madison University's J. Peter Pham explains that "piracy financiers are usually ethnic Somali businessmen who live outside the country and who typically call a relative in Somalia and suggest they launch a piracy business," with the investor offering seed money of $250,000 or more, thus ini...