May

Privateer and Buccaneer

Privateers was the name given to pirates in general who were legally commissioned or officially sanctioned by a country or government giving them permission to raid ships and harass sea trade of another country or government. The French and English pirates that were living in the Caribbean about the time of the 17th century were known by the name, buccaneer. Of course the name buccaneer is a very anglicized version of the French word, boucanier.

Off the North African and Mediterranean coastal waters Muslim pirates called Barbary Corsairs. The French considered them pirates but the local people and Islamic governments considered them privateers, as they tended to raid only non-Islamic people.

Pirate is now the common term known round the world for a person who engages in a variety of misdeeds on the oceans.