Pirates Galleons And Treasure Analysis

When watching “Pirates, Galleons, and Treasure: Globe Trekker”, one certainly does learn something about pirates and their history. However, that does not mean the documentary is particularly useful. In fact, the documentary while mostly accurate still has some small discrepancies and does not provide enough detail for it to be helpful to those actually studying pirates. The documentary is a fun resource for those who want basic facts, but leaves some facts to assumptions and seems to gloss over some information. It tends to focuses on myths and interesting stories that may have been true rather than the truth. More attention is also put on cities rather pirates and when it does focus on the pirates, it is not done well. It tends to highlight …show more content…
In fact, the documentary spends more time talking about places and ports than pirates and rarely ever mentions galleons. They spoke quite a lot about ports and the forts that existed there. They spoke about Port Royale and Nassau and how they were frequented by pirates and filled with debauchery and rum (Pirates, Galleons and Treasure, 2007). They fail to mention however Tortuga which is surprising seeing as it is known for its connection to piracy, as seen on popular films like “Pirates of the Caribbean” (Verbinski, 2003). It was just as popular as Port Royale and Nassau and was shown to be a great trading place for merchants and pirates (Konstam, 2011, p.102) but it is never spoken about. Instead of focusing on pirates, galleons, and treasure, like the name suggests, the documentary chose to describe geography and small insignificant details like where to get buccan style jerky (Pirates, Galleons and Treasure, …show more content…
In the video, it claims for treasure and riches to be a reason for piracy, however it is not the whole truth (Pirates, Galleons and Treasure, 2007). Some pirates where previously privateers and as peace began, “old habits die hard” as quoted in “Pirates, Galleons and Treasure” (2007). This quote is not necessarily true, in fact most people became pirates because of the better circumstances it provided (The Golden Age, 2016). Joining a pirate ship meant getting better pay, health insurance, and even more rights (The Golden Age, 2016). After peace between Spain and England emerged, a lot of privateers and naval soldiers were out of jobs and had to turn to piracy to survive (The Golden Age, 2016). People also became pirates after their ships were attacked and they were offered the option of joining or staying stranded (Pirates, Galleons and Treasure, 2007). Even with such harsh circumstances to why pirates chose the life they lived, it was actually not considered that bad to do. In fact, being a pirate was better than most jobs, especially the Navy as they were cruel to their crew (The Golden Age, 2016). On a pirate ship, there was democracy and fair pay, the crew voted as one and the captain, though the leader did not have absolute power (The Golden Age, 2016). Some pirate ships even provided their crew with insurance should they lose and arm or