Looking for a career change? Then look no further!

Sometimes pirate crews started as mutineers. A merchant or navy ship has a captain that severely mistreats his crew. Eventually they get sick of him and maroon him somewhere or throw him overboard. At that point, everyone on that ship has probably already committed a capital offense (especially if it's a navy ship), so they literally have nothing to lose by becoming pirates at that point. If they're ever caught, they're already dead. Initially on the boat are just the folks who happened to be there at the time of the mutiny. But some filtering happens over time. Those who don't actually want to be pirates eventually slink off at one port stop or another. And new recruits are found via quiet conversations in port taverns. A lot of recruiting probably happens through personal contacts, "oh, we're going to port X? Why I have a cousin there that might be interested!"

Also, often pirate ships started off as privateers. A privateer is just like a pirate, except legal. Let's say Britain and France are at war. Britain issues letters of marque to any ship with captain and crew willing to raid French shipping. This is a way for the British crown to target French shipping at a fraction of the cost of having the Royal Navy do it themselves. (It's the Age of Sale equivalent of German U-boats raiding British shipping during WW2.) If such a privateer is caught by the French, they'll still be treated like pirates. But as far as the British are concerned, what they're doing is completely legal. They can go steal a French and ship then sail into any British port and unload their plunder. It's all completely legal and a culturally accepted part of warfare. As long as the captain had their official letter of marque, the harbormaster in any British port would let them participate freely and openly. As far as how these privateers got going? Simple capitalism. Some people with cash to invest would invest in a boat and crew, and attempt to make a profit from the conflict.

And that's all well and good, except what happens when the war ends? Those letters of marque were only good during wartime. And privateers don't get military retirement benefits. There's no pension or these folks. (Not even whatever pitiful equivalent existed for Navy sailors at the time.) Men who were risking their lives sailing the seas, plundering commerce in Britain's name? Well they're now all out of a job. And even if what they did was legal, it still carried a stigma. Job prospects may be quite poor for a former privateer, and it certainly won't be as lucrative. So, quite predictably, after the wars ended, often times the privateers just kept doing what they were good at. So many pirates were simply privateers that had been cut loose by their respective governments.

Usually sea captains of commercial/state ships did the recruiting by usually being extremely abusive and exploitive. All the pirates have to do is get their treasure and let the crew kill their captain and some will want to join.

Most of the times they give up as a policy.

The phrasing of "Looking for treasure" makes it sound like it's just lying there, possibly buried a kindly philanthropist.

What if we fire no guns, shed no tears?

because they're made out of wood?

Eh, you can't sing shanties if you've got two legs, and you don't own a boat, and you've got no beard.

Those were my sentiments exactly.

Misremembering lyrics and making them up is accurate to the medium!

God damn the autocorrect, too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ptj7nYlyB0

But why is the rum gone?

So you want to be first mate, do ye? Arrr... well... aye.

But first ye must pass a test. Wear an eye patch over each eye and then walk a tightrope from the poop deck to the crows nest. To prove your leadership skills!

I can handle all that up to the part where there's no toilet paper. I already know I'm gonna be wet and salty and uncomfortable, but ain't no way in hell I'm getting diaper rash on top of that.

Calm down Horatio.

The tonging isn't the fun one, it's the cut it out of the whale type

Benefits: free body hair grooming (don't mind that the razor is rusty)

a pirate ship is a lot of work. just cause you are in tropical waters doesnt mean its relaxing. on the contrary, due to the climate its probably hot af when working

Not enough for me.

edit

To Be clear, I have a medical intolerance to heat. Its not about comfort.

Not below decks where you'll most likely be sleeping (in close proximity to multiple other warm, sweaty, stinky sailors), I suspect.

I sea now. Tuna fish!

Despite the pop-culture association of the concertina with the Golden Age of Piracy, the concertina was invented approximately 100 years after the heyday of piracy in the North Atlantic.

Shiver me timbers. Me whole worldview be built on a lie.

life didn't give us lemons

we made them ourselves