Rustic Pirate Crewman Costume

Source: HalloweenMart

This pirate is so authentic, you will look like you just walked off of a movie set.

Great when paired with our Rustic Pirate Lady. The two of you whould wisk away any awards at the costume or Halloween party!

Includes embossed leather look vest, gauze shirt, sash, bandana, boot tops, hat, belt, eyepatch and earring. (pants not included)

Rustic Pirate Costume
$ 149.99

Add to the realism by not shaving for a day or two. You've been out at sea for months and now its time to head into the Port of Savannah for rum, women and song.

Ah Hoy there matie!

 

Pirate Fighting -- Then the "Era of Good Feeling.”

Tribute to Pirates, From 1795 to 1815, $1,360,000!

November 23, 1900 by Albert Payson Terhune

Thus ran a big item of expense in Uncle Sam's ledger; an item that did not include the loss of hundreds of lives' and of many thousand dollars at the sea-rovers' hands. It was merely the sum paid to buy off the pirates from doing further damage.

This seems hard to believe; but in the first part of the nineteenth century, several great European powers as well as we paid such blackmail for immunity from piratical attacks. The little African coast principalities, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis and others, had made- heavy revenue for hundreds of years by their pirate ships that sailed the Mediterranean, seizing and plundering merchant vessels, killing or "impressing" their crews and either selling the passengers into slavery or holding them for ransom.

In 1795 our country paid 5300,000 ransom for captured citizens, gave the Dey of Algiers a $100,000 warship and agreed to pay $23,000 a year in tribute on condition that bur ships be spared.

Decatur's Fight with Pirates

But the war of 1812 had awakened among Americans a mighty demand for real Independence. They would no longer meekly pay money to secure fair treatment on the seas. Commodore Decatur was sent in May, 1815, with a squadron o£ warships to teach Algiers the same lesson that we had been trying for three .years to teach England.

Decatur, on June 17th, ran across an Algerian pirate fleet that was searching the seas for foreign prizes. Decatur attacked the pirates, drove them before him like chaff,’ and captured their flagship and one of their best frigates. Then he sailed boldly to Algiers and forced upon the frightened Dey a treaty that forever smashed Algerian piracy as far as the United States was concerned. Decatur wrung from the Dey the pardon of all American captives In Algiers, a, release from all future tribute demands and indemnity for every dollar's worth of American property that had been seized by the pirates.

He followed this triumph by swooping down upon Tripoli and Tunis and forcing their rulers to make similar concessions. In a single dashing cruise the death, knell of achieved what all he had sounded piracy and had European nations had despaired of accomplishing. He had also taught the world one more lesson in the folly of interfering with the rights and the citizens of the United States.

And now, after years of warfare and stress and hard times, came a peaceful, prosperous interval, known to history as "The Era of Good Feeling." Our nation had made the world at large acknowledge our power. We were at peace and able to turn our attention to our long-neglected Industries. Political strife was for the moment stilled. The country waxed rich. There was much work to do and good pay for doing it. New Western land was opened up and developed. New States were admitted to the Union. Manufacture and agriculture boomed as never before.

In 1817, James Monroe became president. James Madison and he had been political disciples of Jefferson's and were, nicknamed "James I." and "James II." In 1819, we bought Florida from Spain, -- paying $5,000,000 for its 66,900 square miles of territory.

Eastern emigrants were constantly pouring into the West, changing Its hostile stretches of wilderness into fertile farms and cities. Europe also accorded us a far higher respect than ever before.

The "Monroe Doctrine"

The crowning feature of this "Era of Good Feeling" was reached when the famous “Monroe Doctrine" was launched. This "Doctrine" declared in brief: That the United States should never again allow any European government to, start a colony in North or South. America or to claim the right to Interfere with the affairs .of any North or South American country. ,In short, the "Doctrine" said: ."Hands off!" to the entire world and secured the whole Western hemisphere, against foreign control. ....

This flat has been criticized from time to time by various European statesmen, but its power has' never been seriously contested. Chief credit for the Monroe doctrine rests less with President Monroe than with his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, who was its prime mover. (The "Era of Good Feeling" has been called "a calm between two storms.')

And so it proved. The war-weary country was but gathering the needed strength to face a new and infinitely greater problem.