I've been wondering about the attractions of Pirates. Recently on TV there was a repeat of the program about Henry Morgan, who caused mayhem across the islands of the Caribbean and towns of Central America. The people of Panama would have been amazed at the generous tone in which his exploits of murder and rape were reported.
Maybe we've forgotten what Piracy is actually about - and it no doubts helped that Henry Morgan was on "our" side. But the reality we see off Somalia is poor desperate men robbing to survive.
But by ignoring this reality we can project an idealised view of the freedom of the high seas, and those, to go back to the ancient Greek and Roman meaning of the word pirata, who go "to find luck on the seas".
Anyhow, there'll be a short break from posting for a few days due to another form of long voyage.
