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I just listened to a presentation from a French conference on the imagery of pirates in litterature from 2002, archived online at the site for Le Centre de recherches sur la Littérature des Voyages on negative images of seamen 9in France) in the 18th century.
It basically said that during the 16th and 17th centuries, France was very focused on the land - wine and bread, the country's staples (pain et vin!) were both the products of agriculture, so the few people who went to sea (he gave figures... a notably small percentage of the population) were seen as being desperate people: in the public perception, you only went to sea if you had no other choice. From this perception came the negative image of sailors as hard drinking, rough speaking, violent people. I am not sure how they become pirates. It is hard for me to muddle through a recording of a live presentation in academic French. But I think it that desperate men who went to sea were also opportunists and thus turned to piracy when they could.
In the early 17th C Richilieu (or maybe Rochefort, or both?) set up the French naval academy, to train officers. However, people really preferred more hardcore seamen - pirates and corsairs(Privateers of a sort, in this context I think) who had experience fighting the English and Dutch, to captain naval vessels. All the king's captains were ex-pirates and corsairs. however they still had this negative image attached to them, that they had no social graces, etc. The captains, once they had the status, tried to learn to live up to it, so as time went on, there was less visible distinction between the hardcore old guard and the new officers being put out by the academy, and in the end the French navy ended up with a bunch of pussies - trained gentlemen, as opposed to people who knew how to and were willing to fight well at sea. Thus the French navy began to suck ass, and this was especially true by the end of the 18th C.
So yeah, I'm paraphrasing, and I'm not always sure about what periods he is talking about, because oif the recording and my lack of practice listening to French mean sometime it is hard for me to distinguish 'dixseptième' from 'dixhuitième' and I get confused as to what periods people are operating in. Anyway, it was an interesting listen, if not (especially* useful. What I really need is information on how the French used Buccaneers operating out of Tortuga. Hmmm... I've seen some somewhere, I'll have to go back and look at my sources. Bah.
Well, I hope some of you found my summary interesting, in any case ;) It is really mostly for my own use.
It basically said that during the 16th and 17th centuries, France was very focused on the land - wine and bread, the country's staples (pain et vin!) were both the products of agriculture, so the few people who went to sea (he gave figures... a notably small percentage of the population) were seen as being desperate people: in the public perception, you only went to sea if you had no other choice. From this perception came the negative image of sailors as hard drinking, rough speaking, violent people. I am not sure how they become pirates. It is hard for me to muddle through a recording of a live presentation in academic French. But I think it that desperate men who went to sea were also opportunists and thus turned to piracy when they could.
In the early 17th C Richilieu (or maybe Rochefort, or both?) set up the French naval academy, to train officers. However, people really preferred more hardcore seamen - pirates and corsairs(Privateers of a sort, in this context I think) who had experience fighting the English and Dutch, to captain naval vessels. All the king's captains were ex-pirates and corsairs. however they still had this negative image attached to them, that they had no social graces, etc. The captains, once they had the status, tried to learn to live up to it, so as time went on, there was less visible distinction between the hardcore old guard and the new officers being put out by the academy, and in the end the French navy ended up with a bunch of pussies - trained gentlemen, as opposed to people who knew how to and were willing to fight well at sea. Thus the French navy began to suck ass, and this was especially true by the end of the 18th C.
So yeah, I'm paraphrasing, and I'm not always sure about what periods he is talking about, because oif the recording and my lack of practice listening to French mean sometime it is hard for me to distinguish 'dixseptième' from 'dixhuitième' and I get confused as to what periods people are operating in. Anyway, it was an interesting listen, if not (especially* useful. What I really need is information on how the French used Buccaneers operating out of Tortuga. Hmmm... I've seen some somewhere, I'll have to go back and look at my sources. Bah.
Well, I hope some of you found my summary interesting, in any case ;) It is really mostly for my own use.
interested
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