If we think of “pirates” at all these days, we may visualize fictional brigands with bandanas or three-pointed black hats on their heads, wearing black eye-patches and wielding cutlasses, with a “Jolly Roger” skull-and-crossbones flag flying from the highest mast of their sailing ship, as they attack defenseless merchant ships at sea.
While those colorful things don’t prevail except in movies and books these days, there unfortunately are still some “real” pirates.
Particularly in the Red Sea and off the shore of the East African country of Somalia, pirates have been active.
In the “olden days,” pirates caused lots of real trouble — until most of them were thwarted and some were hanged from the ship yardarms.
Now some modern pirates will face justice.
In a “happy ending” contemporary story, five Somali pirates accused of attacking a U.S. Navy ship off the African coast were captured, tried in Norfolk, Va., and convicted! These were the first piracy convictions in a U.S. court in nearly 200 years!
The pirates will not be hanged, as in days of yore, but on March 14 they face the strong likelihood of receiving life sentences!
“Avast, ye scurvy pirates, and evil landlubbers alike. Let that be warning to ye!”