Lovers of folksy swashbucklers are not fans of the Somali variety
The antics of pirates off the coast of Somalia have dominated headlines. And it’s been nothing but a big headache for enthusiasts of the other kind of pirates: the “aaar-matey” variety. Fans of the swashbuckling, skull-and-crossbones kind of pirate, who like to dress up as modern-day Blackbeards, say the Somali teenagers with their AK-47s are ruining the pirate’s folksy image and are nothing like the sailors who roamed the seas in the late 17th century. “We’re trying to take something bad [from history] and make it halfway decent,” one pirate impersonator tells the Wall Street Journal. “They’re not helping us at all.”
Wall Street Journal