I do have to smile though whenever I read of the Royal Navy bringing a halt to piracy. The fledgling navy in the times of Drake Raleigh and Hawkins called themselves “privateers” which is basically a license for piracy.
Nah, they just beat up on their enemies. Which were the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, and sometimes the Russians or Germans. Which was just about everyone else who owned a boat in those days. But they had official papers, “letters of Mark”. And letters of Judy. And whoever else could put feather to parchment, though the letters of Elizabeth were probably more important.
See, when our side does it, it’s privateering. When their side does it, it’s piracy. The more things change, eh? Now, if those privateers had ransacked an English ship, then they’d be pirates. And hung if captured. Or given the governorship of Jamaica, whichever was worse.