Today was our first Thursday Cultural Trip, we went to the Maritime Museum. I learned about licensed pirates, or corsairs, a strange concept if you ask me. Doesn’t that defeat the idea of a pirate?

Here is what the internet tells me:

A corsair was a French privateer who attacked enemy shipping in the Mediterranean. The difference between privateers and pirates is important, because the two enjoyed a different status in the eyes of the law. Privateers were officially licensed by the crown to raid enemy shipping, returning to their home ports with the prizes and splitting them with the crown. Pirates, on the other hand, operated beyond the law, raiding all shipping indiscriminately and not being granted any legal protections.