For my research paper, I have decided to ultimately compare a pirate during the Golden Age and a pirate today and who had easier success. Throughout the semester, pirates have seemed like just ghosts of the past or a scary story you only hear about, but would never experience today. However, pirates are still real and piracy is still going on today. That news fascinated me for many reasons. Mainly because I have always related pirates as movie characters such as Captain Jack Sparrow. The fact that there are actual pirates in our very seas today is unnerving. After how cruel some of the pirates we have learned about from the Golden Age, I imagine pirates today would be just as gruesome and heartless. After the research thus far into my topic, I have found that in most cases today's world actually set an easier stage for pirates to be successful. Back then, there was so many new lands that there was no real government to oversee all the piracy, yet somehow majority of pirates eventually were caught or defeated. Today, there is a lot of new technology that makes it easier for a pirate to avoid detection and find wealth. Also, throughout the years there have been may more resources and wealth discovered than before. There is also more advanced weaponry available to pirates to not only be able to attack, but be able to readily defend themselves if they were detected. Some of the issues I may come up with throughout my research are the lack of pirate activity reported in today's world. I found that the reason not all cases are reported is because a lot of ship owners would rather take their loss than have an increase in their insurance. With that being said, limited resources over my specific topic will make it harder to actually find the facts. However, it will make it to where I have to branch out in my thought process and look into other resources to support my stance.
