Kiddicraft KIDDIZ Figure Pack: Pirate Crew KC1411

Kiddicraft's KIDDIZ Figure Pack: Pirate Crew contains 76 pieces — five pirate figures, each with distinct clothing and accessories, plus swords, pistols and gear. Age 5+.

Pirate ships had written constitutions, and the crew elected the captain

The popular image is of a tyrant ruling by fear. The documented reality is closer to the opposite, and it is genuinely strange for the period.

Most pirate crews in the early eighteenth century operated under articles — a written agreement every man signed before sailing. The articles set out how plunder was divided, what conduct was forbidden, and who held authority.

The captain was elected, and could be voted out. His absolute authority applied only during a chase or a fight; at all other times the quartermaster, also elected, represented the crew and could overrule him. Major decisions went to a vote of the whole company.

The division of plunder was flatter than anything in the navy of the day. A captain might take one and a half or two shares against an ordinary seaman's one — where a Royal Navy captain took a fortune and his crew took pennies.

And the articles included compensation for injury, at fixed rates: so much for the loss of a right arm, less for a left, so much for a leg, so much for an eye. It is one of the earliest recorded systems of workers' disability insurance anywhere.

The men who signed these documents were mostly former naval and merchant sailors who had lived under floggings and stolen wages. The articles are, read plainly, a list of everything they had hated.

Five crew

A crew pack rather than a captain pack — which suits the subject, given who was actually in charge.

In the Kiddicraft range

Figure packs KC1409 (Orc Attack) and KC1410 (Knights) are the fantasy equivalents; KC1405 (Mix It!) supplies parts to build your own.

Specifications

Pieces: 76 · Figures: 5 pirates with weapons and gear · Series: Kiddicraft Piratecraft · Age: 5+ · Compatible with leading brick systems