So, who actually builds corsairs?

[Enoki]

Basically, a Traveller version of the Barbary States of the 1600s through early 1800s.

I have the Federation of Heron in the Glimmerdrift (partially from canon) and the Ral Ranta as two political entities that practice wholesale piracy. The first are just real pirates like the Barbary states, the second are more like space Vikings.

 

[kilemall]

With the original question, builders could also be polities that are inclined towards piracy and such. These would have every reason to allow construction of corsair / pirate ships and even give them a veneer of legitimacy with possibly letters of marque and such.

Doesn't have to be pirate states, we can take the example of the UK, which famously built several Confederate raider ships many of them outfitted elsewhere, and not so well known, equipping and manning the Mexican Navy Paixhans-armed steamers in a bid to get British bonds serviced by crushing the Yucatan and Texan rebellions.

Speaking of which, when the Texan Commodore Moore refused orders to take his ships home and decommission but rather fight, President Houston declared his own navy outlaw and pirate. So there is a story there one could do Traveller style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Battle_of_Campeche

 

[Whipsnade]

Doesn't have to be pirate states, we can take the example of the UK...

An earlier and more widespread example would be the behavior of the UK's various colonial governments along North America's eastern seaboard during most of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

In defiance of treaties signed by London, edicts promulgated by London, and officials dispatched by London, the people of those colonies up to the rank of governor routinely outfitted, supplied, and acted as fences for pirates.

 

[kilemall]

An earlier and more widespread example would be the behavior of the UK's various colonial governments along North America's eastern seaboard during most of the 17th and 18th Centuries.

In defiance of treaties signed by London, edicts promulgated by London, and officials dispatched by London, the people of those colonies up to the rank of governor routinely outfitted, supplied, and acted as fences for pirates.

Good one. They did indeed do so, because the powerful of the colonies could pay pennies on the pound to pay off the pirates, and still make a profit selling the goods locally without London's Navigation Act prices.

Before there was the Boston Tea Party, there was the pirate/colonist collaboration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Piracy#The_Pirate_Round.2C_c._1693.E2.80.931700

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts

However, the pirates also looted shipping bound for the East Coast, so they were threat as well as benefit.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/bayhistory/pirates

I could see a LOT of low tech worlds harboring pirates just to be able to buy cutrate goods- and also being very unable to deal with them without larger polity/navy assistance.

 

[Enoki]

Good one. They did indeed do so, because the powerful of the colonies could pay pennies on the pound to pay off the pirates, and still make a profit selling the goods locally without London's Navigation Act prices.

Before there was the Boston Tea Party, there was the pirate/colonist collaboration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Piracy#The_Pirate_Round.2C_c._1693.E2.80.931700

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts

However, the pirates also looted shipping bound for the East Coast, so they were threat as well as benefit.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/bayhistory/pirates

I could see a LOT of low tech worlds harboring pirates just to be able to buy cutrate goods- and also being very unable to deal with them without larger polity/navy assistance.

Hence why you have the "pirates" banding together into political factions and going semi-"legit."
The powers-that-be can't afford the effort to deal with them and the pirates find in the long run they're better off simply engaging in trade of some sort so they stop being pirates and become a government.

Piracy remains viable so long as there is sufficient conflict between major powers that none can create a stable situation. Thus, the Ral Ranta are playing off the Imperium against the Solomani, and several smaller empires. The Federation of Heron is the same way. They have the advantage of position and relative isolation to allow their continued plundering of commerce within the region.
Now, there would be many economic interests that would simply pay to ensure their own safety. Why spend huge piles of cash on armed ships and extra crew when a cash payment to the "pirates" is cheaper?
Others may not agree, and arm their ships heavily expecting a fight. It's really a matter of political and economic position that determines who will do what.

 

[Imperium2016]

Excellent justification.

Agreed!!

 

[Ulsyus]

Now, there would be many economic interests that would simply pay to ensure their own safety. Why spend huge piles of cash on armed ships and extra crew when a cash payment to the "pirates" is cheaper?
Others may not agree, and arm their ships heavily expecting a fight. It's really a matter of political and economic position that determines who will do what.

What would be the effect then of a squadron of true naval vessels that ran an op in a system and took on several smaller pirate vessels. The pirates don't have the sort of national support that a navy does. I suppose the potential power vacuum would enable a state/world/system to try and exert control over its space again. Would it be entirely dependent on the location, or could it be expected that more corsairs would simply fill the gaps after the naval vessels that did the shwacking left the system?

 

[babayaga]

In the Trojan Reaches (from the Pirates of Drinax campaign set from Mongoose) there are thriving Corsair shipyards on Theev - a hidden planet ruled by pirate lords, secretly backed by a megacorporation that hopes to exploit the pirates as a bulwark against Aslan expansion.

 

[Condottiere]

Construction of actual corsair, privateer or dedicated raiding ships requires a compliant governing authority.

Beyond Drake's Golden Hind, think of the Alabama.

 

[Enoki]

What would be the effect then of a squadron of true naval vessels that ran an op in a system and took on several smaller pirate vessels. The pirates don't have the sort of national support that a navy does. I suppose the potential power vacuum would enable a state/world/system to try and exert control over its space again. Would it be entirely dependent on the location, or could it be expected that more corsairs would simply fill the gaps after the naval vessels that did the shwacking left the system?

The pirates either jump out of the system ahead of the navy and avoid a fight, or they might hide deep in one or more gas giants, on a planet with defenses, or the like. In all of these cases the naval squadron is now looking at a prolonged "siege" within the system to rid it of pirates. This is particularly true of systems that are "pirate friendly" without actually being pirate states.

I doubt that most political entities would be willing to toss away millions of credits of taxpayer money to have a squadron squat in some system hoping to get a crack at a few pirates.

I'd say that it's far more likely that in areas where piracy were seriously expected that merchant ships would convoy with naval escorts making them unassailable. Pirates can't survive for long in that business if they aren't making money. They'd likely go elsewhere when this occurs.

 

[Whipsnade]

Construction of actual corsair, privateer or dedicated raiding ships requires a compliant governing authority.

Exactly, and that point cannot be made often enough. Political cover, either passive, active, or somewhere in between, is a necessity. That political cover does need to come from Capital, Zhodane, Gram, or Lair. Cover can be given by any number of "lesser" governing authorities just as was done in history.

Beyond Drake's Golden Hind, think of the Alabama.

Another excellent example. James Bulloch, Teddy Roosevelt's maternal uncle, spent the Civil War in Europe arranging for the construction, arming, and supply of commerce raiders in both the UK and France. His activities involved skirted, bending, and flat out breaking local laws, bribing officials, and coming to "Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink" understandings with government authorities as lofty as Napoleon III.

In most cases, the new raider was completed but not armed then left the yard to mount her guns in "international" waters. The Alabama, for example, steamed from Liverpool to the Azores where it took aboard guns and ammunition shipped as cargo aboard another vessel. In the case of Sphynx/Stonewall, that ironclad ram was completed in a French yard with guns purchased in the UK while the Second Empire pretended not to notice. When the weight of evidence provided by US diplomats could no longer be ignored, France blocked delivery to the shell company which had paid for it. That's when Bulloch's agent on the scene finagled a phony sale to Denmark with the help of of a few friendly Danish officials. The ram steamed to Denmark where the Danish government disavowed the actions of it's own officials and impounded the vessel. That's when the real crew boarded the ram and steamed away as had been planned all along.

A corsair, privateer, or pirate is going to need a compliant authority on some level in some place for some period of time.

 

[kilemall]

Another potential direction-Star Citizen explains the building of pirate craft largely to one semi-rogue megacorps, Drake Interplanetary, who legitimately was building LE and support craft, and found a market in pirates.


So they double down and go even more thin blue line or rescue craft, while winking and nudging on what the real customer base is.


http://starcitizen.wikia.com/wiki/Drake_Interplanetary
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/13441-Portfolio-Drake-Interplanetary




The Cutlass, in it's various guises-
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/drake-cutlass/Cutlass-Black
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/drake-cutlass/Cutlass-Red
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/drake-cutlass/Cutlass-Blue



The Caterpillar, possibly a freighter- more a modular pirate mother ship-
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/drake-caterpillar/Caterpillar


Ah yes, Drake also has what we would think of as a jump courier, complete with data banks, big transmitters and speed as the primary survival system.
https://starcitizen.tools/Herald

 

[Flattened Sphere]

Space is big, and there will always be pirates somewhere. The navy of a government overthrown in a coup d'etat may not all sign up to the new regime. Some of them may take off to become soldiers of fortune. Others may see themselves as legitimately carrying on the struggle. Either way, that puts armed ships out there which may from time to time attack innocent, unarmed merchantmen.

Other struggles may result in the issue of letters of marque, legitimising the use of armed ships by privateers to pray on trading vessels.

Trading vessels, feeling threatened, may want to arm themselves. Or they may want to hire private merchant escorts, where the "official authorities" cannot provide the resources to escort and protect every merchant ship against piracy just as the Magnificent Seven were hired to defend the village against Calvero's men because the Federales couldn't provide effective protection. The construction of these private merchant escorts for hire is perfectly legitimate ... but who says that they may not themselves fall into the hands of those who might use them for piracy? (One of my more entertaining campaigns in District 268 all hinged around the concept of a protection racket being run by a private merchant escort concern which was actually in league with the pirates themselves, and ensured that no matter how hard the characters tried to trade profitably, they only just managed to turn a meagre profit ... )

Belters, of course, have always had weapons aboard their vessels. Shooting up an asteroid and shooting up a Free Trader require pretty much the same equipment and skill set. (Your average Free Trader being only marginally more agile than your average asteroid.)

Then there are the skip chasers. What are the requirements for a dedicated skip chasing vessel? And how, exactly, does it differ in appearance and function from a pirate vessel.

Think about the implications of "Space ... the final frontier". We're dealing with a frontier - the Wild West rather than Washington DC; the Java Sea rather than the Zuider Zee; the 18th century Caribbean rather than the Lisbon Packet. Don't over-think it and above all don't over-bureaucratise your Traveller universe would be my advice. IMTU the basic premise has always been that space colonists are for the most part individualists who are driven to seek out new worlds in order to escape bureaucracy, not to self-impose it on themselves. MTU is not over-run with "Imperial Inspectors" who are dead set on killing the whole ability to have a nice adventure in space, where no one can hear you scream. Think "age of sail in space". It may be completely unthinkable for a 21st century merchant ship to arm itself with a 4" gun ... but is was far from unthinkable for an 18th century merchant ship to carry a few bronze cannon for self defence (or to enable it to become a privateer/pirate in appropriate circumstances).

 

[Carlobrand]

Well, in the 21st century it's not actually unthinkable for a merchant ship to arm itself in some areas, though the arms tend to be more like armed guards who can shoot at pirates; that gets complicated because some ports, insurers, and flag countries won't allow it. Some ships use those non-lethal sound projector things to persuade pirates to stay away.

The setting pretty much dictates the realities. In the Marches specifically, you wouldn't go out without a turret weapon unless you planned to do nothing but go back and forth between safe ports. Half the systems are under a million population, more than half the Imperial systems are the C/D/E ports where pirates might occur, the Vargr are right there to coreward, the Sword Worlds like to make trouble, off to spinward of Regina are a bunch of non-aligned systems that probably don't ask a lot of questions if someone shows up with a cargo of mysterious origin, and I have not the slightest doubt that organized crime syndicates within the Imperium are taking full advantage where local circumstances allow such advantage. Thing is, the vast majority of trade is between safe ports, so there's not necessarily a lot of pressure to worry about what's happening in the fringes, and the fringes are where the free traders are trading.

There are economic realities that make an actual firefight unprofitable, but they apply equally to the prey as well as the predator, and the predator can get vengeful if the prey decides to resist; smart predators make it worthwhile for the prey to yield, guaranteeing the security of the ship in exchange for the cargo, maybe kicking in a bribe for the captain and crew - can't do that too often or you'll get a rep, but nobody expects a crew to get themselves and their passengers killed defending an insured cargo. If the Imperial Inspectors exist at all in the hinterlands, they mostly face a choice between taking bribes and being killed so someone who might take bribes will replace them. Odds are good that bribes are also going to the starport customs boats, or those boats would be repelling pirates at some of those C-ports. I would not expect that situation to exist in Core or Massilia but, yeah, the frontiers are frontier.

 

[Condottiere]

It comes down to the cost of doing business, basically insurance rates in modern times, since without them, a port might not allow you entry, or brokers won't book cargo space.

In more law times, reward and liability fell upon partnerships and corporate ventures, or when governments took up liability in order to ensure that lines of communications would continue to be serviced, the easiest way was to power project along them.

 

[Timerover51]

I am working on building a Space Viking raider, but not really a corsair for space piracy. It is more like a ship designed for surface raiding. The buccaneers of the Spanish Main did a lot of port raiding as being more lucrative than going after ships. What good does a cargo of bricks and woolens from Spain, and yes bricks for building were carried as ballast, do you? Selling it is a headache. In Traveller terms, how are you going to get rid of that 500 tons of specialty steel that you just pirated? You could probably peddle fertilizer to an Asteroid Belt, if one is near by. The same with food products. But how many times are you near an Asteroid Belt settlement?

 

[aramis]

But how many times are you near an Asteroid Belt settlement?

If one is using extended or expanded character generation, quite often, actually. Many systems will have strong internal tradeflows, too. I've generated systems with over 1e11 population. (LGG in the hab zone, and multiple inhabited worlds ...)

 

[Carlobrand]

I am working on building a Space Viking raider, but not really a corsair for space piracy. It is more like a ship designed for surface raiding. The buccaneers of the Spanish Main did a lot of port raiding as being more lucrative than going after ships. What good does a cargo of bricks and woolens from Spain, and yes bricks for building were carried as ballast, do you? Selling it is a headache. In Traveller terms, how are you going to get rid of that 500 tons of specialty steel that you just pirated? You could probably peddle fertilizer to an Asteroid Belt, if one is near by. The same with food products. But how many times are you near an Asteroid Belt settlement?

Surface raiding's tricky. One can't just threaten with missiles, 'cause places set up point defense systems once that tactic gets popular. One can't fly into range with lasers, 'cause a volley of tac missiles will just ruin your day. Local militia might not be great in a fight, but they'll do well enough from the bunker the community uses for an emergency shelter, community garage, warehouse, and power center - the one folks started using after they got word the pirates were raiding settlements. One has to be crafty, maybe land out of town and come in on an air-raft to rob the payroll that was just delivered at the local bank.

 

[GypsyComet]

Surface raiding's tricky. One can't just threaten with missiles, 'cause places set up point defense systems once that tactic gets popular.

The average main world is just a small town worth of people, and many secondary worlds in a system are going to be villages or wide spots in the road, as it were. Not every raid starts hot, either. Sometimes you're just another salvager visiting that out of the way fuel stop, fence, and junk shop. Or that's what they think, until the guns come out. Sometimes you fleece the locals at cards or sell them swamp land or stolen equipment, then leave before they connect the dots. A pirate's life is all of these things, and more.

The Corsair's variable identification features enable the soft game just as much as the hard game, as long as there is a legit user base of the same hull to hide amongst.

 

[Enoki]

The average main world is just a small town worth of people, and many secondary worlds in a system are going to be villages or wide spots in the road, as it were. Not every raid starts hot, either. Sometimes you're just another salvager visiting that out of the way fuel stop, fence, and junk shop. Or that's what they think, until the guns come out. Sometimes you fleece the locals at cards or sell them swamp land or stolen equipment, then leave before they connect the dots. A pirate's life is all of these things, and more.

The Corsair's variable identification features enable the soft game just as much as the hard game, as long as there is a legit user base of the same hull to hide amongst.

Exactly. There are lots and lots of worlds with a population of 5 or less. Any world like that that doesn't have the whole population concentrated in one location (and for worlds of 4 or less even if they are concentrated) are going to have a very difficult time holding off a raid by say, a couple hundred well armed pirates / raiders who swoop in to a particular town or location and strip it clean.

It doesn't even have to be currency you're after. A wide variety of technology could be resold elsewhere to people who want it but can't afford to buy it new or legally. Of course, there's probably places that run like a pawn shop too...

Or, maybe the MO is to quietly sneak in in the middle of the night when they've rolled up the proverbial sidewalks and everyone is asleep to rob the bank or whatever your target is.