New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-27
vI-BOATS ROAM
PIRATE LANES
Frequent Same Mediter-
-anean Hunting Grounds
as Ancient COrSairs.

II is rather a significant parallel that
the German and Austrian submarines,
the commerce deStroycrs Of the present
war. frequent the same hunting
grounds in the Mediterranean as the
ancient and medieval corSairs. writes
Ellen Churchill Semple in THE Geo
graphical Review" They have been
GENERATING i'm the Iberian Sea, which
forms the broad avenue leading to the
Gibraltar gate; along the marine high
way. between Spain and the Balearlc
Isles. travelled by ships bound from
Gibraltar TO Narseilles; in and about
the Sicilian Strait. where converge al:
lines of traffic between the eastern and
the western basins; IN the Strait OF
OtrantO and the long Adriatic lane; IN
Cretan waters. which form the passage
ways 10 the Kgcan and along the sp-
urOaches to Alexandra and the Suez
isthmus.
The Mediterranean Sea has been the
oldest and i'm some respects the great.
cst European training school of mari
time activities. These il has coddled
and guided and stimulated by rare
combination of geographic conditions.
From time immemorial its coasts have
sent out fishing fleets into all parts Of
the basin. From the lays Of the Gre
tan MinOs it has produced long sue
ceSsion Of sea powers whose navics
have sailed its waters far and wide, and
whose merchantmen have traded in its
remoteSt ports.
A sinister form Of maritime activity
IS found I'm the piracy which for ages
was a recurrent phenomenon on many
shores of the Mediterranean. II con
stitutcd a lawless combination Of naval
aggression and maritime commerce.,
seizure ana sale without the EOrmality
# purchase. The blend of piracy and
trade among carly Phnncians. Greeks
and Etruscans belonged to a primitive,
undevclopcd period when warfare was
chronic. when Stranger meant enemy.
and when bucc Iqeers executed a crude
form OF navigation act desi IN I'd 10
crush competition in the markets Of
the home sea Such undoubtedly was
the attitude Of the ancient Etruscan
pirates toward Greek and Carthaginian
ships which ventuIed 90 sail the Tyr
rheniar Sea.
Piratical attacks were especially
common in the Kgean when many of
tie Cyclades islands were occupied by
Csrians and perhaps by Phenicians,
and when national antagonisms en-
phaSlZcd commercial rivalry on the sea.
Finally the Cretan Mnos employed his
naval power to conquer these islands.
suppress piracy, and protect the reve-
nues from his maritime empire, so that
commerce by sea became more general.
The decay of Cretan sea power after
the Dorian invasion made possible the
revival of piracy in Homeric times, and
converted the former police OF the
A.cean into widC-rangng cOrsairs.
When Seamen landed on a strange
coast they were asked, quite naturally:
"Outlanders. whence come ye? Are We
robbers that rove the sea ?" The gen
oral custom Of Staying Shipwrecked
mariners, on the assumption Of their
being pirates. points to the prevalence
# the evil in the Mediterranean in
legendary and early historical times.
The conspicuous fact in Mediter-
raaesn piracy is its repeated recru-
descence whenever maritime political
control is relaxed, and especially its
constant recurrence. from the dawn OF
\. story down to the nineteenth century
in certain coast districts which arc nat
ural breeding places Of sea robbers.
The stable factors tending constantly
20 produce this phenomenon are TO be
folnd i'm the geographic conditions OBJ
tanning in the Mediterranean. Owing
to the con6guration OF the basin. traf-
fc was compressed into certain narrow
trade rOuteS.