The Holbrook news., 1921-08-12
Theory Put Forward as ExpIana- tion of Disappearance of
 American Vessels.
PIRACY FOLLOWS GREAT WARS
asIand-Dotted Areas of the Oceans of- fer Lurking Places for Sea RoVers- Piracy Has FIourished Since
 Early Days of History.


 Washington, D. C.-The theory that pirates are again infesting Atlantic waters has been put forward in con- nection with the grounding of the Car roll Deering and the mysterious dis appearance of three other American steamships.
 "An epidemic of piracy has followed in the wake of nearly all of the great wars. Even as recently as 1915 rest less souls who had smelled the blood of battle and felt the intoxicat1on or danger became lOath to settle down ln- to the peaceful ways of men ana commerce, and chose the wide seas as an asylum because they refused to live under the law" says bulletin of the National Geographic society from it's Washington, D. C., headquar- ters.
 Some Famous Pirate Bases
 Beside the broad oceans which of fered infinite chance for escape there have always been the island-dotted areas which furnish excellent lurking places from which these opponents Of absolute freedom might take their quarry for examination and long dl- vision among them. The Greek Archi- pelago, the Barbary coast, the East Indies. the China shores and the Span ish Main, within the shadow of our own doors, have been pirate bases for centuries and given to the world a wealth of stories of breathless in- terest.
 'In ancient times these sea robbers off the coast of Greece. Italy, and Asia Minor with their thousands Of light. swift vessels, or sea mice as they were called, taxed merchant shipping so heavily that they lightly and rightly termed their base of op- erations the Golden Gulf They Haunted their black flag in the face of mighty Rome, which remained inn potent against them until POmpey with almost unlimited resources at his com mand curbed their operations.
 Pandora's Box of Piracy.
 "Ferdinand and Isabella unwitting- iy, in their decision to drive the Moors from Spanish soil, let loose upon the world and particularly upon Spanish shipping, then at the height of It's pride, a fearful horde of daring and interruptions avengers.
 'In the early days of Moslem pow CT one of the caliphs wrote to his gen. eraI and asked him what the sea was like. The general s1gwered, "rhe sen is a huge beast wb oh silly folk ride | like worms on logs Consequently the | caliph gave orders that no Moslem | should voyage upon it, but they soon | learned that they must conquer it if | they were to hold their own among | other peoples, and they subsequently furnished some of the most audacious 1 and picturesque of the pirate figures.
 The James Brothers of the Seas.
 1.-TWO of the most daring and in- genious of these were the Barbarossa brothers. Red Beard terrorized the Mediterranean world from COnstanti- nople to the Pillars of Hercules. The excellent harbors and the island hid ing places made it possible for him to defy the fleets of England, Italy, Spain and Holland, to levy tribute on all the vessels that passed over the highway, to capture the richly laden Papal galleys bound for Rome in Mos lem defiance of Christendom and
  151O, at that time notorious and i'm mensely wealthy, he changed the base of his operations to the island of Jerba, off the coast of Tunis. where the Fates ceased to smile so kindly upon him. After many hard-fought battles and vicissitudes of fortune he fell before the forces of Charles V of Spain near Tremizan on African soil. He had actually escaped, but upon learning that his faithful fol lowers were close pressed he returned to die with them. The career of his brother Kheyr-er-din is scarcely less romantic.
 Piracy on the American coast among the French and Spanish naviga- tors began before the days of the Eng fish colonists. Queen Elizabeth is said