Gvidas Dirgela

Gvidas Dirgela, born 1656, was a pirate, privateer, and naval officer from the Ozokalniai Islands in modern-day Liotain.

### Youth

Dirgela was born in the Ozokalniai Islands off the coast of the Grand Duchy of Pietu Erizjia. At the time of his birth, the islands were officially ruled by baron (magnatas) of Ozokalniai, who supplemented his income with occasional piracy, mostly via raids on the coasts of Celtica and Anitkabir. Dirgela's father was a ship's officer for one of the baron's most successful raiders, and by age sixteen, Dirgela followed in his father's footsteps.

### Pirate Career

Through the 1670s, Dirgela worked his way up the ranks, establishing a reputation for himself as a capable seaman and navigator. By 1683, he had his own craft, a two-masted galiot which he employed for coastal trading and the occasional criminal enterprise on the side.

Like most of the mariners from the Erisian shore, Dirgela was primarily engaged in legitimate trade unless the opportunity rose for a low-risk prize. The magnates of Ozokalniai received a cut of any loot, but also designated certain targets off-limits in exchange for protection money.

In 1691, Dirgela spent a year in prison for stabbing a man who assaulted his daughter. He emerged from prison claiming to have received a religious conversion, and opened his house to care for Ozokalniai's orphans.

### Wartime Career

When the Anitkabir War of 1693-1700 started, the raids of the Ozokalniai pirates turned to focus on the coast of Anitkabir. Dirgela assumed a leadership roles amongst the various corsairs. Rather than taking all targets of opportunity regardless of their flag, he swore an oath in 1693 that he would only strike at the Kabirites, or those cooperating with them. However, the corsairs found limited targets over the first two years of the war, and Dirgela continued trading.

By 1696, as Pasha Shakan Mundzuk's army took control of Erisia, Dirgela's campaign became much more serious. He purchased his first large ship, the *Sokanti Mergina* (Dancing Girl) of twenty-eight guns, which became the flagship of the Ozokalniai corsairs.

While Ozokalniai opposed Pasha Mundzuk's invasion, other island and coastal communities in the Gulf of Erisia supported the Kabirites. The magnate Jonas Vanags of Turkalne, on island of Naxxar, converted to Hishelma in 1697 and declared for Pasha Mundzuk, using the opportunity to raid the entire region. Vanags assumed the Kabirite name Kara Reis (or "Black Captain") for the remainder of his life.

The Turkalne corsairs led by Kara Reis and the Ozokalniai corsairs led by Dirgela soon became bitter enemies, and fought each other on several occasions.

### Magnate

In November 1698, the Kabirite commander Zagan Reis arrived in the Ozokalniai Islands with a powerful ship-of-the-line, the Kirmizi Cehennem ("Red Inferno"). Kara Reis, keen to knock out one of his primary rivals, accompanied the large warship with his own fleet. Zagan Reis forced Ilves Adamkus, the magnate of Ozokalniai, to ban further raids, convert to Hishelma, imprison the families of the corsairs, and accept the overlordship of Pasha Mundzuk. Zagan Reis left sixty janissaries and a hundred mercenaries, commanded by Kara Reis's brother, to hold the islands before returning to Anitkabir.

Dirgela was away at the time of Zagan Reis' arrival, but returned shortly after hearing news of the attack. Landing his men at night, Dirgela led them back into town and surprised the garrison. Dirgela and his men methodically eliminated the defenders and took control of the town before dawn.

Outraged at how easily Ilves Adamkus submitted to the Kabirites, and at the poor treatment of both his own family and his fellow corsairs' families, Dirgela convened a trial of seven captains, who voted unanimously to execute Adamkus. Dirgela carried out the sentence immediately, and brutally, by drowning Adamkus in a privy. By the assent of the other captains, he then assumed the title of magnate of Ozokalniai.

When the Kabirites heard about these events, Kara Reis returned to Ozokalniai in order to reistablish control. Dirgela replied with defiance. Kara Reis's brother, captured during the earlier fighting, was killed when Dirgela ordered him fired out of a cannon. The Turkalne corsairs launched an unwise and hasty attack, during which Kara Reis was mortally wounded.

His vengeance satisfied, Dirgela spent the next few years balancing his new role as magnate of Ozokalniai alongside his seafaring career. His fleet of corsairs continued to grow, and by the end of 1700, Dirgela controlled a fleet of seventeen ships mounting a total of 296 cannon.

### Liotainian Naval Officer

The start of the Firocco-Liotain War (1701-1707) brought Dirgela new opportunities. Raids on Kabirite ships and coastal towns proved increasingly unprofitable for Dirgela's fleet, while Firocco supplied Pasha Mundzuk with a number of small warships and heavily-armed merchant vessels.

The war, however, made Firocco's trade a legitimate target. The Kingdom of Liotain offered Dirgela an official letter-of-marque in February 1701, and Dirgela immediately opened up a commerce war against Firoccan shipping headed to the Treaty Port of Karindah. These new raids proved exceptionally profitable for Dirgela; his seizure of a Firoccan trading ship in August of 1701 netted him more income at a single stroke than he'd received over his entire career as a corsair.

Possessing no naval forces in the region, the Royal Liotainian Navy approached Dirgela in January of 1702, asking him to accept a naval commission and make his fleet an official part of the navy. Dirgela accepted, but balked at taking orders from a distant commander-in-chief. He continued raiding Firoccan commerce, ranging first to the coast of Dengfeng and then to the Draken Straits, leaving Zagan Reis to control the Erisian littoral.

### Death

In November 1702, Dirgela led his fleet to the Cerulean Sea to raid Firoccan shipping after hearing rumours of wealthy unescorted galleons. This was in disregard of his naval orders, which directed him to continue harassing military targets amongst both Mundzuk's territory and Karindah. On the last day of November, Dirgela, aboard the *Sokanti Mergina*, attacked a Firoccan trading ship off Jackshead. Although a civilian vessel, the ship had a Firoccan naval officer in command, with a well-disciplined crew. Dirgela was severely injured in the course of the action, and his own crew chose to break off the attack. The ship's surgeon amputated both of Dirgela's arms in an attempt to save his life, but the wounds turned gangrenous and he died two days later. The *Sokanti Mergina* continued cruising under Dirgela's first officer and took several prizes in the Cerulean Sea, but in late December the ship was overtaken by a Firoccan frigate and captured.

### Legacy

Dirgela had a brief reputation in Liotain as a successful and heroic privateer, but this faded even before his death. His piratical past and unwillingness to follow orders did not endear him to the commanders of the Royal Liotainian Navy. Tautvydas Maldeikis, sent to recruit Dirgela, reported to Princess Vilmante that:
 "The magnate and corsair Dirgela is a man of rough-hewn traits, whose loyalty lies with kin and coin alone. He possesses, be ye sure, the charm of great knowledge, formidable wit, and courage in times of peril. But his vices lay in equal measure to his virtues. He is often found publicly intoxicated at most any hour in the day. He will brook no disagreement on any topic about which he feels himself qualified, and these topics are many. His crews altogether lack discipline, and will plunder whatsoever they like from whatever ship falls into their hands, all to his wink and shrug at their behavior. If our need was not great I would not deign to sup with him in heaven or hell, nor entrust him with upholding Liotainian honour."

Despite this, a flattering portrayal of Dirgela made it into the 1860 book *Lives of the Great Corsairs*, which argued that Maldeikis had ulterior motives to slander Dirgela, as he wished to replace him as the commander of the Southern Squadron. This took place in October 1702, but news did not reach Dirgela before his final battle.