Torture, Violence, and Marooning

• Violence was sometimes used casually but often to discover the location of valuables, to spread fear and as revenge
• There is only one known record of a person being made to walk the plank, it occurred in the early 1800s
• Various forms of torture were used by pirates to punish or coerce victims into revealing the location of their valuables
• Marooning was also used , both to those whose ships were taken and for pirates who had violated ship rules
• Daniel Defoe was likely inpsired by Alexander Selkirk when writing Robinson Crusoe, Selkirk was marooned on Juan Fernandez Island from 1704 to 1709 before being discovered by a passing ship