Pirate

A person who lives by piracy; one guilty of the crime of piracy. A sea-robber, who, to enrich himself, by subtlety or open force, setteth upon merchants and others trading by sea, despoiling them of their loading, and sometimes bereaving them of life and sinking their ships. Ridley, Civll & Ecc. Law, pt.

2, c. 1, § 3.

A pirate is one who acts solely on his own authority, without any commission or authority from a sovereign state, seizing by force, and appropriating to himself without discrimination, every vessel he meets with. Robbary on the high seas is piracy ; but to constitute the offense the taking must be felonious. Consequently the quo animo may be inquired into.

Davison v. Seal-skins, 2 Paine, 324, Fed. Cas. No. 3,661.

Pirates are common sea-rovers, without any fixed place of residence, who acknowledge no sovereign and no law, and support themselves by pillage and depredations at sea; but there are instances wherein the word "pirata" has been formerly taken for a sea-captain.

Spelman.