When the Ottoman flag flew over part of Britain ...

[Siege]

I'm not quite sure how a discussing of the origins of El Cid prompted that one, but ...

A spaceship is a Nave espacial which I suppose has the same root as Navy. A fleet would be a flota and the service is actually called the Armada. So it would be the Armada Espacial, although I can't see way Marina Espacial wouldn't work. After all names can be quite silly. Nueva Cartagena for example means New-new-new-city.

I do kind of wonder why Siege asked that question.

Keep wondering.

[Siege]

I have also read somewhere that piracy wasn't as profitable as most people believe.
A few made it big, and their legends motivated new unemployed seamen to go pirate.
But it seems the average pirate lived in a half starving boat running away from bigger fish trying to score on a cargo boat that likely was loaded with sugar instead of gold.

To me the luckiest pirate, and I am not sure how much of a legend this is, was a french pirate called "Florentino", who in 1525? was off the coast of spain and happened to intercept an spanish galleon loaded with Cortez' aztec treasure for the spanish crown. Florentino disappeared after that and never again was heard from him.

[Legbiter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundy_Island#Piracy

In 1627 Barbary Pirates from the Republic of Salé occupied Lundy for five years. The North African invaders, under the command of Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon, flew an Ottoman flag over the island. Some captured Europeans were held on Lundy before being sent to Algiers as slaves.

That's the same Dutch Islamoid who led a major slaving raid on Iceland in roughly the same period. Only a few managed to get ransomed back. 

[Razgovory]

That's the same Dutch Islamoid who led a major slaving raid on Iceland in roughly the same period. Only a few managed to get ransomed back. 

I guess the Dutch really meant it when they said "Better Turkish then Papist".

[Razgovory]

I have also read somewhere that piracy wasn't as profitable as most people believe.
A few made it big, and their legends motivated new unemployed seamen to go pirate.
But it seems the average pirate lived in a half starving boat running away from bigger fish trying to score on a cargo boat that likely was loaded with sugar instead of gold.

To me the luckiest pirate, and I am not sure how much of a legend this is, was a french pirate called "Florentino", who in 1525? was off the coast of spain and happened to intercept an spanish galleon loaded with Cortez' aztec treasure for the spanish crown. Florentino disappeared after that and never again was heard from him.

That means he drowned.  The most successful pirate was probably Barbarossa.

[Habbaku]

That means he drowned.  The most successful pirate was probably Barbarossa.

He drowned, too.   

[AnchorClanker]

If we blur the pirate/privateer tag - it would be Henry Morgan.    Lt. Gov. of Jamaica and filthy rich.

[The Brain]

The best they could hope for was King's Advisor.

[Martinus]

European peasant could also rise fairly high though most did not.  On the other hand, most Mameluke probably spent their lives as common soldiers.

You are talking completely out of your ass. Mamelukes rose to be Sultans. No peasant could hope to be a European monarch.

[Viking]

According to wiki 10-18m African slaves through the Arab slave trade over a period of 1,250 years plus 1-1.25m European slaves.

10.25m arrived in the new world through the Atlantic slave trade with several million dying en route. This was over a 300 year period.

The Euros labor needs were a little higher

I am curious about the low number of Euro slaves.  I thought the Crimean Tatars nabbed so many Slavs that our word for Slave comes from them.  But maybe that 1 million or so happened in a small time period?

Or do the Turks not count as part of the Arab slave trade?

I think Slave/Slav thing comes from early middle ages, when Tatars were still in Mongolia.

Yes, Slave is a norse loanword from to english, due to the ethnicity of the slaves the norsemen sold on english slave markets in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. English, Irish and Scottish slaves went the other way.

[Razgovory]

European peasant could also rise fairly high though most did not.  On the other hand, most Mameluke probably spent their lives as common soldiers.

You are talking completely out of your ass. Mamelukes rose to be Sultans. No peasant could hope to be a European monarch.

Well, non-nobles were occasionally elected Pope.  A Crowned head of state.

[AnchorClanker]

The best they could hope for was King's Advisor.

Man, I loved that game.  Still have it and all the other C-128 games.

[Martinus]

According to wiki 10-18m African slaves through the Arab slave trade over a period of 1,250 years plus 1-1.25m European slaves.

10.25m arrived in the new world through the Atlantic slave trade with several million dying en route. This was over a 300 year period.

The Euros labor needs were a little higher

I am curious about the low number of Euro slaves.  I thought the Crimean Tatars nabbed so many Slavs that our word for Slave comes from them.  But maybe that 1 million or so happened in a small time period?

Or do the Turks not count as part of the Arab slave trade?

I think Slave/Slav thing comes from early middle ages, when Tatars were still in Mongolia.

Yes, Slave is a norse loanword from to english, due to the ethnicity of the slaves the norsemen sold on english slave markets in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. English, Irish and Scottish slaves went the other way.

Uhm no. It came from Latin via French.

[Sheilbh]

Yes, Slave is a norse loanword from to english, due to the ethnicity of the slaves the norsemen sold on english slave markets in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries. English, Irish and Scottish slaves went the other way.

Uhm no. It came from Latin via French.

According to the OED you're both right.  It exists in Medieval Latin, Old French, Norse languages, Low German, West and North Frisian and others including Provencal, Spanish and Italian.  The first uses in English documents are clearly Medieval Latin which, in turn descends from the Greek word for Slavs (Σκλάβος).  So it's a Latin-French-Greek-German-Norse word that reinforced its way by sheer repetition into English