In Hollywood productions of pirates the battles portrayed are quite violent and exquisite to the eye, but are these kinds of battle actually accurate to the battles that really took place. Well if the pirates where commanding superior vessels with proficient fire power then yes in most cases. However, pirates hardly ever commanded these kind of ships they usually commanded smaller lighter armored but extremely fast and maneuverable. When commanding these kinds of ships the pirates usually preferred to quickly board the enemy ships. The most effective weapon at the pirates dispose was that of the fear and ability to literally paralyze the enemy from fright. With this method they were capable of overtaking ships that were much larger and had larger crews making the pirates greatly outnumbered.