Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free
You are a pirate!
Yar har, fiddle de dee
Being a pirate is alright to be
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free
You are a pirate!

I got the sails and the hull of this ship for something like $15 plus shipping. Then when I opened the box it also had more pirate stuff in it like monkeys, cannons and gold coins. One of my best deals ever.

@MeisterDad
Anytime you open a box and there are unexpected monkeys inside, that’s always a good deal in my book.

One time I got a box of old books from my parents’ house and found a Monkees Greatest Hits CD inside. I would’ve preferred gold coins, but it was still a nice surprise.

@CarolinaOnMyMind A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

A boat, a cool sail, a cannon, some cutlasses, a treasure map, and some pirates. That all adds up to an 'A' grade set. Even if the ship, itself, really isn't all that good.

This set was released as I was transitioning from System to Technic, but I wouldn’t turn it down today.

This is cool. In the price range where this is exactly the kind of set I would have bought, and spent *hours* modifying and rearranging it to make it better.

Why is this boat so small? Shouldn’t pirate ships be large and imposing?

Contrary to most depictions in popular culture, most pirates used smaller vessels like this rather than large galleons or men-of-war. For one matter, smaller vessels were more numerous and easier to capture than larger ships and generally required a smaller crew to operate. Smaller vessels were also more maneuverable and had a shallow draft that enable them to navigate shallow waters, useful for hiding or fleeing (both important properties for pirates). While a few pirates did manage to capture and use larger 3-masted ships (e.g., Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge and one of Bartholomew Roberts’ Royal Fortune), historical records show that the majority of pirate attacks in the Caribbean involved smaller vessels with 1-2 masts.

Given the Black Seas Barracuda got a remake not long ago it'd be awesome for this one to get a Legacy set as well (or better yet, the Renegade Runner. Give Iron Hook some love!) The Pirates theme was well before my time, but I love pirate ships, and recently managed to get Barracuda Bay, the Creator Pirate Ship, and the Destiny's Bounty. My first LEGO pirate ships, and what I hope will be the start of a grand collection. (Rumor has it, that old Viking longboat's getting a Creator remaster next year. Fingers crossed!)

The last ship released in the classic pirate era.

We need more sets like this. If Lego had actually done a proper pirates theme in 2009 and 2015 respectively, then pirates may have survived.

Specifically, as @LordDunsay has correctly pointed out (thanks for the info btw!), the vast majority of pirates only used small vessels. Instead of just making a Brickbeard's Bounty every year and all the other vessels are just rowboats or rafts, Lego should have made small pirate ships like this, then a large naval ship and/or merchant ship (eg Spanish galleon) for the pirates to attack.

'Pirates' as a toy theme is basically just Lego City police or 'cops n robbers' but with sailing ships instead of motorcars, cutlasses and flintlocks instead of crowbars and merchant ships instead of banks.
A Lego pirates theme should have a naval fort (aka 'big police station set'), a small sailing ship (crooks vehicle), a merchant ship (bank) and naval ship (police car). The 'crooks hideout' could be any number of things like islands, shipwrecks, portside taverns etc.

It was always a great pity how recent Lego pirate themes gave kids a big pirate ship to play with, but no one to fight or rob.
Any pirate or naval film/literature is all about ships sailing parallel to each other, blasting each other with lots of cannons, sometimes some small arms fire from muskets and pistols, or sailors swinging by ropes onto the deck of the enemy ship for some hand to hand combat with cutlasses.

I actually only just finished converting my Black Seas Barracuda to the 'Princess Rahel', an Austrian naval ship (complete with authentic flags and more realistic sails). It would be really nice to have a small pirate ship such as today's RSOTD to attack it but sadly I have to rely on a couple of rowboats, which is quite a step down for poor Captain Redbeard!

A seasonally appropriate pirate ship!

The denouement of Classic Pirates. While the comments so far have been positive about the simple charm of the Cross Bone Clipper, at the time it was a real step down from the pirate ships that preceded it, and a disappointing end to the theme.

Arrr...'tis the 'Training Boat' for 'the Cadets'...:)

Serious, looking at something like this make me think: This is proof-positive that an updated Pirate-theme would be viable. Not everything need be 'Barracuda Bay Big', give the Imperials ships as well; both get Forts/HQs...wishful thinking :D

As for the size, if you look at it canonically, pun intended, this is when Red Beard was at the end of his pirate days, so he was relegated to a small ship. Or so I heard lol.

This ship is sure getting a lot of love for a set that’s essentially two hull pieces held together with table scraps! My first thought was it looked like one of my mocs when when I was 8…

@Brickchap
@LordDunsay

Blackbeard - The Real Pirate of the Caribbean aKa Blackbeard: Terror at Sea is one the few movie that focusses on the use small vessel.
Blackbeard starts with a small vessel, looting small mechants and sometimes preying on larger ships.
In the end his pride becomes his downfall and the navy succeeds in hunting him down with, the irony, 2 small vessels using his own tactic against him.

@watcher21:
PotC addressed it, noting that the Dauntless is the power in the region, but that there’s no ship that can match the Interceptor for speed. Well, except for the even-smaller Black Pearl (but everyone knows that doesn’t exist).