I just got finished taking a "Haunted History" tour around the French Quarter in New Orleans and one of the ghost stories really got me thinking. Basically, a young man living in New Orleans in the 18th century decided he wanted to be a pirate, so he broke into a home and stole an expensive piece of jewelry that he then took to a bar that was a known pirate meeting place and tried to show it off in the hope that someone would be impressed with his thieving skills and offer him a job on a pirate ship. Unfortunately for the young man, one of the pirates recognized the jewelry as a gift he had given a family member and the young man was made a ghost.

So my question is what were the common career paths (so to speak) that men took to become pirates? Did they commonly set out with the goal of become a pirate, or was it something that people fell into? I'm assuming that this could vary greatly depending on where or when the person lived, so what places were pirates usually recruited from?

Thanks!