I wonder if the fact that pirates were involved had them thinking about
the pirates from several centuries ago, the ones with the cutlasses,
eye patches, and parrots on their shoulders.

Of course today's pirates have none of those "charms". I also wonder
what the heck they were thinking attacking two Naval vessels full of
Marines with weapons? Did the pirates think these guys weren't going
to fight back?

“Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.” - Mark Twain

“Where there is a sea there are pirates.” - Greek proverb

“There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.” - James Russell Lowell