I hesitated to weigh in on this discussion, given the Twain credentials of
the paraticipants so far. But I will.
I once worked for a Governor, who commented that "if you want to repeal a
law, consider why that law was passed in the first place." I applied that
approach to the question of Twain's selection of location for, and use at
all of, "Pirates in the Indian Ocean" when Huckleberry Finn was dictating his
life story in the early 1880s.
History records no piracy in the Indian Ocean during the 1860's-'80s.
However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 reduced the volume of shipping
passing through that ocean, and in the process brought the name into American
newspapers with a fair regularity in the 1870s. Great Britain maintained
its hegemony over the Indian Ocean, and it was considered safe passage, but
longer than the Suez. Maritime insurance did not consider a ship "lost" in
the Indian Ocean unless it was not heard from for nine months. On other
oceans ships were lost after six months. Piracy was occurring in the Hong Kong
area when Twain was writing Huck, but it was not a big deal in newspapers.
The Ilanun of Borneo, the most feared pirates in the waters around
Southeast Asia (well east of the Indian Ocean, which is south and west of India)
during the mid 1800s, wore sarongs and embroidered belts. Little is seen in
American newspapers of that gang.
The Pirates of Penzance opened in New York City in 1879, and was a big hit
for years after that, performed all over the nation. Wikipedia says over a
hundred companies were soon performing it, unauthorized, in America. I
don't think Pirates of Penzance is set in any specific ocean, but it brought
the word and concept of Piracy into a front row seat.
In the November, 1870, Atlantic Monthly, Harriett Beecher Stowe provided a
long, colorful tale of Captain Kidd, who died in 1701. In 1880 an article
about men seeking to locate Kidd's gold on the East Coast was widely
reprinted.
Finally, consider the mental image of "pirates in the Indian Ocean" versus
"pirates on the Atlantic" Indian Ocean presents a much more dramatic
cachet
Bob Stewart
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