Who would of thunk it? Actually, I'm surprised there is only one. But, according to this interesting article from the Chicago Sun-Times, published on  11 June 2007, one one pirate plied the waters of Lake Michigan. That's probably because its almost impossible to be successful pirating within your own country when law and order are enforced.

The pirate was a drunkard named Dan Seavey, and at 43, he commandeered a schooner packed with cargo.

Ninety-nine years ago today -- June 11, 1908, -- Seavey made his mark by commandeering a Great Lakes cargo ship and sailing it to Chicago. He didn't do it with swords and swashbuckling. "Apparently, he drank the captain and the crew under the table," said John Moga, curator of a new pirate exhibit at the Door County (Wis.) Maritime Museum.


The only problem was, he couldn't sell the cargo! This is 1908, so even by this time the Wild Wild West was tamed (and Chicago was completely ensconced in the Midwest anyway).

Seavey, after stealing the 40-foot schooner Nellie Johnson in Grand Haven, Mich., found no fortune in his pirating: He was unable to sell the load of cedar posts in Chicago and was captured back near his home in Frankfort, Mich.