Membership in the Order of Descendants of Pirates & Privateers is open to men and women, who are lineally or collaterally descended from any of the following, of the period 1609-1865: officers and crew of pirates ships, of any nation, so long as such pirates were of or engaged the American Colonies or Nation; officers and crew of American privateers, including those of the Confederacy; coastal raiders; shore-based parties engaged in the diversion and scuttling of vessels ("mooncussers"); any person who engaged in the establishing, supporting, and/or maintaining and/or profiting from any of the above.