Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-28593934-20170311152426/@comment-26890432-20170313155454

I think a lot of people really misunderstand the whole culture of Umbar. People tend to describe it as a "grand seafaring nation" with great advances in seamanship and regal vessels of war and worldly exploration... if you are looking for those things, try Pelargir or Dol Amroth. Umbar was a state run by pirates. Historically, little enclaves and pseudo-states run by pirates such as the Barabary Corsairs and a bunch of the "pirate islands" in the Carribean were chaotic, violent, and certainly not possessed of the noble ideas of an ancient sea-kingdom that people sometimes attribute to Umbar.

Pirates weren't known to be great thinkers and navigators themselves, and oftentimes pressed learned prisoners into the role of navigator or master aboard their ships. It's likely whatever seacraft and maritime prowess Umbar possesses is a faded, lingering vestige of the City's Gondorian influence, and as Ithilion has many times pointed out, the blood of Numenor was spent very quickly here.

People will of course argue this by saying "look how much of a threat the Corsairs were to Gondor! That obviously means they were pretty powerful". Well, that's not entirely correct. Pirates have swooped in and become the "icing on the cake" for many declining nations(Spanish Empire, anyone?), becoming an infestation taking advantage of the other pressures and enemies faced by their victims. The Corsairs by themselves weren't a staggering military obstacle, but they were a problem in Gondor's darkest hour when the Kingdom found itself attacked on all other sides as well,