In rethinking the history of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, my research focuses on the role of the environment in the shaping of communities, culture, and opportunity for coastal Gulf dwellers. Such an effort displaces both foreign imperial authorities (the Portuguese, British, and Ottomans) as well as regional leaders, such as the sheikhs of Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Emirates, replacing their story with one about common people living by and from the water. This paper sidesteps debates about how historians should understand the legality or legitimacy of piracy in the Gulf, or if it should even be given that provocative label. Instead, it opts for a completely novel approach to understanding the effectiveness of Arab maritime violence against European ships built with, and protected by, modern technology. Though the research is largely based on research in the India Office and Foreign Office records in the British Library and the British National Archives, reading colonial documentation through an environmental lens can illuminate details that are often overlooked in order to paint a picture of human relations to the Gulf. My argument is that the Gulf provided an ideal location for seasonal “piracy”. With the exception of the Qawasim, most engaged in such activities were likely pearl divers and fishermen for most of the year. Yet during particular seasons, such as when well-stocked boats from India came to purchase newly harvested dates, locals could make a quick profit by raiding trading vessels. Even though trading vessels were far more technologically advanced than the smaller coastal dhows used for such raids, the intense local knowledge of Gulf sailors provided them with the advantage they needed to quickly escape and hide among the islands, shoals, reefs, and mud flats where European vessels could not travel. British accounts are frustrated by Arabs’ familiarity with both the Ottoman and Persian sides of the Shatt-al-Arab, their ability to haul their small ships right up on to the beach, and their willingness to pull in close to islands despite the presence of jagged shoals. Such stories highlight the importance of environmental knowledge on the part of local Gulf residents as they struggled against wealthier, more technologically advanced outsiders.