Pirates – True or False?

Ahoy, mateys!

Everyone knows that in addition to making an excellent costume for Halloween, pirates are pretty fun, at least in their Disney-fied state with parrots, rum, jewels, and gold.

However, a lot of the modern stereotypes about pirates just don’t hold water. Here are a few facts about pirates that won’t get you cast out to sea.

Pirates Didn’t Talk Like You Think They Did

Shiver me timbers: Pirates didn’t actually go around saying “arrrrrr” (or “ahoy, mateys,” for that matter). In fact, they probably spoke more or less  just like other sailors of the time.

We can blame the “pirate accent” on Hollywood. Actor Robert Newton gave an influential performance as Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which itself was the source of much (often inaccurate) modern-day pirate lore. Newton based his pirate-speak on the dialect of the West Countrythe in southwestern England, where he hailed from (and where Long John Silver comes from, in the book).

Pirates Didn’t Make Treasure Maps

This one is another myth from Treasure Island — not that we wouldn’t all enjoy finding a chest filled with gold doubloons. Although Captain Kidd did bury some booty on New York’s Gardiner’s Island, most pirates spent or sold the fruits of their “labor” pretty quickly. To date, there has never been a single case of an “authentic” pirate map resulting in a treasure find. However, in the golden age of piracy, accurate maps were rare and valuable, and were considered and actual treasure all on their own.

Women Ruled the High Seas, Too

Move over, Blackbeard: The “fairer sex” had its fair share of pirates. In addition to Anne Bonny (a prominent character in the piracy TV drama Balck Sails),  a number of women are known to have been successful swashbucklers.

Cantonese commoner Cheng I Sao married into piracy, and upon her husband’s death expanded the family business beyond his wildest dreams. She commanded up to 600 ships and as many as 40,000 men, and defeated European and Chinese fleets in fierce battles. Upon her retirement, Cheng I Sao sailed 260 junks into Canton Harbor and demanded a pardon — which the terrified government was happy to grant.

Most Pirates Didn’t Have Peg Legs

Piracy is a pretty rough business and swords are sharp and pointy, so the occasional eye patch isn’t improbable on a pirate.

But while amputations certainly wouldn’t be unheard of on an unsanitary ship, the trope of pirates sporting wooden legs is almost entirely a literary convention courtesy of Treasure Island. That being said, Robert Louis Stevenson’s character Long John Silver is said to have been inspired in part by Welsh pirate John Lloyd and perhaps French privateer  Francois Le Clerc — two one-wooden-legged exceptions to the rule.

Some Pirates Probably Did Have Parrots

Although it’s yet another trope from Treasure Island, parrots as pirate companions certainly make sense. As pets go, the colorful birds would have consumed little of a ship’s resources, considering they eat like, well, birds. And parrots’ abilities to mimic human speech would have been an amusing diversion during long and often boring journeys at sea. Finally, the regions roamed by pirates during the “golden age” included many places (such as the Caribbean and Mexico) where the otherwise exotic birds were plentiful.

The Skull and Crossbones Flag Was Real

Pirate ships did actually fly the Jolly Roger, a black flag featuring a skull and crossbones,  which was intended to strike fear into the hearts of all who saw it. Though they’d often originally approach their victims under a friendly flag, switching to a black banner (or sometimes a red one) announced their plundering intentions.

One theory links the name “Jolly Roger” to Satan, as “Old Roger” was a common 18th-century nickname for the Devil. Not all pirate flags looked quite like this, though — some also incorporated bleeding hearts, an hourglass, or other fearsome insignia. 

And, there we have it for Pirates! Halloween is coming up so …..maybe….just maybe that would be a grand idea!