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7 Lies About Pirates You Learned From Movies views: 11682

Hollywood pirate movies usually focus on the men of the so-called Golden Age of Piracy. This was a very short time period in the late 1600?s and early 1700?s, when English and American pirates plundered the Caribbean islands, the eastern coast of the United States and the western coast of Africa.

1.Pirates are white guys. Even the swarthy ones. Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Hollywood pirate movies usually focus on the men of the so-called Golden Age of Piracy. This was a very short time period in the late 1600?s and early 1700?s, when English and American pirates plundered the Caribbean islands, the eastern coast of the United States and the western coast of Africa.

Piracy is a global phenomenon, with a history stretching back thousands of years. There were pirates in ancient Greece and Rome. Japan had pirates as early as the 13th century, and India has evidence of pirates dating back to the 14th century. A powerful group of Chinese pirates had their heyday in the early 1800?s.

Recently, there has been a surge of piracy in Northern Africa off the coast of Somalia, as well as persistent troubles around Singapore and Indonesia. And did you know that “swarthy” actually means “dark-skinned”?

2.It’s the captain’s ship. His word is law. Captain Hook and tinkerbell.

“Golden Age” pirates were frequently unemployed outcasts and liberated slaves. They turned their backs on their countries, and on the rule of law, to lead a brutal life of crime. Do you really think they’re going to let some spindly-legged dandy in a powdered wig order them around?

Unlike Captain Hook in Peter Pan, many pirate captains were elected by the crew for their fierce fighting skills and served more as a war general than a dictator. The quartermaster — also elected — was usually in charge of the ship when they weren’t in battle. He also had veto power on the captain’s decisions.

When it was time to divide the loot, even the lowliest pirate received an astronomical paycheck for that time period, which they happily spent on prostitutes and rum. (That pirate stereotype is actually true.)

Some pirates even pooled their money together into a medical and disability fund. When injured pirates lost a limb or an eye in battle, they could pull from the fund to buy a new hook hand or eye patch.

3.Pirates steal your gold and jewelry, then bury it. Dead pirate with his gold.

In the movies, pirates are like little birds, swooping in on anything shiny and stashing it away in their nests. Remember the pirate ship in The Goonies? Gold and jewels strewn on every possible surface. Pirates of the Caribbean? Everyone’s fighting over a chest of cursed Aztec gold coins.

In reality, pirates usually stole the same kind of things you buy every weekend at the grocery store: food, fresh water, soap and alcohol. They would certainly nab your weapons and probably your clothes, but what they wanted most of all was your drugs.

Medicine was expensive and hard to acquire in the 17th and 18th centuries. Doctors willing to abandon their normal lives for a career in pirate medicine were also scarce, so they were often kidnapped and forced to serve.

Of course, sometimes, pirates just stole the whole ship — either to sell, or to keep for themselves.

4.Pirate ships always fly a skull-and-crossbones flag.

It’s true that the skull-and-crossbones flag, also known as the Jolly Roger, was a popular choice for pirate flags. But it was only one of many intimidating designs pirates used.

The simplest pirate flags were plain red or black sheets, and the red ones were often dyed in real blood. In fact, the name “Jolly Roger” most likely comes from the French phrase jolie rouge, meaning “pretty red.”

But many pirate ships embellished their flags with symbols — including the now-famous skull and crossbones — but also including hourglasses (“your time is up”), swords, spears and bleeding hearts.

5.Pirates take no prisoners. Walk the plank! Pirate on the plank.

While the Dread Pirate Roberts took no prisoners in The Princess Bride, real pirates would have considered that a poor business decision. Victims who thought their lives would be spared tended to surrender quickly, while those in fear for their life would fight to the death.

Flags played an important part in this mental game. When approaching a potential victim ship, pirates would usually fly a black flag to announce, “Surrender immediately, and your life will be spared.” If the victims resisted, the pirates would then raise a red flag to indicate their intention to kill.

That’s not to say pirates never killed people, because they frequently did. And some pirates, like the infamous Edward Low, were known to enjoy torturing their victims before killing them. Blackbeard was said to have cut a man’s finger off for a diamond ring.

And walking the plank? There’s only one documented case of this practice. It was far easier to simply throw people over the side than set up this elaborate death game.

6.All pirates abide by the “Pirates Code.”

In Pirates of the Caribbean, Keira Knightley’s character invokes the “Right of Parley” from the “Pirates Code” to keep her safe. In reality, there was no universal code that pirates followed, although many of their rules were similar from ship to ship.

For example, many pirate laws dictated that a man must keep his weapon clean and prepared for battle at all times. Gambling was frequently prohibited, as well as fighting with your shipmates. Cowardice, drunkenness during battle and especially desertion were also considered punishable offenses.

But most importantly, each pirate ship’s “code” had detailed rules for how loot was to be distributed, with the captain, quartermaster and other officers receiving proportionally larger shares than the average sailor.

7.Pirates say “arrrr” and “shiver me timbers.” Captain from Simpsons,
Pirates say “arrrr”.

You can blame Disney for this one. Robert Newton’s portrayal of pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island single-handedly warped our popular perceptions about how pirates speak.

Newton based his performance on the actual speech of people in the rural English West Country, where Newton himself grew up and where the mythical Long John Silver also hailed from. In the West Country, “arr” was a way of saying “yes,” and conversation was frequently spiced with nautical expressions.

But while a number of “Golden Age” pirates hailed from the West Country, many, many more did not. Pirates hailed from all over England, as well as many other European countries like France, Spain and Ireland. There were American pirates and African pirates, too. So the statistical likelihood of meeting a pirate who says “arr” was quite low.

Image sources:

- http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O_ngPybFyio/TcVzDfakqsI/AAAAAAAADEs/IlTPXs8DspA/s1600/Pirates4_01.jpg
- http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/6400000/Captain-Hook-and-Tinkerbell-peter-pan-6497219-464-352.jpg
- http://oldgregg.net/bob/halloween2009/themound.jpg
- http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KLJU3hHDGVM/TDh0E8KRMrI/AAAAAAAAC8I/x8pNE6nqD1U/s1600/Pirate+wallpaper.jpg
- http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs51/f/2009/275/e/5/e599a617430e0ee6b29faa6447dd1787.jpg
- http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h31/Scrapbook_Designer/PiratesCode.jpg
- http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LLTU6aJUWps/RvFXrvqYv3I/AAAAAAAAAPM/6dlEuvzUjtQ/s400/simpsons+sea+captain.jpg
- http://www.piratemerch.com/images/Arrr.jpg