Real pirates
Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Treasure Island have spread so many false ideas about pirates that nearly all the average person knows about this group of high seas marauders is completely wrong. Thanks so much Disney! Pirates didn’t live in a state of permanent inebriation, they didn’t speak with intense, comical accents ( arr and the like) and they never walked the plank!
Here are five REAL facts about pirates I discovered while researching The Hummingbird and the Sea.
1. Pirates didn’t wear earrings just for the bling. They believed that pressure on the earlobe would ward off seasickness. They were wrong, but the large, hooped accessories were a novel fashion statement.
2. Women pirates were a thing. There weren’t many females sailing the seven seas, but the likes of Anne Bonny, Mary Reid and Grace O’Malley made quite a name for themselves during the Golden Age of Piracy. In fact, Madame Ching Shi commanded more than 30,000 men as part of her Red Flag Fleet, making her one of the most powerful pirates in history.
3. The captain of a pirate ship was elected by popular vote and could be unelected if their performance fell short in the eyes of the crew.
4. Pirates are famous for being a rowdy, undisciplined bunch of seadogs. However, in truth every captain instilled on his ship a very strict code of conduct to keep order. The articles, as they were called, were different for each ship. But, in general, they outlined disciplinary practices and how treasure would be divided. In fact, most pirate ships were more ordered and disciplined than merchant ships of the time.
5. When a pirate captain hoisted the flag to indicate they were in chase, it was rarely designed with the Jolly Roger or skull and crossbones. Most captains had a flag unique to them. For instance, Edward Low’s flag featured a blood-red skeleton while John Phillps’ flag displayed an hourglass, a skeleton and a red heart skewered by an arrow. You work out the symbolism!
Apart from Hollywood’s swashbucklers, most pirates depicted on film or in books are unattractive and really quite detestable. Of course, there were many who did fit this description, but there were also a great number of men who did not - men with families on dry land who were just trying to put food on the table.
If you’re interested in learning more about real pirates I recommend reading:
Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly. A detailed and highly vivid account of pirate life in the 16th to 19th century.
The Pirates Own Book. This is a collection of authentic narratives complied by the Marine Research Society of Salem, Massachusetts.
Raiders and Rebels by Frank Sherry who uncovers the true story beneath the well known facts about pirates.