Heydo, some of you already know me, most don’t since I’m pretty new player to the community. In this thread I’d like to discuss and inform certain myths about pirates.
First I’d like you to shut your eyes and image a pirate, particular from the era between 1660 and 1722. Better known as the “Golden Age of Piracy”. Now I’d like you to open your eyes and do a voice. Your accent or how flawless you might speak certain languages doesn’t matter – most likely you’ll end up with “Yarr matey.”
This is thanks to the decades with Hollywood movies and cartoons where everyone playing a pirate was legally obligated to litter their speech with “arrs/yarrs” a overuse of the letter “r” and speaking like a alcohol abusing Englishman (no offend to our British friends). The Truth is phrases like “shiver my timber” and the infamous shanty/song “Fifteen men on a Dead Man Chest” are written by Robert L. Svenson in his novel Treasure Island (1883). This is long after the Golden Age of Piracy (as I mentioned above began in 1660 and ended in 1722 (some historians consider the era ended after death of Black Bart Roberts)). The hard truth is that pirates spoke like you and me and everyother human in this world (different languages and accents).
What about eye-patches? Pirates used eye-patches to hide an empty eye socket right?
According to historians pirates used eye-patches to adjust light and darkness while boring vessels. Think about it for a moment. Pirates needed to be able to fight and ransack both above and below deck, it could be pretty dark below there, the sight was short. If you add smoke from cannon fire and broken wooden planks laying on the floor, the conditions were even worse. It takes the human eye 30 minutes to adjust light and darkness.
If this theory is right, pirates wore eye-patches before and during a raid.
Pirates had a code.
That’s right. Every ship set of articles that all new pirates had to agree to. It clearly set out how the loot would be divided. The most famous of these “pirate laws” are Barthomew Roberts’ and Henry Morgan’s.
Walking the plank!
This is a myth. Why would any pirate bother to walk the plank when it’s easier to mere throw them over board. Although pirates and the navy had many cruel punishments for disobedience. Like marooning, lashes, cutting off fingers, chop off noses and more.
Read more:
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/TheGoldenAgeofPiracy1700-1725/p/Pirates-Truth-Facts-Legends-And-Myths.htm
http://www.cracked.com/article_19482_6-absurd-pirate-myths-everyone-believes-thanks-to-movies_p2.html
http://pirates.hegewisch.net/Nautical_Myths.html
http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2009/04/23/5-pirate-myths-and-the-facts-that-belie-them/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/22540/quick-10-10-pirate-myths-and-surprises
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