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A Pirate's Life for Me!Published: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:17:00 -0400 The idea of piracy has always been intriguing to people. It’s glorified and adventurous as well as exciting and free. Historically, pirates sailed as outlaws and their lives weren’t quite as fantastic as we make them out to be. In reality, pirates had a rough life. They ate hard biscuits and drank rum, because the water was too salty. Sometimes they would have chickens on board to provide fresh meat and eggs. Turtles also were bountiful for protein.
Life at sea was often boring and resulted in discontentment amongst the crew. Weeks would go by before another ship came into sight to plunder. Life on land was spent in taverns. A pirate might spend hundreds of coins drinking the night away, but before the next voyage, the ship would need to be cleaned, replenished with food and drink, the seaweed scraped off the bottom of the vessel, and rigging replaced. Real pirate life was known to be boring, crude, and bloody.
Pirate life was very dangerous. If a pirate was to loose his arm or leg in battle, an amputation would probably have been performed by the ship’s cook. If the buccaneer survived the operation, he may be given a crude substitute for the appendage. The idea of a hook probably became popular from Peter Pan, but it is highly probable that a pirate might use something like that as a substitute for his hand. There was a good chance that the man would have nothing to replace the lost part. However, many pirates were given financial aide as compensation for the loss of their limb.
Despite all the hardships of pirate life, pirates could do as they pleased: roam free, seek adventures, and obtain riches. Interestingly enough, the idea of burying treasure is mostly mythical. Pirates were not known for saving for the future, but living in the moment. The legends of burying treasure may have come from privateer Captain William Kidd. Legends tell of him burying gold and riches in New England. Though most of these stories are regarded as only tales, Kidd did bury a small amount of treasure on Gardiner’s Island and possibly Catalina Island in the Caribbean.
Another popular myth is that pirates commonly made prisoners walk the plank. While there are some records of plank walking, most pirates preferred to “heave to” or toss the captive overboard. They also were known to tie up he prisoner and throw rum bottles at him.
To become a pirate, one would swear into the crew. They would take oath on a Bible or sometimes on a pair of crossed swords or on a skull. Next they would sign an agreement, or a pirate code. Ships were generally run quite democratically.
Bartholomew Roberts developed a pirate code in 1720, which is one of the most famous of the agreements. Roberts code:
Many other codes were developed and each crew had a different version, though most were probably like Bartholomew Roberts’ code. In “Pirates of the Caribbean,” characters refer to the code laid down by Bartholomew and Morgan -probably a tribute to Bartholomew Roberts and Henry Morgan (who always created a well-known code of conduct).
While the code was not kept by Jack Sparrow’s father and a pirate named Barbossa was not really part of something called the Brethren Court, there was a real code and there was a real Brethren. The Brethren of the Coast was a criminal organization, a band of pirates that vowed to follow the code. The original Brethren was based out of the island of Tortuga as well as the Haitian city of Port Royal.
In “At World’s End” the Brethren meet to free Calypso (a sea goddess bound in human form). In Greek mythology, Calypso was the daughter of Atlas (ruler of Atlantis.) She lived on the island of Ogygia. The hero Odysseus was imprisoned on her island and she longed to make him hr husband, and immortal. But Zeus told Calypso to free Odysseus, and she could not refuse him.
Davy Jones’ Locker refers to the bottom of the sea, and the resting place of drowned sailors. To awaken Davy Jones meant to cause a storm. To be sent to Davy Jones’ Locker meant to die at sea. To see you to Davy Jones was a threat. To be in Davy Jones’ grip was to come close to death. No one is sure who the real Davy Jones was. There was a pirate by the name of David Jones, but scholars believe he was not known well enough to become a legend that struck fear in the hearts of sailors. It’s possible he was the notorious pub-owner Jones, who supposedly tossed drunks into his ale locker and then sold them to pirates as slaves. Another theory is that “Davy Jones” is a derivitive from “Devil Jonah.” Many sailors believed that Jonah, because he caused unrest in the seas and was cast overboard, was an evil angel. A bad sailor might die to Davy Jones’ Locker while a good sailor might die to the Fiddler’s Green.
The Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship from folklore that was cursed to sail the seas for eternity. There are many versions of the story, mostly related to the medieval tales of captain Falkenburg who was cursed to sail until Judgment day, playing dice with the devil for his soul. The Kraken from “Pirates of the Caribbean” is based on the giant octopus said to live off the coast of Norway. The German word for octopus is Kraken. The legend of the Kraken which reportedly attacked ships may have come from the sightings of giant squid, which sometimes attack small vessels.
Many of the stories about pirates are based on truths, while other origins are unknown. Pirates like Red Beard (Barbarossa in "Pirates of the Caribbean") and Black Beard were both real, though the tales about them are mostly false. Stories from the deep and legends of pirates are numerous and continue to be invented in new and exciting ways.
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