1: Pirates drinking rum
Pirates drank rum as it was a common drink in the Caribbean – sugar production was common in the region and rum is made from sugarcane byproducts. Pirates often made a punch with rum and other ingredients such as spices and lime. Pirates also drank wine and beer – wine was popular when they captured it on a ship. Some pirates drank to excess and this led to violence and accidents. Sam Bellamy’s crew got so drunk on Madeira wine that they ran their vessel on shore at one point.
Water was often not pleasant or safe to drink on sea voyages, so sailors drank beer too as it was safer, and the Royal Navy also issued rum to seamen.
2: Buried treasure
There are lots of stories about famous pirates such as Edward Teach (Blackbeard) or William Kidd burying or hiding treasure they captured. The idea of buried treasure is also a key point in many pirate books and films. Sadly this makes little sense as most pirates had short careers and wanted to spend the wealth they acquired. Pirates often seized ships with supplies of things they needed on their ship such as sails or perishable goods like food that needed to be eaten or sold quickly. Stede Bonnet, for example, captured a ship called the Francis with a cargo of rum, sugar, molasses, indigo, cotton and cables.
3: Wooden legs and eye patches
Being a sailor was a dangerous career, and more men were injured in accidents or from illness than in battle. It was common for seamen to have suffered physical injuries and to continue to go to sea. Long John Silver in Treasure Island is depicted as having lost his leg in naval service – he uses a crutch rather than a wooden leg. After 1704 the Royal Navy ordered that disabled sailors were to be given preference for the position of cook on naval vessels. The cook on the Racehorse was described as a ‘lusty man with one leg’. Pirate articles often set out compensation that would be paid if a man was wounded in action. Henry Morgan paid 600 pieces of eight for the loss of a right arm or 100 pieces of eight for the loss of an eye.
4: Women pirates
Most modern pirate movies feature at least one woman pirate like Elizabeth Swann, but women pirates were very rare in the Golden Age of piracy. Some pirate captains like Bartholomew Roberts banned women from his ship the Royal Fortune in 1720 to prevent disputes among his crew. The two best known women pirates from this period were Anne Bonny and Mary Read who sailed with John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackam between August and October 1720. Witnesses at their trial described them fighting fiercely and both were well armed and ‘wore Mens Jackets, and long Trouzers’ for practical reasons when their ship was in action.
5: Jolly Roger flag
A skull and crossbones on a black flag, known as the Jolly Roger, is often associated with pirates. Pirates used other symbols on their flags as well, such as skeletons, hourglasses, cutlasses and bleeding hearts to symbolise death. Jack Rackam’s flag had a skull above a pair of crossed cutlasses. Stede Bonnet, often called the gentleman pirate, is regularly depicted beside his ship flying a Jolly Roger. The colour of the flag indicated whether or not the pirate would give quarter (spare the lives of any captives) with a black flag meaning quarter would be given if a ship surrendered, and a red flag meaning death.
