Pirate History | God's World News
Pirate History
Time Machine
Posted: July 01, 2021

Aaargh. Ahoy, matey!

Who said that? It wasn’t a pirate. At least, not a real one.

Most people get their ideas about pirates from movies and books. But who were these swashbuckling sea looters, really?

Myth or Fact?

  • Picture a pirate. Peg leg. Parrot perching on the shoulder. Eyepatch. Is this image fact, or fiction? It’s fact . . . at least, it might be. Pirates led dangerous lives. Some likely had peg legs for this reason. Evidence shows that some kept parrots. It’s also possible that some pirates wore eyepatches to help their eyes adjust to the dim life below deck.
     
  • Pirates were lawless. Right? Wrong. These sailors of course stole and committed other atrocious crimes, including murder. But they also had rules to follow. Each ship held pirates to a set of codes. These rules decided: How would treasure be divided? Who would do the chores? And one common rule on pirate ships: NO FIGHTING! At least not with one’s own shipmates.
     
  • Once a pirate, always a pirate. Maybe . . . and maybe not. The truth is, pirating was so unsafe that some lasted only a few years on pirate ships before being killed. And many got into pirating with the hope of soon getting out of it. These sailors wanted to get rich quick by thievery on the high seas. Some wasted the treasure right away in seaports around the world. Others made a home in the American colonies. These used their gold and silver to buy chickens and pigs and start farms.
     
  • Pirates were all men. Myth. Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Grace O’Malley, and Ching Shih were all famous female pirates.
     
  • Talk like a pirate! And by that we mean, talk normally. Pirates likely did not have a unique dialect. As far as we know, they talked like regular people of their day. The famous pirate accent probably comes from the 1950s Walt Disney version of Treasure Island.
     
  • Pirating is ancient history. Right? Wrong! Pirates still exist—and they’re more tech-savvy than they used to be. The Bible encourages us to “mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.” (Psalm 37:37) That does NOT describe pirates. Pirates roaming the sea now still steal from ships and hold them for ransom. They use sophisticated weapons and location tech in their work. Real piracy, then as now, is nothing to be laughed at. It’s a violent, dangerous, and dishonest business.