Myth versus fact: What burning questions would you pose to a real pirate?
(If you don’t see your question here, email it to me and I’ll add it to the page.)
1. Were there any girl pirates?
Sure! Mary Read and Anne Bonny were two famous women pirates who sailed with Captain Calico Jack Rackam aboard the sloop Ranger in 1718-1720. Calico Jack met Anne Bonny first in New Providence in the Bahamas; she abandoned her sailor husband and sailed away with him. About a year later, Rackam captured a merchant ship where Mary Read was a sailor, dressed as a man. He accepted her into his crew and only later discovered that she was in fact a woman. Eventually, Rackam and his crew were apprehended and sentenced to hang. The two women escaped this fate by announcing that they were both pregnant. Read died in prison of a fever before delivering her baby, but there is no record of what became of Anne Bonny and her child.
 Anne Bonny |
 Mary Read |
2. Did pirates really keep parrots?
Yes. Parrots are native to tropical rainforests, particularly the Amazon in South America, and can be found around the Caribbean Sea. Not every pirate had a parrot, but they were commonly caught as pets or to be sold. Today, the capture of wild parrots is illegal, and the birds are legally sold for the pet trade only if dometistically bred.
3. Did they say “arrrr” and “yo ho ho”?
Probably not. The pirate talk we’re used to hearing is derived from actor Robert Newton’s performance in Walt Disney’s Treasure Island (1950) and the Australian film Long John Silver (1954). Newton spoke in his native West Country (England) accent, threw in a few “arrrrs,” and pirate talk was born. Below, you can watch a scene from Long John Silver.
4. Did they make people walk the plank?
J.M. Barrie popularized that notion in his play and novel Peter Pan, when Captain Hook is made to walk the plank into the sea, but there aren’t many accounts of pirates using this form of punishment. But at least one account was noted in 1829, when a Dutch merchant ship was captured by pirates and the its sailors were forced to walk the plank. There are plenty of accounts of other kinds of torture that pirates used in trying to get information from prisoners.
5. So they weren’t dashing and heroic?
For the most part, no. Pirates are–and were–criminals. A privateer had to abide by the rules set out in his commission or letter of marque, which generally precluded him from torturing prisoners, but rules were often broken and privateers sometimes turned to outright piracy. Looting and terrrorizing citizens in port towns was common as well. And aboard ship, punishment was severe for any crew member caught stealing rations or planning a mutiny, regardless of whether the ship was a pirate vessel or a galley in Her Majesty’s Navy.
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