20 Little-Known Facts About Real-Life Pirates
Everyone knows much information about the lifestyle of pirates through the movies and the fairytales that Hollywood provides us with. However, are you sure that you have learned everything about them?
There are plenty of things you didn’t know about the pirates that lived back in the 17-19th century. Is everything that you know true about the real-life pirates or just a myth? Let’s find out.
Was The Famous Walking The Plank A Myth?
Yes! Pirates didn’t force their prisoners and their enemies to walk the plank. This only happens in movies.
However, it did happen in certain occasions, according to a record from a mutiny back in 1788:
“The food, notwithstanding the mortality, was so little, that if ten more days at sea, they should, as the captain and others said, have made the slaves walk the plank, that is, throw themselves overboard, or have eaten those slaves that died,” confessed a surgeon-mate to the House of Commons.
The Vicious Blackbeard
On the opposite hand, Blackbeard wasn’t a myth at all. He was real and really threatening. His real name was Edward Teach and he was traveling the Atlantic Ocean terrorizing everyone that would come his way.
According to some researchers, his trademark was to “weave hemp into his beard and light it on fire—an intimidation tactic that made him look demonic.” He was definitely an inspiration for the popular pirate movies.
What about treasures?
Looking For A treasure? You Won’t Find It Here.
No one would expect that pirates didn’t steal treasures and they didn’t have a chest full of gold. Sadly, pirates didn’t care much about gold or silver. They used to steal more practical things, like clothes, medicine, tools, and food.
However, one pirate became really famous after he stole the equivalent of $200 million, plundering one single ship!
Click next and find out something that will definitely make you feel better after this exposure!
Are Eye Patches Just Another Myth?
Thankfully that one was true! While some pirates might have wore an eye patch to hide a missing eye, others simply wore it for a very different reason.
Pirates DID wear eye patches and the reason was to make the other eye adjust in order for the pirate to see better in the dark.