8 Things that were very different in the year 1700

This blog describes the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730). When enjoying a pirate story or movie, we know that the world was a different place so long ago. A very different world indeed. Most of the things we take for granted didn’t exist yet. Many modern discoveries had not yet been made. Here is a list of some of the differences between that world and this one.

1. There were only six planets

Neptune, Uranus and Pluto had not yet been discovered.

2. Kings and slaves were born to their positions by Divine Will.

The concept of the “self-made man” was considered crude and improper. Common belief held that Kings ruled countries because God wanted them to.  People of hereditary wealth or social position were believed to be better people, somehow, than poorer folks, because if they weren’t, why would God have chosen them to be rich?

This showed up in some odd ways. For instance, it was perfectly legal for an upper-class man to force a poorer woman to have sex with him. It could not be “rape” because the chance that he might impregnate her with an upper-class child was supposed to be an honor.

Similarly, slavery was considered to be okay. Nearly every European nation not only imported African slaves, but enslaved members of their own lower classes. Slavery was in the Bible, after all, so it must be okay. The first wide-spread protests against slavery didn’t begin until the middle of the 18th century.

3. Germ theory had not yet been proposed.

No one knew what germs or viruses were. No one, not even doctors, understood the importance of keeping wounds clean. Diseases were believed to be caused by “bad air,” or because of an imbalance in body fluids.

Also because of this, people drank whatever water was available, and made no effort to filter it, boil it or treat it in any way to reduce germs.  Naturally, water was considered to be dangerous. People seldom washed, because keeping your own dirt around you was safer than taking it off and then acquiring new dirt, which might cause sickness.

Because people did not know about germs or how to kill them, it was much harder to preserve food. Canned food – either in jars or actual cans, did not exist. Chemical preservatives did not exist. Milk wasn’t pasteurized, and was usually sold directly from the cow. Someone would lead a cow up to the house and milk it in front of you. People bought meat from a butcher within hours of the time it was killed. In the winter and early spring fruits and vegetables were nearly impossible to get.

4. There were no brands, no logos, and no fashion designers

People grew their own food, or bought locally. If you bought flour, you bought it from the local mill, and there was no packaging or brand name involved. A maker of guns, carriages, or furniture might be locally famous, but since products were made individually by craftsmen the names of manufacturers were not selling points the way they are today.

Ready-made clothing was rare. People bought cloth and hired someone to sew it, or did  the work themselves. There were no commercially made patterns. The concept of “designer” clothing did not exist. A well-dressed person took credit for having the good taste to choose quality materials, matching ribbons or trims, and put together their own “look.”

This extended even to the realm of animals. “Breeds” of dogs were virtually unheard of. There were types of dog – spaniels, shepherds, hounds, terriers. You might buy a dog because the mother was good at catching rats, but not because she had a pedigree.

5. Social protection laws did not exist.

Drinking was legal at any age. Any child old enough to make a purchase could buy liquor. There were no illegal drugs (although most modern recreational drugs hadn’t been invented yet.) Prostitution was legal in most places.

There were no laws protecting women, children or animals. “Disciplining” a wife or child with beatings was considered part of a family man’s duty. Children could be chained or starved by their parents, and had no legal protection.

There were no laws protecting animals from abuse. The bodies of horses killed by their owners were left in the street. Cock fighting, dog fighting and bull baiting (a “sport” where a chained bear was killed by trained dogs) were legal and popular.

Divorce was nearly impossible, but there existed a law by which a man might “sell” his wife to another man. Women were property, with few if any legal rights. Women could not own property, vote, hold office, go to college or enter into contracts.

6. The death penalty was used for some pretty odd stuff.

Prostitution was legal, but being homosexual was punishable by death. Counterfeiting was punishable by death. (A male counterfeiter was hanged, a female was burned at the stake.) Stealing an object worth more than 40 shillings from a house, or five shilling from a shop was punishable by death. Cutting down a tree was punishable by death. If a child between the ages of 7 and 14 had “a bad character” and this was testified to by both his parents, he could be hanged.

“Mayhem” was punishable by death in some of the American colonies. Theft was considered more serious if the criminal wore a mask to conceal his identity. Just wearing a mask, with intent to commit a crime, was punishable with death in some places, even if no crime was actually committed.

7. Geology was not a science.

Rocks were believed to be eternal and unchanging. No one had yet discovered that land masses moved.

8. No one knew that sugar caused tooth decay.

Cavities were rare among working-class people, because sugar was expensive and rare. Upper class people, who could afford sweets, had terrible teeth. Dentistry was pretty much limited to pulling teeth that were too terribly rotten, and occasionally making dentures. For the very rich, lead fillings were available. (Yes, lead.  The stuff that gives you lead poisoning.)

The divergence between rich and poor was so pronounced that modern archaeologists estimate the social class of 18th century cadavers by examining the teeth. (In Pirates of the Caribbean Elizabeth Swan should have teeth that looked like Jack Sparrow’s, and Jack should have had perfect teeth. )

A Short Biography of Captain Jas. Hook

Perhaps the most famous pirate ever, James Hook (not his real name) is the villain of the Peter Pan story, created by J. M. Barrie, originally as a play and later for the novel Peter and Wendy. Mr. Barrie’s original villain for the famous play was Peter Pan himself, showing the pirates only in an image on a painted curtain as the children fly back to London. 

Barrie, however, soon rewrote the play to give the pirates a much more prominent part, for the simple reason that children love pirates.

Barrie states in Peter and Wendy  that the circumstances of Hook’s birth are so scandalous that "knowledge of them would set the country ablaze.”  A later, unauthorized book, “Capt. Hook: Adventures of a Notorious Youth” lists his parents as “a certain Lord B__” and Queen Victoria. In this book, Hook has a romantic and sports rivalry with Alfred Darling (Wendy’s father) before he burns his school records and runs away to sea.

All sources agree that Hook, whatever his origins, was educated at Eton. Barrie went so far as to give a speech at the school, “Captain Hook at Eton,” and in the play, Hook’s last words are the Eton motto, Floreat Etona.

Barry quickly became enamored with his second-most famous character. He variously described Hook as “the handsomest man I ever saw,”  with an “Elegance of diction… even when swearing.” Hook is blue-eyed, dark haired, cadaverous, yet elegant in dress, choosing to emulate the style of English king Charles II. He has personally invented a device that enables him to smoke two cigars at once, for twice the panache. 

His elaborate, curly dark hair is usually a wig, and almost always accompanied by bushy black eyebrows and a luxurious mustache. Barrie was quite clear that Hook was brutal in the extreme, but also stated that his brutality only made him a better pirate captain.

Intelligent, brave and daring, Hook has only two fears.  The best known is his terror of the ticking crocodile which ate his hand and now follows him, hoping for the rest. But he also fears the sight of his own blood. Barrie said that a rare disease had rendered Hook’s blood yellow in color – a shameful thing for a pirate.  

Another factor of Hook’s character lies in the fact that he is most often portrayed by the same actor who plays the father of the Darling children. Barrie had originally wanted the part played by the actress who portrayed Mrs. Darling, as she is the parent closest to the children’s fantasy life. But the actor, Gerald du Maurier, campaigned for the part and got it, and the portrayal of both parts by the same actor has since become traditional.  In the Disney cartoon version, though the characters look very different, both are voiced by Hans Conried.

Hook’s famous rivalry with Peter Pan began when Peter cut off Hook’s hand and fed it to a salt-water crocodile. Whether this was intentional or on purpose changes depending on who’s telling the story. Another detail is also in flux – which hand did Peter cut off?  Barrie said it was the right one, and Disney’s cartoon backs him up. But Dustin Hoffman, most famous live-action Hook, used his left hand for the hook, and most film versions have done the same. 

It’s very clear that Hook dies at the end of Barrie’s play. Other playwrights attempted sequels with other villains, but the public made their wishes clear: only Hook would do as a nemesis for Peter Pan. In “Peter Pan in Scarlet,” the only authorized sequel, Hook reappears as Ravello, a circus performer who becomes Peter’s valet and lures the boy into becoming a replacement pirate. The work clearly states that Ravello is what’s left of Hook after passing through the crocodile.

Most other sequels dodge this point. Hook, like Pan, is immortal, timeless, and will return, no matter what.

And Mr. Smee, Hook’s famous sidekick? Bartholomew Quigley Smeethington originally met Hook on the ship, Sea Witch, and followed him onto the Jolly Roger, Hook’s magical brig that has the power to carry her pirate crew between Neverland, Earth and other magical realms. 

Smee has been described by various authors as “Irish,” the ship’s bosun, the ship’s first mate, Hook’s valet, Hook’s left-hand man, and the Jolly Roger’s cook. Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins put their minds together on the set of the movie Hook, trying to figure out what, exactly, the relationship between Hook and Smee might be, and decided that, more than anything the pair reminded them of an old gay couple.

Hook has become such a famous pirate that he may have transcended his famous rival.  He has appeared in countless stage productions, animated series guest appearances and video game plots.  He can be met in the Disney parks. He’s in a Japanese TV series, Italian comic books, and the book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom. He currently appears on the TV series Once Upon a Time, sailing the Jolly Roger between worlds and betraying alliances left and right. 

You see, Hook has recently achieved a remarkable feat for a fictional character. He’s outlived his copyright. Now in the public domain, available to all writers, he may just show up anywhere. 

Pirates in Art

My education is in art history, and I love looking at how artist portray their subjects. Especially when they are not recording something that they have actually seen, but are imagining scenes from the past, or imagining something that may never have happened at all. Often it tells us more about the artist than the subject.

Pirates have been popular in art since the end of the 17th century, and because this coincides with the popularity of printing, we still have many of these images available to us. We will look first at some illustrations from The General History of Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson.

This book was first published in 1724, when some of the most famous pirates were still alive. In this illustration, however, we see Captain Bartholomew Roberts who had been executed for piracy in 1722. The illustrator probably did his work from descriptions, as Roberts was primarily active in the East Indies. Notice the general style of the piece – Captain Roberts wears  wig, fashionable hose with stockings and garters, and a neatly fastened coat, typical of his day. (We can count on the accuracy of pirate fashion here – the author and illustrator probably wore clothes just like these.)

Roberts’ might be a successful merchant captain, except for the cartridge case hanging in front of him, or the sword in his hand.  Behind him is pictured his ship, the Royal Fortune, depicted in both side and front views, as was typical of ship portraiture. (People who knew about these things gained a lot of information from these two views of the famous ship.) Behind Roberts and his ship are several other, smaller ships. Roberts, at his height of power commanded a small fleet, and the illustrator does him proper tribute.



We can contrast this with a picture of Calico Jack Rackham

from the same period. Rackham was active in
the Caribbean, and the illustrator had access to descriptions by people who had seen him, and might even have himself attended Rackham’s hanging. This is a portrait of a small-time pirate, not prettied up for consumption. Rackham’s nose is his most distinguishing feature, and he wears no wig or other emblems of respectability.

Also in the book are illustrations of Calico Jack’s famous crew members, Anne Bonney and Mary Read. Here the illustrator is faced with a problem. These were women who dressed as men. Mary, in fact, had lived most of her life disguised as a man, and was never caught until she chose to reveal her identity. How to reveal the gender of these pirates, while accurately showing their clothing?

In this case, both women are shown in male dress, but with female headgear. A decent woman in the 1720’s would never have gone outside without something covering her head, and these tiny lace “fichu” were in style at the time. I think this looks rather ridiculous, as I am quite certain that neither Ann nor Mary Read, who served in both the Royal Navy and the British Army before becoming a pirate, ever wore such a  thing in her life. But the illustrator was bound by the morals of his time, and also by what his audience would expect.

A few years later, in a Dutch edition of the book, this problem was solved in an entirely different manner. Here, a new artist takes literally an eyewitness account which says, “I only knew they were women by the bigness of their breasts.” He rips the ladies’ shirts open, gives them much more believable headgear, and places them both in exciting action- packed poses. Though sales of the English book, with the original, much more modest illustrations, were by this time foundering, the Dutch edition, with the new illustrations prominently displayed, was an instant best-seller.  Anne Bonny proved that Sex Sells.

Roughly 100 years later, the Victorians also pictured pirates. This woodcut by August Francois Biard dated 1861, shows a group of pirates attempting to lure an American ship within range before attacking. Dressed in workman's’ clothes, and national costumes from several nations, the pirates crouch and lie on the deck, straining to see and frantically shushing each other. The scene features a fiddler standing on tiptoe and, to the right an embracing “couple” with its female half played by a pirate with rather extravagant whiskers.  The piece is both tense and funny, an excellent work of pirate art.

The next work, a colored engraving, is perhaps my favorite piece of pirate art, due to the fact that everything in it is wrong. The sleeves on the carousing captain’s coat indicate that the artist is trying to portray an 18th century buccaneer, but his carefully trimmed facial hair is purely Victorian theater. Behind him his crew “carouses” by raising matched glassware in a hearty toast. There are (shock!) females with them, drinking strong spirits (the raised liquor glasses). So as not to shock the delicate eyes of his audience, the illustrator shows the women, not only in neat, tidy Victorian hairstyles, but perfectly corseted in the Victorian style as well!

But my favorite part of this picture is the wench between the captain’s knees. Not only is her position scandalous, but her hair (which to us seems carefully styled) is in the Victorian equivalent of complete disarray. She, also, is drinking strong liquor with her man, and her wanton nature is revealed, not only by the fact that her ankles (!) are sticking out, but by the blush on her cheeks! Real ladies didn’t have “passions” displayed in this way. Real ladies were fashionably pale. I’m sure the audience that this picture was intended for believed they were seeing the depths of depravity here, but the modern viewer giggles.

But it is Howard Pyle, originator of the so-called Brandywine School of illustration, who gave us our modern vision of pirates. Part of a larger movement of meticulous research for artwork, Pyle’s costumes, when he wants to outfit a pirate in coat and hat, are perfectly accurate.  But Pyle also realized many of the facts of pirate life – that pirating was a working-class job, that men who lived at sea and sailed for a living didn’t always have time to button their coats or keep their hems tidy. His pirates often wear torn, dirty clothing, and bits of foreign garb. (A contemporary of Henry Avery, describing Avery’s crew coming ashore said they were “dressed so strangely we did not know what to think of them.”)

 Furthermore, Pyle’s pirates are alive. They lean forward in anticipation as treasure is counted. They strain in effort as they fight. My favorite Pyle painting shows a band of men in a sailing canoe (a first ship for several historical pirates) coming up to attack a Spanish treasure galleon. We feel the tension by seeing the size difference – the canoe versus the towering, four-story galleon, which is bathed in a golden light to show what riches lie within.  These truly are desperate men, to try such a thing.

The images of pirates are always updated to speak to a current viewer. Today’s pirate picture is often a woman warrior. Scantily clad images range from not-safe-for-work male fantasies of female aggression and availability to female ideals of strong women who are not to be trifled with. The pirate, always a symbol of the forbidden, permits the female consumer of pirate art to see herself as all the things women are only now escaping from – the agreeable, neat, clean, nice, pretty (as opposed to beautiful) helper, the tireless uncomplaining worker, the one who’s never in charge, because that would be “bossy.”

Instead we have images of Women as Pirate Captain, as Pirate Queen. Grace O’Malley, the real-life Irish

leader has been revived, and Anne Bonny is as famous as ever. Once again, this time for slightly different reasons, pirate sex sells.

Free E-book

For a limited time, I am offering the first story in my Pirate Empire fiction series FREE!

This blog started from my researches into pirate life for this very fiction series. The more I read about pirates, the more I wanted to share the many fascinating facts about these free-living men and women. This has already been an incredible journey for me, learning about writing, editing, publishing, (and, of course, pirates!) and making many new friends along the way. I've presented these works at arts events, over the internet, even on TV!

Now I want to share this with you. Here is your chance to read about Scarlet MacGrath, my very own fictional pirate, the one who started it all!

The year is 1717, and pirate Captain Scarlet MacGrath wants nothing more than a decent meal, a glass of rum and a good man waiting for her in the next port. But life rarely works out that neatly. When the rum runs out, Scarlet sets sail to look up an old friend. But friends turn into enemies pretty quick in this part of the world, and before long Scarlet, her crew, and the good ship Donnybrook are caught between the lawless Donnelly boys and the bloody-handed Red Ned Doyle himself. Can Scarlet use her charms to free herself and her crew, or will it be cutlass and cannon?

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Scarlet Sails is Part One of The Pirate Empire

The Littlest Pirate

Beingthe Story of the Youngest Pirate in the Caribbean

This is the story of the youngest pirate ever historically verified.  It’s not the story of someone born into the pirating business. Grace O’Malley, the Irish pirate queen, gave birth on her own flagship in the middle of a naval battle, but I don’t think that counts. It’s not the tale of a boy who set up a boat and tried to run away from home. It’s the story of a real boy, from a real time, sketched from a bare set of facts set out by trial depositions and archaeological discoveries.

On November 9, 1716, John King, nine years old, and his mother, whose name is not recorded, were passengers on the sloopBonetta, captained by Abijah Savage. The Bonetta was en route to Jamaica when they were attacked by the notorious pirate Black Sam Bellamy. Bellamy and his crew fired a warning shot, persuaded Savage to surrender without a fight, and tied their own sloop, the Mary alongside. They then proceed to plunder the Bonetta for fifteen days.

Exactly what went on during that time, we will never know. Bellamy’s crew did not have a reputation for torture or rape, but Sam himself was politically motivated, and spent some time haranguing the Bonetta’s sailors and captain. Sam’s position was that honest men could not earn an honest wage under the then-current system, and he advised Savage and his crew to become pirates so they could have some money and be free of the class system that viewed them as barely human.

Captain Savage maintained that piracy was against the laws of God and men, and refused to even think of such a thing. But at least one of Bellamy’s speeches was recalled by Savage during a later deposition, one of the few occasions we have a pirate’s own words about his profession.
We don’t know what inspired John King, but at the eleven-day point, he approached Bellamy and asked to join the pirate crew. It should be noted that the King family was solidly upper-class. John had no particular reason to sympathize with the pirates, other than Bellamy’s rhetoric.

None of the pirates took the child seriously, but he did not back down. He wanted to join Bellamy’s crew and become a pirate, and he kept asking. Over the next few days, the pirates began to change their minds.

Mrs. King did not take kindly to this radical idea. First she tried to restrain her son, and then asked Captain Savage to speak to him. John held out. He wanted to be a pirate. When his mother refused to think of such a thing, John threatened to throw himself into the ocean. Then he physically attacked her.

The pirates, possibly amused, possibly emotionally moved by this well-to-do child’s efforts to join them, began to side with the boy. In the passion of a mother-son argument, Mrs. King blurted out, “All right, be a pirate!”

John King signed the ship’s articles and officially joined Bellamy’s crew.

Bellamy sailed away, and the Bonetta continued her trip to Jamaica, where Captain Savage gave a deposition against the pirates. Giving details about John King’s defection, he was quite clear. The child was not forced, not kidnapped. He had wanted to join Bellamy’s crew, and he had.

But why did an upper-class boy want so badly to become a pirate? A few hints linger. When John threatened to throw himself into the sea, he specifically mentioned suicide. His willingness to physically attack his mother also indicates that something was wrong in the King family. Why was Mrs. King traveling alone? Why was she willing, at any point, to hand her child over to pirates? A single line in Savage’s deposition offers one more tantalizing hint. The boy’s father “didn’t like him.”

Why? Had John King been born as a result of some affair of his mother’s? Did John have some mental or learning disability that prevented him from fitting in with his family? Was his father abusive? Such things weren’t written down for 18th century court record. Captain Savage’s point was that John King willingly became a pirate, and was therefore liable for hanging if he was caught, no matter what his age.

The pirates left no written records about their young recruit.

Fate, however, took this young pirate in hand. On April 26th, 1717, Sam Bellamy and his new ship, the Whydah Galley, went down with nearly all hands in an unseasonable storm off the coast of Maine. Only two of the crew survived. John King was lost forever. His life as a pirate had only lasted three months.

Nearly 300 years later a man named Barry Clifford set out to find the Sam Bellamy’s sunken treasure ship. Clifford’s underwater excavations first found the ship’s bell, with the name “Whydah” molded into it – proof that the wreck under examination was in fact the lost pirate ship.

It was here that divers found the last remains of John King – a leg bone from a nine-year-old boy, clad in a silk stocking and wearing an expensive French shoe. John King had been trapped under a cannon when the ship went down. Today, his remains are part of the Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown MA.

Plunder!

Pirates and the Economy

The question came up recently of why local communities who have a pirate in their history speak of these pirates so fondly. It’s been rightly pointed out that pirates took things that didn’t belong to them, at the very least. So why all the love?

Communities loved their pirates because there’s nothing like a local pirate to enrich a community. Fortunes were made by people who dealt with pirates, and everyone on land had a good time doing it.

First, a brief overview of how pirate ships operated. A pirate ship was a stolen vessel – captured in battle or taken in a mutiny, or occasionally snuck out of port in the dead of night. While merchant ships ran with the smallest number of crew possible (the salary of each crew member was an added expense)  pirate ships ran with the largest possible crew (each additional crew member increased the ship’s fighting force.)

Pirates wanted money, but they took anything of value, including the cargos of captured vessels. They especially loved taking manufactured goods coming into the Caribbean from Europe.
Colonies in the Caribbean were not self-sufficient. During the Golden Age of Piracy, the early 1700’s, they consisted mostly of large plantations which produced cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, coffee or sugar for export back to the home country. This produced cash, which was then used to buy European products and food.

The colonies were not yet producing cloth, thread, metal goods, fine leathers, furniture, glassware, china, guns, swords, paper, printed material, cosmetics, wigs, or any of hundreds of things that well-to-do plantation owners wanted to be part of their lives.

They did not even produce much European-style food. Wheat did not grow well in the tropical climate. Cattle and sheep fell prey to tropical diseases.  Tea had to be imported from India.
So the basic economy of the Caribbean was that land was owned by large holders who either bought impressive holdings or received them as gifts from their respective governments. They worked the land with slaves or bound servants (who had no more rights than slaves) because the cash crops were labor-intensive. Sugar cultivation, the greatest wealth of the colonies, involved handling plants whose leaves cut the skin as well as a knife could, and required back-breaking labor under the hot sun to cultivate and harvest the plants, then back-breaking labor to extract the juice, then time in the heat spent boiling the juice down to molasses.

A slave on a sugar plantation was lucky to survive the work for two years. Free people did not cultivate sugar. Nobody did if they could help it.

What we would call “middle class” people were few and far between. Skilled tradesmen were hampered by lack of raw materials, and in competition with slave labor. Small merchants were in competition with large trading houses, such as the infamous East India Company. Trading companies of all kinds existed, and they often “bought monopolies” from their governments, giving them sole rights to transport valuable cargo (sugar, tobacco, slaves) through certain trade routes. If private individuals were caught breaking the monopoly, they could be fined or have their cargoes confiscated.

And into this world came the pirates.

Pirates did not rob slaves or middle class people. There was no profit from it. They robbed the rich because that was where the money was. Pirate ships followed the trade routes and captured the largest, richest ships they could find.

While they wanted money, they took goods as well. And what did they do with them? They sold them, quickly and at a discount.

Pirates might choose to unload cargo in a port where they had family who could cover them with an aura of respectability. They might have knowledge of a particular trader who didn’t mind buying goods with no paperwork involved. More and more, they took their plunder to “free ports,” places where known criminals met with dishonest merchants to trade.

The pirates had no money invested in their cargo, so goods could be bought from them for one quarter their actual value. This provided the merchant with a handsome profit. The merchants, then, also eager turn a quick profit, passed the savings on to their customers.

Suddenly, middle class folks could afford to live like the wealthy. Pirates stole and sold furniture, fine china, silverware, silks and velvets. Regular sale of these plundered goods in a community could raise the standard of living for everyone.

Furthermore, upon getting cash, the pirates spent it.

A hundred pounds sterling in the hands of a plantation owner might inspire him to buy more land from the Crown, or to purchase slaves from Africa, or manufactured goods from Europe. A hundred pounds in a pirate's hands would be immediately dropped into the local economy.
A pirate in town was no more unruly than any other sailor, but he was a lot richer. Pirates bought rum, a local product, spent cash on women, ate in the 18th century’s equivalent of restaurants. They bought fine clothes, watches, and other tokens of respectability.

Moreover, pirates became pirates in order to be happy. “A short life but a merry one” was the pirate motto, and it was easier to be merry if the people around you were having a good time.
There are stories of pirates who bought barrels of rum and set themselves up on street corners, passing out free liquor to everyone in the area. Pirates tipped extravagantly and bought presents for people. If a pirate wanted the company of a well-dressed woman, the easiest thing was to pick out a whore and then buy her some fine clothes. Arrangements like this benefited everyone.

The Spanish colonies had even greater reasons to support pirates. Spain had few plantations, since their inland territories allowed them to mine gold, silver and precious gems, all with slave labor. The overseers of these operations became enormously wealthy, but little of this wealth found its way into the hands of  free colonists. But if a tavern owner or fisherman passed information to pirates regarding the Spanish treasure fleets – their numbers, protective forces, or dates of sail – they could count on a rich reward.

In circumstances like these, loyalty went to the pirates quickly and easily.

The Five Greatest Fictional Pirates

Pirates get a lot of attention, but most of us are more familiar with fictional pirates than real ones. And why not? Fictional pirates enjoy great lines, wonderful wardrobes, and ships with catchy names, and never have to deal with bilgewater, scurvy or rats in the hold. Let’s look at some of the most famous.

5. One-Eyed Willy 

Ship: The Inferno, venue: 1985 movie The Goonies. Willie was a generation’s earliest introduction to pirates, and what an introduction it was: secret treasure, a mysterious map, and traps only the kids can solve, all in the name of saving the family home and sticking it to the rich guys.

One-eyed Willie didn’t bury his treasure, he walled himself up with it.

Willie’s the story of how pirates become part of local legend. Both coasts of America and the whole of the Caribbean are filled with stories of local pirates, their adventures and hints of their buried treasure. Captain Kidd’s fortune has yet to be found along the Carolina coast, but a real map led to the 26 million dollars that went down with Sam Bellamy’s ship. And as long as there are legends of ill-gotten gains, kids (and adults) will go out in hope finding a little for themselves.

  

4. The Dread Pirate Roberts

Ship: The Revenge, venue: The Princess Bride movie (and the book).

The Princess Bride is one of the best movies ever made (not like I have an opinion or anything) and part of its appeal is the mysterious Dread Pirate Roberts. Roberts dresses all in black, wears a mask to conceal his identity, and is legendary for allowing no survivors on the ships he captures. As the movie progresses, we learn that the name “Dread Pirate Roberts” is a franchise, with one man after the other taking the title as the previous holder retires with his plunder.

TDPR is one of the most famous pirates ever, but we don’t get to see him doing much pirating. His appeal lies in his fearsome reputation, his fantastic sword fighting skills, and his classic costume. And true love. Never forget that.

There is no record of an actual pirate handing down his name to a successor, but there are plenty of real pirates who tried to assume an alias, with the plan to go back to using their own names upon retirement. There are also pirates who flirted with the idea of leaving no survivors, but none ever committed to such a plan. Ultimately being a pirate is about having a good time, and killing unarmed captives just didn’t appeal to that many people.

   

3. Captain James Hook 

Ship: The Jolly Roger, venue: Peter Pan, the play, several other movies, and a ton of Disney merchandise.

Captain Hook is one of the most famous pirates ever, and the very model of a pirate captain in action. Hook lives elegantly on his magnificent ship, dining in his well-appointed cabin, enjoying the services of a personal servant (Smee), smoking two cigars at a time and playing the harpsichord. Despite his sometimes effeminate manners, Hook is a tough guy, bellowing orders in a frightening voice and shooting any member of his crew who shows signs of rebelling against his iron will.

In fact, Hook is probably the origin of the myth of the pirate captain as an all-powerful dictator. In fact, pirate captains were elected by their crews, and could be deposed just as easily. It would be hard to find a crew loyal to a man who shot subordinates with so little reason.

Hook’s greatest resemblance to real pirates lies in his costume (yes, a lot of pirates dressed like that, with the huge wig, lace shirt and fancy coat) and his desire to be considered a gentleman. Retiring to a life of wealth and respect was the goal of many a pirate, and pirate crews from the captain to the lowest powder-monkey plundered ships of fine clothing, gold watches, wigs, silk stockings and gold shoe buckles in an effort to  appear to be members of the aristocracy.

2. Long John Silver 

Ship: Flint’s ship the Walrus and later the Hispaniola, venue: Robert Lewis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island, and the approximately eighty movies made from it. Also a string of seafood restaurants.

Long John Silver is the most historically accurate pirate ever to walk out of the pages of fiction. In the novel, we first see Silver as the one-legged owner of a seaside eating house, the Spyglass. Pirates, unlike the Royal Navy, paid a disability benefit to crewmembers who lost limbs in battle, so the vision of Silver as a business owner is in keeping with actual pirate practices.

His longing to return to a life of crime is also typical of real pirates. Several prominent pirates accepted a “King’s Pardon” or established themselves as rich men under onshore aliases, but almost all of these returned to piracy when they became bored.

Silver operates under pirate law, holding his position as leader of the mutineers by popular vote, supplemented by guile, cunning and manipulation.  He does not have strict control of the crew, who see themselves as free agents, and frequently lose focus when distracted by rum. Silver needs to keep up appearances to remain leader, and must hide his growing, fatherly affection for Jim Hawkins in order to keep his position.

I’ve always believed that the secret to Treasure Island’s popularity has a lot to do with the fact that Silver gets away at the end. We still dream that he might show up on OUR doorsteps one day, with another treasure map and a mouthful of promises he’s probably not going to keep.

1. Captain Jack Sparrow

Ship: The Black Pearl, venue: Four Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a string of kid’s novels, a load of Disney merchandise, and approximately 20,000 posts on Fanfiction.net.

Captain Jack Sparrow, and the big budget movies he stars in, were the point of entry for millions of pirate fans. Jack’s got a certain feel of authenticity, even when we know he’s not real. He’s dishonest and proud of it, clever rather than violent, often in desperate straits, and deliciously dirty. It was the worn clothes and the dirt that drew me in first. Jack looked like he lived 300 years ago and worked for a living.

The extras of the first DVD disc describe the first moment when Johnny Depp went off-script to reveal Jack’s character. In the original fight with Will Turner, Jack was supposed to draw his pistol, tell Will, “This shot is not for you,” cock the pistol and point it. Depp chose to draw, cock the gun, point it at Will, pause for a moment and then deliver the line. It gave Jack a level of menace that made him believable. Jack Sparrow will kill you, even if you’re a good guy, because saving his own hide comes first.

Obviously the Aztec curses, zombie pirates, mermaids, enchanted sea goddesses and trips off the edge of the map are in no way realistic. But they reflect the way sailors of 300 years ago viewed their world. No one knew what caused weather, sickness, or a run of bad luck. Old time sailors were no fools, but they followed superstitions and gave credit to wild stories because they had no better way to control events around them.

  

Jack Sparrow’s life looks a lot like a real pirate’s in a lot of ways. Real pirates drank heavily, and sometimes made poor decisions because of it. They wore the same clothes every day, and rarely bathed.  They lived by luck and reputation as much as by violence.

Johnny Depp famously said that pirates were the rock stars of their day, and he got it right. Even as pirates were derided as minions of the devil, breaking the laws of God and Man, their stories were devoured by contemporaries eager to learn about the cutthorats’ latest exploits. From The General History of the Pyrates (1724), to Treasure Island  (1883), to Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), we have been fascinated by their adventures, their deeds of daring, and their lives of freedom. 

And now about my own pirate adventures.

This blog was inspired by research for my serialized novels, The Pirate Empire by TS Rhodes. The first two volumes, Scarlet Sails and Gentlemen and Fortune, are now available on Kindle, with the next volume, Bloody Sea, due on June 1^st of 2013. If you enjoy this blog, I hope you will choose to purchase the books, and perhaps even to review them on Amazon.

Scarlet Sails

The year is 1717, and pirate Captain Scarlet MacGrath wants nothing more than a decent meal, a glass of rum and  a good man waiting for her in the next port, but life rarely works out that neatly.

When the rum runs out, Scarlet sets sail for the mainland to look up an old friend. But friends turn into enemies pretty quick in this part of the world, and before long Scarlet, her crew, and the good ship Donnybrook  are caught between the lawless Donnelly boys and the bloody-handed Red Ned Doyle himself. Can Scarlet use her Irish charms to free herself and her crew, or will it be cutlass and cannon?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CEOUPXM/ref=s9_simh_bw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=14DMS8MJHSV1CNC4XTNF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1284808442&pf_rd_i=1286228011

Gentlemen and Fortune 

The stormy seas of the Caribbean are home to rogues and gentlemen, Navy captains and pirate ships like Scarlet's own  Donnybrook.  Join Scarlet and her crew of outlaws, misfits, and runaway slaves as they carry out missions of diplomacy, mercy and aggression.

The pirates are gathering strength, but they're still hunted by Navy  frigates, and soon it's Scarlet's turn to dance with death in the form of Navy Captain Robert Davenport. Scarlet's used to sailing close to the wind, but can she sail away from the HMS Nightingale and the long arm of English law?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CF4U5ZY/ref=s9_simh_bw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=14DMS8MJHSV1CNC4XTNF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1284808442&pf_rd_i=1286228011

Bloody Sea

First it’s an uneasy alliance with the Donnelly brothers in a clash against bloodthirsty natives, then a seaborne attack goes awry, leaving the Donnybrook and her captain crippled. With their very survival on the line, Scarlet and her crew must find greater courage than ever before.  Join Scarlet MacGrath in her most desperate moments, marshalling muskets, cannon and magic against forces bent on her destruction as she and her crew sail The Bloody Sea. Available on Kindle June 1.