May 2, 2025 • 46 mins
Will and Mango have so many questions about pirates: Did they really exaggerate their R's? Did they all have parrots? Were lady pirates more successful than male ones? And was there really a rabbi pirate who made his crew keep kosher? From buried treasure to walking the plank, Will and Mango take a good look at the Golden Age of piracy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So, a couple of weeks ago, you quoted this old
deep thought by Jack Candy and it took me by surprise.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do you remember doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So I don't remember what we were talking about, but
I definitely remember quoting Deep Thoughts, and I think it
was like the face of a child can say it all,
especially the mouth part of the faces.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That is definitely the one that was one of my favorites,
although it's hard to pick a favorite, And honestly, it
had been a few years since i'd really binged on
Deep Thoughts, and I feel like that's the only way
to experience them, like you have to read one hundred
at a time, and so I was a little bit
overdue for this. And for any listeners who might not
remember Deep Thoughts, they were these silly and stupid one
(00:42):
liners that were delivered as though they were these inspirational
and meaningful pieces of advice. And you know, Jack Candy
had actually been writing these since the mid eighties, but
I'm pretty sure you and I both discovered them when
Handy would read them on Saturday Night Live. Is that
is that where you first heard them?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, definitely, that's when I was first exposed to them.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, so this was the early nineties. I guess we
were both in middle school at the time. And I
thought about another one when Tristan was wearing these fancy
kicks the other day. He's got lots and lots of shoes,
but he had some really fancy ones on, and so
I thought about this when it said before you criticize someone,
you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way,
when you criticize them, you're a mile away from them
(01:23):
and you're in their shoes.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So stupid. I love that, but it is kind of
good advice.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I guess it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And actually, one of the other things I noticed is
that there was more than one deep thought about pirates weirdly,
but I think my favorite was pirates were always going
around searching for treasure and never realized the real treasure
was the fond memories they were creating.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, I do feel like you're reading that as a
sign because we've been talking about doing an episode on
pirates for such a long time now.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
We definitely have.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I mean, that's how we knew it was time to
do this, because we've been keeping this list of all
the pirate stereotypes, and I wanted to know what of
them are actually true and you know, we're pirates, anything
like the ones that we see in the movies. Did
they actually say stuff like shiver me timbers or bury treasure?
Or did they really carry around monkeys and parrots? And
(02:17):
my god, I hope that they did. But it's time
to find out. So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast
(02:44):
listener is welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my friend Mangesh hot
ticketter and on the other side of the soundproof glass,
I actually don't know what Tristan is doing today.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I am up in New York.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I'm in my hotel room in this very fancy studio,
which is just myesk in my hotel room. So it
may not sound as great as Tristan usually makes it sound,
but Mango, I gotta know what is Tristan doing.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So he did not disappoint. He showed up in a
total pirate Halloween costume. He's got everything. He's got an ipatch,
a bandana, tri corner hat, he's got a hoop, earrings,
he's got a stuffed parrot on his shoulder, and he
even has a tri corner hat for his stuffed parrots.
I'm not sure how true to life that far it is,
(03:27):
but it is a nice touch. So well done, Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And actually, I just as we're talking, I just got
a text from Ramsey's showing me a picture of Tristan.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I mean, you could say every part of his costume
is pretty much in line with the way that we
conceive of pirates, because I mean, I guess this is
how we're used to seeing them in books and pop culture.
So thank you Tristan for furthering this stereotype of pirates.
But it does make us wonder like, how much, if
any of this is actually true. And I don't just
(03:59):
mean how pirates dressed in real life, but how they
acted too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Like.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
On the one hand, pirates we see in movies and
theme parks often come off as these really these charming
and kind of rough around the edges folk heros, almost
like Robin Hoods of the Sea or something.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean, do you think about like Wesley from The
Princess Bride, and he's just kind of a gentleman pirate.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, that's that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And you know, when you read these historical accounts and pirates,
mostly those sound like these bloodthirsty outlaws. It's a bit
of a mixed message. So with today's show, we thought
it would be fun to try to make sense of
the competing pirate narratives, and to do that, we'll fact
check some of the biggest stereotypes we typically associate with
pirates and see which ones hold water. And then a
(04:41):
little bit later, we'll separate pirate truth from pirate fiction
when we share a few of our all time favorite
pirate stories. So, Meguel, you want to kick us off,
like what pirate cliche do you feel like we should
start with today?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, I was thinking about it. You know, it was
international talk like a Pirate Day not too long ago,
and while I did manage to slip a few rs
into my conversation this year, I also, you know, I
couldn't help feeling like a little bit of a phony
since I actually have no idea how pirates talked, and
as it turns out, nobody does. So piracy was as
(05:16):
peaked during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so there aren't
really any audio recordings to refer to. And the witness
accounts that we do have only acclude kind of a
handful of quotes from actual pirates.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
What about writing from the pirates?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I mean, it feels like there's got to be at
least one pirate autobiography floating around out there, wouldn't there be?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Actually there really aren't. That There isn't much of a
record of anything written by pirates themselves. Blackbeard supposedly kept
a diary of all his exploits, but that's never been recovered,
and so the little bit of writing we do have
from actual pirates comes mostly from the ones who start
out as nobility before going rogue, and since they tend
to be really well educated, their speech patterns probably wouldn't
(05:54):
have mimicked those of most pirates anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So, you know, you think about all the talk of
salty dogs and scally wags and pirates inviting folks to
shiver me timbers, whatever that actually means. But like, none
of those are phrases that pirates actually used.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, probably not. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, there's
no real evidence one way or the other, but most
scholars think English speaking pirates from the so called Golden
Age of piracy probably spoke the same way merchant sailors
did at the time. A lot of both of the
people in these groups came from a riverfront neighborhoods in London,
so it's likely they spoke with similar accents and used
(06:31):
common slang. But sadly you don't really see shiver me
timbers coming up in much of that discussion.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
That is a real disappointment.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
But I'm guessing the pirate jargon were used to mostly
comes from books and movies, right, stuff like Treasure Island
or Peter Pan.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I guess yeah, And Treasure Island in particular is the
one that'll come up a lot today. A lot of
the phrases we connect with pirates were first popularized by
the book in eighteen eighty three, and then again in
Disney's movie adaptation in the nineteen fifties. And actually the
movie version is also credited for our association of pirates
with these gruff and vaguely Scottish accents, and that's because
(07:07):
it starred Robert Newman as the fictional pirate Long John Silver.
So Newman was a native of southwest England, and as
such he spoke with this really distinctive regional dialect called
West Country English, and some of the dialect's characteristics line
up perfectly with how most of us imagined pirates to
have talked. So, for example, West Country speakers tend to
emphasize their rs. They also replaced the verb is with b,
(07:32):
which is, you know, a decidedly pirate move when you
think of constructions like where be the rum? Right? And
if that wasn't enough, West Country speakers are even known
to replace the word yes with ours sometimes huh.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So our conception of pirate speech seems to be pretty
arbitrary when you break it down like this, I mean,
if it really does go back to just that one performance.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, so Newman's role in Treasure Island wasn't his only
one as a pirate. He also appeared in a couple
other pirate movies in the era, and it was all
of this together that started to influence other people's portrayal
of pirates, until finally the West Country accent just became
the standard. And while it might seem random that a
Southwest English accent would become the de facto voice, there's
actually more of a historical connection than you might expect.
(08:15):
So just listen to this explanation. I found on slate. Quote.
It's not entirely arbitrary that Newton should have used an
exaggeration of his own dialect to play long John Silver.
The West Country, the southwest corner of England, including Cornwall, Somerset, Devon,
Dorset and Bristol, has a long seafaring tradition, and so
many historical pirates would likely have spoken in a similar way.
(08:37):
Both Blackbeard and Sir Francis Drake were from that area,
although Sir Francis was technically a privateer. But perhaps the
most famous inhabitant of the West Country is Hagrid from
the Harry Potter series. Can't you just imagine Haggard saying
you're a pirate Harry end quote?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, I mean I can easily imagine that, And I
actually can't believe that I'd never made that connection before,
because Haggrid totally said like a.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Pirate or other Yeah, fictional one, I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
But uh, you know, there is some evidence that pirates
really did have their own unique way of speaking, including
some bits of nautical lingo that eventually found their way
into popular usage.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And now the.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Origin of these phrases can be pretty tough to pin down,
but there are at least a few that are thought
to have come from pirates and privateers, including you know,
learn the ropes, and of course three sheets to the wind.
And the first of these came from the need for
sailors to understand how to use the complex system of
ropes and pulleys that controlled the ship's sails, so they
would literally have to learn the ropes.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And so was three sheets to the wind just as literal?
Or was that a term for being super drunk like
how we use it today?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
This one was actually pretty literal too, And actually the
original phrase pirates used was three sheets in the wind,
not to it. And so you might guess that the
sheets in question were the sails on a ship, but
actually they were the ropes that controlled those sails. So
apparently if three or more ropes became loose, the sales
would start flapping, and then the crew can lose control
(10:06):
of where the ship's headed. So if somebody's really drunk,
they're just as out of control as a ship with
three sheets in the wind.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So another question I was eager to answer is whether
or not pirates really hid buried treasure. And while it
does seem like this happened on occasion, it was definitely
not a widespread practice. In fact, I could only find
a couple historical accounts of pirates actually burying their loot,
and even in those cases, the pirates only hit it
for a short period while they waited for the heat
(10:34):
from their latest heist to die down. In fact, pirate
treasure never stayed buried for long, and they certainly didn't
circulate a bunch of treasure maps with big red x's
on them for people to go looking for it. And
that's partly because pirates didn't really deal in treasure chests
full of gold or pieces of eight or whatever you
like to imagine like. Instead, when pirates looted ships, they
(10:54):
were stealing things like coffee and sugar and tea and
textiles like whatever those ships were care and then they
would sell those spoils on the black market, and that's
how they'd end up with the pirate gold we associate
with them. But even then, once pirates had all this
gold in hand, they weren't super frugal or forward thinking
enough to invest it. Instead, you know, according to this
(11:15):
maritime historian named David Cordingly, pirates typically blew their loot
on drinking gambling and women as soon as they got
to port.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I mean, I'd say that fits with the pirate
lifestyle a lot more than squirreling away your money.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And you know, I mean I.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Think about this, burying treasure would effectively be like putting
your money in a bank, and I don't know banking.
Does it strike me as this very piratey thing to do?
But exactly anyway, I mean, this idea of buried treasure
had to come from somewhere, though, So do you think
it just spun out of those few scattered accounts that
you found?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I mean, that's why I thought at first, But it
turns out this is another case that's rooted less in
history and more in treasure Island. So in the book,
long John Silver is on the hunt for a stash
of hidden gold, and of course a secret treasure map
is the key to finding it. But what's funny is
that Robert Lewis Stevenson didn't actually invent this idea, and
he didn't base it on real life either. Instead, he
(12:08):
flat out stole the idea from another seventeenth century author,
Edgar Allan Poe.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Poe.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Really, yeah, So it comes from Poe's short story the Goldbug,
and the main characters hunt down Captain Kidd's treasure using
a cipher that's based on how frequently certain letters appeared
in the English language.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
In this story.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And this is pretty much the same premise as in
Treasure Island, except Stevenson substituted a map in place of
the cipher, and the author later copped this too. Like
in his preface to the book, he said, quote, the
map was the chief part of my plot. For that
I broke into the gallery of mister Poe.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
All right, Well, a pattern is definitely starting to emerge
here because I actually have another pirate stereotype that we
can at least partly thank Treasure Island for. And that's
the idea that pirates made people walk the plank. Not
to be fair, plank walking did exist among pirates to
some degree, but most historians will tell you that it
was a pretty rare form of punishment. Now, the most
(13:07):
recognizable example of the practice occurred in the mid eighteen hundreds,
I think, and this was when an eyewitness reported that
a British ship captain had been abducted by pirates. In
that quote, a plank was run on the starboard side
of their schooner, upon which they made Captain Smith walk,
and as he approached the end, they tilted the plank
when he dropped into the sea. Now beyond that, we
(13:28):
know that some Caribbean pirates also force captured sailors to
walk the plank, and there are even some accounts of
Mediterranean pirates taking part in something similar back in the
days of ancient Rome. In this case, the pirates would
suspend a ladder out over the ocean and then mockingly
invite prisoners to crawl out on it and swim back
home to freedom.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh that seems pretty cruel. But yeah, I'm curious. How
does Treasure Island fit into all of this?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Basically, Robert Lewis Stevenson and a few other writers of
his era are mostly responsible for making plank walking, you know,
more ubiquitous than it really was, and their stories presented
as kind of the go to form of punishment that
pirates used, and this idea was only enforced by popular
illustrations and paintings from this same time period. Now all
of that really cemented. Plank walking is one of the
(14:15):
visual icons of piracy, and the interesting thing about this
misplaced attention is that it actually makes some pirates seem
less cruel than they really were, because if pirates really
wanted to do away with a mutinous crew member or
a troublesome captive, I mean, they had far worse methods
than simply forcing somebody overboard. And you know, some of
the more common practices included marooning someone onto an island,
(14:37):
which almost always resulted in a slow death for the victim.
Then there was the especially grizzly punishment called keel hauling,
and this was when the victim was tied naked to
a rope, thrown overboard, and then just tragically dragged beneath
the entire length of the ship while barnacles cut up
their skin.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's pretty gross to read about.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, it feels horrible. In fact, I want to get
as an happier note asap. So I'm just gonna come
right out and tell you that pirates almost certainly kept
parrots as pets. Good and so this is another pirate
trope that was popularized by Treasuer Island. Long John Silver
was the first fictional pirate to walk around with a
parrot on his shoulder, But in this case, Stevenson was
(15:19):
really drawing from history So to give a little background
when we talk about the Golden Age of piracy, which
I still find such a funny phrase to say that,
you know, we're really referring to this period from about
the mid sixteen hundreds to around seventeen thirty. And in
that time, the recent discoveries of the Americas in Australia
had created a boom and exploration, so for the first
(15:40):
time in history and multiple nations were shipping tons and
tons of money and valuable goods all across this largely
uncharted and unprotected oceans, and of course this made them
easy picking for enterprising pirates, hence the term Golden Age.
But in order to rob ships of their precious cargo,
pirates had to go where the ships went, which meant
taking to trade routes that mostly led to the Caribbean
(16:02):
or West Africa or the various coasts along the Indian Ocean.
And this required long voyages that lasted weeks or months
at a time and often took the pirates to these
exotic lands populated by unusual animals like parrots and also monkeys.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So let's get to the important part.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Please tell me that the monkey thing is true, because
the world is kind of a rough place right now,
And I feel like it would make me feel better
to know that a pirate captain could have had a
parrot on one shoulder and a monkey on the other one.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So there isn't much documentation about that specific combination, but
pirates with monkeys certainly weren't uncommon. Parrots were the more
practical pet though. Parrots would eat things that were already
on board, so you think about like fruits or seeds
or nuts, and they didn't really need that much to
sustain them. Plus they could be taught all these kind
of neat tricks like how to talk. And you know,
(16:55):
there's no better way for a pirate to start up
a conversation at port than by introducing people to the
talking bird that he, you know, picked up well at sea.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And still you think after a while it might be
kind of risky to walk around with a big, bright
bird on your shoulder. I mean, it seems like that's
a tough way to keep a low profile.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, but it's also good branding. I don't think that
many pirates actually kept their parrots for that long. According
to this historian, Angus Constam, author of the history of pirates,
he writes, back home, people would pay good money for
parrots and other exotic creatures, and sailors could easily buy
them in Caribbean ports. Some were kept, but most were
(17:33):
sold when the ship reached home. So really they were
selling them as soon as they got to port.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well that makes sense, So it's still it's nice to
know that pirates really did keep parrots, even if only.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
For a little while.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
But all right, well, I know there are a couple
more pirate myths that we want to take a look at.
But before we do, let's take a quick break. You're
(18:08):
listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the
facts and fiction that fuel.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
The modern view of pirates. All right, mego.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So one of the more interesting topics that I looked
into this week were the big gold ear rings that
pirates wore. And the question here wasn't whether or not
pirates really wore them. I think, you know, most historians
agree that many of them did. But why did they
wear them?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So the story I'd always heard is that the earrings
were away for pirates to pay for their burials, like
if a pirate happened to die on land instead of
at sea, the gold from their earrings could cover the costs,
and obviously, even for a pirate, that would be preferable
to just being put in this mass grave or left
out for the crows to eat.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I'm guessing yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I mean, there is some evidence that supports this idea.
But those earrings and other kinds of jewelry weren't just
a failsafe for pirate burial. I mean they were also
symbols of rebellion against the seventeenth and eighteenth century laws
that we're really meant to control what people could wear
or do in their private lives. So in England, just
for example, men weren't allowed to wear jewelry, and certain
(19:09):
colors were off limits for commoners to wear, and if
somebody didn't conform to those rules, they could be heavily
fined or even imprisoned. So, as this pirate historian, Gail
Cellinger put it, these so called sumptuary laws were quote
a legal way for the ruling class to separate themselves
from commoners by regulating what they wore, what they could drink,
and where they could live.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, I mean, it is easy to see how none
of that would sit very well with pirates. Who are
obviously big fans of flouting the law whenever possible.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
But for full disclosure, some historians do question how widespread
the practice of dressing flamboyantly and wearing ear rings really was,
and many of them would argue that the bandanas and
the sashes and ear rings that we usually picture pirates
wearing actually come from more like these series of drawings
in children's books, and that those depictions had really been
based on Spanish bandits, not pirates. But you know, as
(20:03):
was most things we've talked about today, there's not a
ton of evidence in either direction, though, so it's likely
that at least a few pirates did dress this way.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, and that kind of in your face fashion sense
would also fit into what we do know about pirates backgrounds.
Most of them actually started out as crew members aboard
the respective countries merchant marines or naval ships before turning
to a life of piracy, and from what I've read,
life aboard those ships was often rougher and actually more
tyrannical than it was on actual pirate ships. Like on
(20:33):
a merchant ship, for instance, crew members lived in these
squalid conditions. They were subject to a ton of rules
that were just as strict, if not stricter, than those
on land and merchant marines and naval captains. They had
the final say on everything that happened on their ships,
which left many crew members feeling oppressed and really voiceless
as a result.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, and it's really no wonder that so many of
them would jump ship and sign on as pirates instead,
because you know, despite their reputation, pirates weren't anarchic or
lawless when dealing with one another. I mean, their ranks
were composed of these societal outsiders and outcasts, you know,
that's definitely true, But they weren't so jaded as to
think that social orders of any sort were automatically a
(21:16):
bad thing. They just needed to find a better or
what they saw as a more fair system, So onboard
pirate ships, that's exactly what they did. I mean, the
pirates recognized that in order to prevent infighting and to
be able to keep morale high during their months at sea,
they needed to do things a little bit more democratically,
and so to that end, pirate captains took a vote
(21:37):
on just about everything, I mean, from where to go,
what to steal, how to deal with prisoners. So really,
the only time that the captain took complete control was
during a battle, and you know that's for obvious reasons.
That's not a time when it would be smart to
pause and take a vote.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I love this idea that like deciding what the steal
should be a democratic vote.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, exactly, it's so fun.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But you know, obviously there were more perks to pirate
democracy than just saying you know where the ship would
go or what you're going to steal. If you listen
to this breakdown I found from Robert Curson. He's this
pirate historian and author of the book Pirate Hunters. It's
pretty great. So so here's what he says. Quote, the
captain's vote didn't count any more than the lowliest deckhands.
(22:22):
If they wanted to throw the captain out, they could
dismiss him or lower his rank. They could maroon him
on an island or dump him into the sea, all
by vote. That was true. Even if a captain owned
his own ship, they had a constitution and even compensation
schemes for injuries. The captain almost never earned more than
two or three times the way to the lowliest deckhand.
(22:42):
Think about how that must have struck a guy who's
come from a tyrannical rule on a merchant ship where
the hours were terrible and the conditions even worse. He
gets on a pirate ship and suddenly he has a
real say in what they're doing. I mean, it sounds
kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, it's pretty weird to think about, but you know,
some of these pirates were practicing democracy nearly a century
before it took root in America and in France. And
you know those constitutions you mentioned were even written down
in some cases. And I was looking for some examples
of this, and one of them I was reading about
it was from one of the most prolific pirates of
this Golden Age, and his name.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Was black Bart Roberts.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Now, he managed to overtake more than four hundred ships
during his many years at sea, which obviously is no
small feat. But I think what I found most impressive
about his career was this set of bylaws that he
and a crew member drafted back in seventeen twenty two. Now,
this included some pretty progressive rules that you might not expect,
you know, from a pirate ship. But you know, take
(23:39):
this worker's compensation plan that you had mentioned.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
According to the.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Bylaws, quote, every man who shall become a cripple or
lose a limb in the service shall have eight hundred
pieces of eight from the common stock, and for lesser
hurts proportionately.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean, it's kind of amazing that they got that
sort of security from a pirate job, right, There's no
wonder so many people went into piracy.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, you know, to stick with Blackbart's bylaws for just
a second here. The other thing I think I was
struck by was the picture they painted of life aboard
his ship, because you know, we tend to think of
pirates as this rowdy bunch up all hours of the night,
drinking and gambling. Of course, that's how things were when
the pirates came to port, but according to these bylaws,
(24:23):
it was a very different story when they were at sea.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So just listen to this from it as well.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
It says none shall gain for money either with dice
or cards, and the lights and candles shall be put
out at eight at night, and if any of the
crew desire to drink after that hour, they shall sit
upon the open deck without lights.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I mean, that's pretty amazing, and that there's this curfew
on a pirate ship, Like, that's not something I wouldn't
expected exactly. And at the same time, you know there's
no gambling. I mean, I guess if the goal is
to form some sort of piece, those dudes sound like
really smart moves. And you know, since we're talking about
how shockingly judicious pirates could be, I do want to
mention another famous pirate that fits that bill, and that's Blackbeard.
(25:07):
So he and his cohorts were based in the Bahamas
and they were only active for around seven years or so.
But this period from seventeen thirteen to seventeen twenty was
a super eventful one. In fact, there's some historians that
argue that the term Golden Asia piracy should really only
be applied to those seven years. In that seven year span,
so that kind of gives you an idea of how
(25:27):
successful black Beard and the other islander pirates were. By
seventeen seventeen, the pirates had actually thrown the commercial trade
of three separate empires into total disarray, and they even
managed to beat back the Royal Navy's warships. I mean,
whether you'd love them or hate them, these pirates really
knew how to shake things up.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
That's to put it mildly, I guess, but I mean,
what was Blackbeard's deal anyway, Like, was he one of
those legitimate sailors who went rogue or had he always
been more of a proper pirate?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, so, he and most of the other pirates from
the Bahamas start out on merchant and naval and in
a way, their actions as pirates were kind of this
revolt and revenge against their former bosses. And this is
kind of a tangent, but one of Blackbeard's contemporaries was
this guy named Captain Bellamy, and his crew especially loved
this new role that they were taking on. Like the
crew actually called themselves Robin Hood's Men, and Bellamy once
(26:18):
explained to a captive quote they vilify as the scoundrels
do when there is only this difference. They rob the
poor under the cover of law, and we plunder the
rich under the cover of our own courage.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I want to make sure we don't go too far
here and paint pirates is more heroic than they really were.
I mean, you're kind of saying Blackbeard was a level
headed guy, or that his actions were maybe justified in
some way, at least in his own mind, But how
does that square with his reputation as being really a
cruel and fearsome pirate. I mean he was a pretty
violent guy, right well.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean yes and no. So pirates on the Hole
did some pretty terrible things, and there's no question about that.
They invaded, they pillaged ships and colonies, they ransom hostages,
and pretty much ignored any laws but the ones they
made up for themselves at sea. But in a lot
of cases, including black Beards, that brutality was exaggerated. You know,
it was mostly by the imperial authorities on land and
(27:15):
the newspapers that they held sway over And if you
think about it, nearly every bit of pop culture associated
with pirates, including Treasure Island, is derived from those stories,
and it's inspired by Blackbeard and these other Bahamas pirates.
So that means a lot of our understanding of what
pirates did is skewed as well, since most of it
can be traced back to these somewhat embellished accounts.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So you're saying Blackbeard wasn't as terrifying and cutthroat as
we might think.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Exactly, And there are actually dozens of eyewitness accounts of
Blackbeard's victims and with the exception of his final bloody
showdown with the Royal Navy, not a single one of
them mentions the pirate captain actually killing anyone. And if
that's kind of hard to swallow it, it's probably because
black Beard and self purpose cultivated his image as this
fearsome force to be reckoned with. Like if you listen
(28:04):
to this description. I found this at the Smithsonian, but
you'll see what I mean. Quote Blackbeard wore a silk
sling over his shoulders, on which there were three braces
of pistols hanging in holsters like bandoliers. Under his hat,
he tied lit fuses, dangling some of them down the
sides of his face so as to surround it with
a halo of smoke and fire, making him look more
(28:25):
frightful than a fury from hell. Merchant crews would take
one look at this apparition and the army of wild
men around him, bearing cutlasses, muskets, and primitive hand grenades,
and invariably surrender without firing a shot. So I guess
it was all for show then, like kind of an
intimidation tactic, right, And I mean, some pirates really did
perform the horrible acts we read about like dragging someone
(28:48):
who crossed them beneath their ship, but that wasn't their
first choice, Like, they mostly wanted to just frighten people
into giving up without a fight. And that's actually what
the whole pirate flag was about. Like when a black
flag was hoisted, it is a message that another ship
should prepare to be boarded and pillaged, but also that
they wouldn't come to harm so long as they cooperated. Meanwhile,
you've got like a red flag, which was a much
(29:09):
more rare but a completely different story, and that meant
the pirates had come for blood. But this desire for
nonviolent resolution really makes a lot of sense when you
think about how practical pirates were in general. I mean,
like why slaughter your captives when you could just ransom
them for money or put them to work in your
own crew.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I mean, that's just just business one oh one. Right, So,
since we're on the subject of surprising pirate trades, we
should probably talk about how egalitarian pirates actually were, because
you know, not only did they welcome those of low
economic or social standing into their crews, but they also
made room for folks who were frequent targets of discrimination
(29:48):
on land. And that includes Africans, European Jews, and women.
But before we get into that, let's take one more
quick break.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Okay, Well, so you mentioned before the break that pirating
was sort of an equal opportunity profession, and that makes
sense when you think about it, because if you're on
the run from the Royal Navy or whatever, the race
or gender of your crewmates isn't going to be a
top priority. And for the most part, pirates welcomed all comers,
and that have to be pretty enticing for people who
felt repressed or restricted on land. I'm guessing right, like,
(30:34):
what did they have to lose?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, that makes sense, and I do think a great
example of that mentality are the bands of Jewish pirates
that took to the open Ocean during the early seventeen hundreds.
That this is honestly something I'd never heard about before
this week, And apparently historians are still piecing together their
history as well, like I was reading that just in
this past decade, several graveyards were found in the Caribbean,
(30:58):
and many of the tombstone there feature Hebrew writing and
stars of David right alongside those iconic skull and crossbones symbols.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I mean, that is pretty wild. So I hadn't heard
about this either, But what made so many Jewish people
go pirate?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Well, I guess the seeds of it were actually planted
in the very same month that Columbus set sail back
in fourteen ninety two. So after sending Columbus on his way,
the King and Queen of Spain ordered the expulsion of
all Jews and Muslims from the country. Now, Portugal did
the same thing just a few years later. So these
Spanish Portuguese Jews set out to find new homes, and
(31:35):
many of them wound up settling on Caribbean islands. And
in fact, by the seventeen twenties, when Jewish pirates first
set sail, an estimated twenty percent of Kingston, Jamaica's population
was descended from Jewish exiles.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, So a few.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Of these Jews started captaining their own pirate ships and
christening them with names like Queen Esther and the Shield
of Abraham. And for the most part, these Jewish pirates
would exclusively target Spanish and Portuguese ships, not surprisingly because
this was really seen his payback for those generations of
unjust treatment.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I mean, This is fascinating. So it sounds like we're
still uncovering the full history of Jewish pirates. But I
am curious, are there any notorious ones we should know about, Like, like,
who's the Blackbeard of Jewish pirates?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
You know, I'm not sure about that exactly, but I
think my favorite was probably Schmool Pilachi, who supposedly joined
in a number of pirate raids against the Dutch and
Spanish ships.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
But here's the wild thing about Polacci. He was actually
a rabbi.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Wait, he was a rabbi pirate. I feel like that's
kind of an oxymoron, right.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Well apparently not.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I mean, by most accounts, Polachi was also pretty pious.
So not only did he insist that his crew donate
a tenth of their treasure to charity, he also made
sure they all kept kosher during their voyages.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's amazing. So no shellfish. But uh, you know, we're
talking about how piracy was this drastic kind of escape
for repressed people, and I think another great example of
that are the many women who built new lives for
themselves at sea. So most of them earned their keep
as servants or cooks or prostitutes, but a few also
found work as merchant, sailors, naval officers, and even pirates.
(33:17):
For instance, there's this Irish pirate named Grace O'Malley and
in the sixteenth century she became one of the few
female pirates to captain her own ship, and she made
a pretty frightening name for herself all along the coast
of Ireland. Like she had a bunch of really intense
scars on her face, which he claimed were from being
attacked by an eagle. And if that wasn't badass enough,
she also reportedly gave birth to her youngest son while
(33:38):
aboard her ship and then proceeded to fight off invaders
with her baby in one hand and a sword in
the other.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Is that unround?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, that's pretty impressive and definitely something Blackbeard can't claim
to have done. But yeah, I think for my money,
the undisputed queen of female pirates and honestly maybe just
pirates in general has got to be Captain Ching Shew.
In the early nineteenth century, she spent her youth working
as a courtison on a floating brothel in Canton, China. Now,
(34:06):
during this time she made a name for herself as
this really shrewd business woman, and apparently she had a
knack for blackmail and would often use the secrets that
she'd heard as a prostitute. And she would do this
in order to control her wealthy and influential clients. So,
as you might imagine, this was a pretty attractive skill
to a pirate, which is how she came to marry
(34:29):
this other very famous pirate, one of the South China Sea,
and his name was ching I Sao. And this guy
was no slouch when it came to pirrating and by
the time he married the twenty six year old ching
She this was in I think eighteen oh one, Chang
had already united a bunch of rival pirate gangs into
what he called the Red Flag Fleet.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So did Chingshi have any power herself or was she
kind of just this figurehead.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
No, she was definitely a very active participant in her
husband's inner prize. In fact, you know, many of these
stories report that she actually demanded equal control of the
fleet as a condition of their marriage, and her role
really only grew as time went on. So it was
only six years into their marriage that Chang passed away suddenly.
(35:16):
And this was at the age of forty two and
a few weeks later, Chang She took her husband's place
as the leader of the Red flag fleet.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Which to me sounds a little suspicious, like our husband
suddenly dies. But do we know how big that fleet
was that she inherited.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Well, we don't know how many ships are men she
inherited from her husband, but we do have a pretty
good estimate of the size of her fleet a few
years after she took over, and that's because in eighteen
oh nine, her forces captured an East India Company employee
named Richard Glasspool. Now, after he was released a few
months later, he writes this account of his experience, and
(35:54):
it included this detailed estimate of Chang She's forces. So,
according to him, there were roughly eighty thousand pirates under
her command and over eighteen hundred ships in her fleet.
And so to give you an idea of just how
vast her entourage was, consider that Blackbeard himself commanded only
four ships and three hundred pirates, and that was at
(36:15):
his peak.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I mean, those numbers really are insane, like eighty thousand
pirates and eighteen hundred ships, Like I I don't know
how you could actually keep that many pirates in check.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Well changed she borrowed from other pirates playbooks in that regard,
because once she took command, she quickly instituted this strict
code of laws for all of her men to follow,
and strict really is the key word here. And just
as an example, if any pirate disobeyed a superior's orders
or started giving orders of their own, they were immediately
(36:47):
beheaded right on the spot. And you know, she had
some really specific rules about female captives that you probably
won't find in any other pirate codes. Like there was
this one rule that said if a pirate took a
female prisoner for his wife, he had to be faithful
to her and couldn't sleep around.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
That's really interesting. But you know, I am still kind
of hung up on the sheer size of her operation.
I mean, her fleet probably like you could see it
rivaling some other nations entire armed forces from that time.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
I mean probably so.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
In fact, under Ching She's command, the Red Flag Fleet
fought off not only the Chinese military, but the East
India Company, the Portuguese Navy, and you know, they were
undefeated for three full years until Ching she finally retired
altogether back in eighteen ten.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Wait, so she retired like I didn't even know pirates
could do that.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I mean, of course, not many of them did, and
even fewer, if any, retired in a way that Ching
She did. And you know, you look back at her retirement,
it was actually part of a deal that she made
with the Chinese government. And you know, after years of defeat,
the officials were just desperate to get Ching She out
of the spotlight by any means necessary, and so they
(37:58):
extended this offer to her, wherein she and her forces
would surrender and go their separate ways. And this was
in return for amnesty and full pensions for every single
member of the crew.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Wait, all eighty thousand of them got pensions.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, isn't that wild?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
So she and her forces were seen as such a
big threat that the Chinese government basically paid them all
to stop being pirates. I mean, it was definitely a
one of a kind deal, at least as far as
I can tell.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
That is amazing, And you know, I know we're talking
about criminals here, but I have to say it is
pretty cool that not only were their female pirates, but
kind of the most badass pirates of them all tend
to be women here.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, and there's Actually, this great quote that I wanted
to read from a pirate historian and the author of
a book called Pirate Women. So her name is Laura
Silk Duncomb, and here she's talking about that attraction to
pirrating and the freedom it entailed that we mentioned earlier.
And while she's talking specifically in this case about female pirates,
I really think this could have applied to almost all
(39:01):
the ones that we've talked about today. So here's what
she says. All of these pirates had ships that were
very different and methods that were very different, but I
think they share the desire to control their own fates,
and the desire for freedom from convention would unite all
these women. Their hopes to escape the normal and be
a part of something adventurous would tie all these women together.
(39:23):
And we all share that desire for adventure, not the
desire for slitting throats or plundering the high seas. But
one can empathize with the desire to have a say
in how their life goes.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, I do feel like people want to have a
say in how their life goes, and I like that.
But how about we end on that note and start
the fact off. So the Pittsburgh Pirates used to go
(39:53):
by a totally different name, the Pittsburgh Alleghenies, you know,
named after the Mountain Range. But when they poasted the
second basement from the Philadelphia Athletics in the eighteen eighties,
Philadelphia newspapers were outraged. They called it a theft, and
they referred to the team as a bunch of pirates,
and the name stuck. That's how they got the name.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
One of my favorite pirates who isn't often talked about
these days is Jean Lafoote, who was a barefoot pirate
who used to be the nemesis of Captain Crunch. So
now I don't know the full story behind this rivalry. Apparently,
Captain Horatio P. Crunch was created by an ad firm,
and this was in response to a survey that claimed
(40:33):
kids hated soggy cereal. I love that they had to
do a survey to find out that people don't like
soggi cereal. But because the cereal was so crunchy, the
pirates wanted it anyway. The Captain was so popular and
did such a good job of fighting off lafoot that
there was once a public movement to promote him to
the rank of admiral, but Quaker Oaths was not convinced,
(40:55):
and he's been overlooked now for I don't know several decades.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, admiral crunches in a cereal, I'd pick off this scenreals, right.
So have you ever heard of Pirate Joe's in Vancouver?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah? I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
So it's this store that was recently shut down. But basically,
this guy in Canada would drive down to Trader Joe's
groceries in the US because there are no Trader Joe's
stores in Canada. He'd buy a ton of stuff in
bulk and then sneak it back up and sell it
at a higher cost. He had actually been banned from
Trader Joe's stores for doing this, so sometimes he'd wear
wigs or dresses or fake mustaches and pinstripe suits. It
(41:32):
got really elaborate. Sometimes he'd even recruit day laborers to
help him shop and pay at the register like it
was crazy. And when Trader Joe's took him to court
in twenty sixteen, they did this in the US, they
couldn't prove that he was actually hurting their business, so
he kind of got to keep doing it for a while,
and then finally Trader Joe's brought another court battle. During
(41:53):
the last court battle, he took the p off his
sign to change it from Pirate Joe's to Irate Joe's
and when he finally settled the case, the shop closed
down in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
All right, well, something equally ridiculous here. We've talked about
the Pastafarian religion before in the Church of the Flying
Spaghetti Monster, so for anybody who doesn't know, it was
this satirical religion that was invented really in response to
religious fundamentalists, and the main claim is that a flying
spaghetti monster is just as likely as any other type
(42:24):
of God, so that's the one they chose to worship.
But for some reason, the very first Pastafarian wedding also
had a pirate connection to it. Now, the event took
place in New Zealand. This was just a couple of
years ago, and the bride and groom were head to
toe in pirate gear and everyone there wore.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Eyepatches of course.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Right now, that said, there was also this nod to
pasta and so the officiant wore a colander on her head,
which is the official headdress of the church. The couple
exchanged rings of pasta, and in their vows they agreed
to always add when boiling spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Very romantic.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
So when Julius Caesar was twenty five years old, he
was kidnapped by pirates, and when the pirates asked for
a ransom of twenty talents of silver, he just laughed
in their faces and told them to up it to
fifty because he was worth so much more than that.
So that's actually the part of the story i'd heard before.
But the part I didn't know was that he was
stuck on the ship for thirty eight days, and during
(43:25):
that time he was not a good hostage. He was
just completely unintimidated by these pirates. Not only did he
refuse to coward to them, he actually treated them like
they were his servants. He'd write poetry and then forced
them to listen to it. When when he slept he
demanded they stopped talking, and instead of acting like a prisoner,
he just kind of like stomped around doing what he
(43:46):
wanted to do, and they kind of gave him respect
for it. Of course, while he did act chummy with
them the whole time, he let them know that they
should watch out. And when he was finally freed, he
of course rounded up a small fleet, found his way
back to them, took back as fifty talents, took the
rest of their possessions as well, and then eventually had
them killed, which you know, is very Julius Caesar of him.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
That is so Julius Caesar of him.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
But all right, well, one of the best ways to
fight off modern pirates might just be pop music, and
in particular the music of Britney Spears. I was look
at this old Guardian article from twenty thirteen and Britney
Spears emerged as this unlikely figurehead and a fight against
Somali pirates. And that's because British naval officers started blasting
(44:30):
the songs Oops, I did it again and Baby one
more time at them, and strangely the tactic proved more
intimidating than guns and harpoons, apparently because it's one naval
officer put it quote her songs were chosen by the
security team because they thought the pirates would hate them
the most. These guys can't stand Western culture or music,
making Brittany hits perfect And as soon as the pirates
(44:53):
get a blast of Brittany, they move on as quickly
as they can.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
So what I love about that story too, is like
you're talking about reporting from twenty thirteen, and those songs
I feel like came out in like two thousand and
two thousand and one sometime around then. Like they didn't
just like pick the latest pop songs. They went back
and specifically chose Brittany to scare.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Out fire and very specific.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
They're still just as powerful today, so I'd be curious
that if they go back and use them again.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Well, I do feel like you have to get the
trophy for that.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
I saved that one especially for last, just for that fact.
I knew i'd get this one locked up. Well, I'm
sure there are other great facts that we have not
mentioned today about pirates, and we'd love to hear those
from you guys. As always, you can always email us
part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us
up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Tristan, Gabe, Mango
and me, thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
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Speaker 2 (46:05):
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Speaker 2 (46:10):
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And if you really really like what you've heard.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
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Speaker 2 (46:27):
Do we forget Jason?
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Jason who
Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's that? Will?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
So, a couple of weeks ago, you quoted this old
deep thought by Jack Candy and it took me by surprise.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Do you remember doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So I don't remember what we were talking about, but
I definitely remember quoting Deep Thoughts, and I think it
was like the face of a child can say it all,
especially the mouth part of the faces.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That is definitely the one that was one of my favorites,
although it's hard to pick a favorite, And honestly, it
had been a few years since i'd really binged on
Deep Thoughts, and I feel like that's the only way
to experience them, like you have to read one hundred
at a time, and so I was a little bit
overdue for this. And for any listeners who might not
remember Deep Thoughts, they were these silly and stupid one
(00:42):
liners that were delivered as though they were these inspirational
and meaningful pieces of advice. And you know, Jack Candy
had actually been writing these since the mid eighties, but
I'm pretty sure you and I both discovered them when
Handy would read them on Saturday Night Live. Is that
is that where you first heard them?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, definitely, that's when I was first exposed to them.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, so this was the early nineties. I guess we
were both in middle school at the time. And I
thought about another one when Tristan was wearing these fancy
kicks the other day. He's got lots and lots of shoes,
but he had some really fancy ones on, and so
I thought about this when it said before you criticize someone,
you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way,
when you criticize them, you're a mile away from them
(01:23):
and you're in their shoes.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So stupid. I love that, but it is kind of
good advice.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I guess it definitely is.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And actually, one of the other things I noticed is
that there was more than one deep thought about pirates weirdly,
but I think my favorite was pirates were always going
around searching for treasure and never realized the real treasure
was the fond memories they were creating.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, I do feel like you're reading that as a
sign because we've been talking about doing an episode on
pirates for such a long time now.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
We definitely have.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I mean, that's how we knew it was time to
do this, because we've been keeping this list of all
the pirate stereotypes, and I wanted to know what of
them are actually true and you know, we're pirates, anything
like the ones that we see in the movies. Did
they actually say stuff like shiver me timbers or bury treasure?
Or did they really carry around monkeys and parrots? And
(02:17):
my god, I hope that they did. But it's time
to find out. So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast
(02:44):
listener is welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my friend Mangesh hot
ticketter and on the other side of the soundproof glass,
I actually don't know what Tristan is doing today.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I am up in New York.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I'm in my hotel room in this very fancy studio,
which is just myesk in my hotel room. So it
may not sound as great as Tristan usually makes it sound,
but Mango, I gotta know what is Tristan doing.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So he did not disappoint. He showed up in a
total pirate Halloween costume. He's got everything. He's got an ipatch,
a bandana, tri corner hat, he's got a hoop, earrings,
he's got a stuffed parrot on his shoulder, and he
even has a tri corner hat for his stuffed parrots.
I'm not sure how true to life that far it is,
(03:27):
but it is a nice touch. So well done, Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
And actually, I just as we're talking, I just got
a text from Ramsey's showing me a picture of Tristan.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is amazing.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I mean, you could say every part of his costume
is pretty much in line with the way that we
conceive of pirates, because I mean, I guess this is
how we're used to seeing them in books and pop culture.
So thank you Tristan for furthering this stereotype of pirates.
But it does make us wonder like, how much, if
any of this is actually true. And I don't just
(03:59):
mean how pirates dressed in real life, but how they
acted too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Like.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
On the one hand, pirates we see in movies and
theme parks often come off as these really these charming
and kind of rough around the edges folk heros, almost
like Robin Hoods of the Sea or something.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I mean, do you think about like Wesley from The
Princess Bride, and he's just kind of a gentleman pirate.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, that's that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And you know, when you read these historical accounts and pirates,
mostly those sound like these bloodthirsty outlaws. It's a bit
of a mixed message. So with today's show, we thought
it would be fun to try to make sense of
the competing pirate narratives, and to do that, we'll fact
check some of the biggest stereotypes we typically associate with
pirates and see which ones hold water. And then a
(04:41):
little bit later, we'll separate pirate truth from pirate fiction
when we share a few of our all time favorite
pirate stories. So, Meguel, you want to kick us off,
like what pirate cliche do you feel like we should
start with today?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, I was thinking about it. You know, it was
international talk like a Pirate Day not too long ago,
and while I did manage to slip a few rs
into my conversation this year, I also, you know, I
couldn't help feeling like a little bit of a phony
since I actually have no idea how pirates talked, and
as it turns out, nobody does. So piracy was as
(05:16):
peaked during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so there aren't
really any audio recordings to refer to. And the witness
accounts that we do have only acclude kind of a
handful of quotes from actual pirates.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
What about writing from the pirates?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I mean, it feels like there's got to be at
least one pirate autobiography floating around out there, wouldn't there be?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Actually there really aren't. That There isn't much of a
record of anything written by pirates themselves. Blackbeard supposedly kept
a diary of all his exploits, but that's never been recovered,
and so the little bit of writing we do have
from actual pirates comes mostly from the ones who start
out as nobility before going rogue, and since they tend
to be really well educated, their speech patterns probably wouldn't
(05:54):
have mimicked those of most pirates anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So, you know, you think about all the talk of
salty dogs and scally wags and pirates inviting folks to
shiver me timbers, whatever that actually means. But like, none
of those are phrases that pirates actually used.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, probably not. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, there's
no real evidence one way or the other, but most
scholars think English speaking pirates from the so called Golden
Age of piracy probably spoke the same way merchant sailors
did at the time. A lot of both of the
people in these groups came from a riverfront neighborhoods in London,
so it's likely they spoke with similar accents and used
(06:31):
common slang. But sadly you don't really see shiver me
timbers coming up in much of that discussion.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
That is a real disappointment.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
But I'm guessing the pirate jargon were used to mostly
comes from books and movies, right, stuff like Treasure Island
or Peter Pan.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I guess yeah, And Treasure Island in particular is the
one that'll come up a lot today. A lot of
the phrases we connect with pirates were first popularized by
the book in eighteen eighty three, and then again in
Disney's movie adaptation in the nineteen fifties. And actually the
movie version is also credited for our association of pirates
with these gruff and vaguely Scottish accents, and that's because
(07:07):
it starred Robert Newman as the fictional pirate Long John Silver.
So Newman was a native of southwest England, and as
such he spoke with this really distinctive regional dialect called
West Country English, and some of the dialect's characteristics line
up perfectly with how most of us imagined pirates to
have talked. So, for example, West Country speakers tend to
emphasize their rs. They also replaced the verb is with b,
(07:32):
which is, you know, a decidedly pirate move when you
think of constructions like where be the rum? Right? And
if that wasn't enough, West Country speakers are even known
to replace the word yes with ours sometimes huh.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So our conception of pirate speech seems to be pretty
arbitrary when you break it down like this, I mean,
if it really does go back to just that one performance.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, so Newman's role in Treasure Island wasn't his only
one as a pirate. He also appeared in a couple
other pirate movies in the era, and it was all
of this together that started to influence other people's portrayal
of pirates, until finally the West Country accent just became
the standard. And while it might seem random that a
Southwest English accent would become the de facto voice, there's
actually more of a historical connection than you might expect.
(08:15):
So just listen to this explanation. I found on slate. Quote.
It's not entirely arbitrary that Newton should have used an
exaggeration of his own dialect to play long John Silver.
The West Country, the southwest corner of England, including Cornwall, Somerset, Devon,
Dorset and Bristol, has a long seafaring tradition, and so
many historical pirates would likely have spoken in a similar way.
(08:37):
Both Blackbeard and Sir Francis Drake were from that area,
although Sir Francis was technically a privateer. But perhaps the
most famous inhabitant of the West Country is Hagrid from
the Harry Potter series. Can't you just imagine Haggard saying
you're a pirate Harry end quote?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, I mean I can easily imagine that, And I
actually can't believe that I'd never made that connection before,
because Haggrid totally said like a.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Pirate or other Yeah, fictional one, I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
But uh, you know, there is some evidence that pirates
really did have their own unique way of speaking, including
some bits of nautical lingo that eventually found their way
into popular usage.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And now the.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Origin of these phrases can be pretty tough to pin down,
but there are at least a few that are thought
to have come from pirates and privateers, including you know,
learn the ropes, and of course three sheets to the wind.
And the first of these came from the need for
sailors to understand how to use the complex system of
ropes and pulleys that controlled the ship's sails, so they
would literally have to learn the ropes.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And so was three sheets to the wind just as literal?
Or was that a term for being super drunk like
how we use it today?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
This one was actually pretty literal too, And actually the
original phrase pirates used was three sheets in the wind,
not to it. And so you might guess that the
sheets in question were the sails on a ship, but
actually they were the ropes that controlled those sails. So
apparently if three or more ropes became loose, the sales
would start flapping, and then the crew can lose control
(10:06):
of where the ship's headed. So if somebody's really drunk,
they're just as out of control as a ship with
three sheets in the wind.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So another question I was eager to answer is whether
or not pirates really hid buried treasure. And while it
does seem like this happened on occasion, it was definitely
not a widespread practice. In fact, I could only find
a couple historical accounts of pirates actually burying their loot,
and even in those cases, the pirates only hit it
for a short period while they waited for the heat
(10:34):
from their latest heist to die down. In fact, pirate
treasure never stayed buried for long, and they certainly didn't
circulate a bunch of treasure maps with big red x's
on them for people to go looking for it. And
that's partly because pirates didn't really deal in treasure chests
full of gold or pieces of eight or whatever you
like to imagine like. Instead, when pirates looted ships, they
(10:54):
were stealing things like coffee and sugar and tea and
textiles like whatever those ships were care and then they
would sell those spoils on the black market, and that's
how they'd end up with the pirate gold we associate
with them. But even then, once pirates had all this
gold in hand, they weren't super frugal or forward thinking
enough to invest it. Instead, you know, according to this
(11:15):
maritime historian named David Cordingly, pirates typically blew their loot
on drinking gambling and women as soon as they got
to port.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, I mean, I'd say that fits with the pirate
lifestyle a lot more than squirreling away your money.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And you know, I mean I.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Think about this, burying treasure would effectively be like putting
your money in a bank, and I don't know banking.
Does it strike me as this very piratey thing to do?
But exactly anyway, I mean, this idea of buried treasure
had to come from somewhere, though, So do you think
it just spun out of those few scattered accounts that
you found?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I mean, that's why I thought at first, But it
turns out this is another case that's rooted less in
history and more in treasure Island. So in the book,
long John Silver is on the hunt for a stash
of hidden gold, and of course a secret treasure map
is the key to finding it. But what's funny is
that Robert Lewis Stevenson didn't actually invent this idea, and
he didn't base it on real life either. Instead, he
(12:08):
flat out stole the idea from another seventeenth century author,
Edgar Allan Poe.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Poe.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Really, yeah, So it comes from Poe's short story the Goldbug,
and the main characters hunt down Captain Kidd's treasure using
a cipher that's based on how frequently certain letters appeared
in the English language.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
In this story.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And this is pretty much the same premise as in
Treasure Island, except Stevenson substituted a map in place of
the cipher, and the author later copped this too. Like
in his preface to the book, he said, quote, the
map was the chief part of my plot. For that
I broke into the gallery of mister Poe.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
All right, Well, a pattern is definitely starting to emerge
here because I actually have another pirate stereotype that we
can at least partly thank Treasure Island for. And that's
the idea that pirates made people walk the plank. Not
to be fair, plank walking did exist among pirates to
some degree, but most historians will tell you that it
was a pretty rare form of punishment. Now, the most
(13:07):
recognizable example of the practice occurred in the mid eighteen hundreds,
I think, and this was when an eyewitness reported that
a British ship captain had been abducted by pirates. In
that quote, a plank was run on the starboard side
of their schooner, upon which they made Captain Smith walk,
and as he approached the end, they tilted the plank
when he dropped into the sea. Now beyond that, we
(13:28):
know that some Caribbean pirates also force captured sailors to
walk the plank, and there are even some accounts of
Mediterranean pirates taking part in something similar back in the
days of ancient Rome. In this case, the pirates would
suspend a ladder out over the ocean and then mockingly
invite prisoners to crawl out on it and swim back
home to freedom.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh that seems pretty cruel. But yeah, I'm curious. How
does Treasure Island fit into all of this?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Basically, Robert Lewis Stevenson and a few other writers of
his era are mostly responsible for making plank walking, you know,
more ubiquitous than it really was, and their stories presented
as kind of the go to form of punishment that
pirates used, and this idea was only enforced by popular
illustrations and paintings from this same time period. Now all
of that really cemented. Plank walking is one of the
(14:15):
visual icons of piracy, and the interesting thing about this
misplaced attention is that it actually makes some pirates seem
less cruel than they really were, because if pirates really
wanted to do away with a mutinous crew member or
a troublesome captive, I mean, they had far worse methods
than simply forcing somebody overboard. And you know, some of
the more common practices included marooning someone onto an island,
(14:37):
which almost always resulted in a slow death for the victim.
Then there was the especially grizzly punishment called keel hauling,
and this was when the victim was tied naked to
a rope, thrown overboard, and then just tragically dragged beneath
the entire length of the ship while barnacles cut up
their skin.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's pretty gross to read about.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, it feels horrible. In fact, I want to get
as an happier note asap. So I'm just gonna come
right out and tell you that pirates almost certainly kept
parrots as pets. Good and so this is another pirate
trope that was popularized by Treasuer Island. Long John Silver
was the first fictional pirate to walk around with a
parrot on his shoulder, But in this case, Stevenson was
(15:19):
really drawing from history So to give a little background
when we talk about the Golden Age of piracy, which
I still find such a funny phrase to say that,
you know, we're really referring to this period from about
the mid sixteen hundreds to around seventeen thirty. And in
that time, the recent discoveries of the Americas in Australia
had created a boom and exploration, so for the first
(15:40):
time in history and multiple nations were shipping tons and
tons of money and valuable goods all across this largely
uncharted and unprotected oceans, and of course this made them
easy picking for enterprising pirates, hence the term Golden Age.
But in order to rob ships of their precious cargo,
pirates had to go where the ships went, which meant
taking to trade routes that mostly led to the Caribbean
(16:02):
or West Africa or the various coasts along the Indian Ocean.
And this required long voyages that lasted weeks or months
at a time and often took the pirates to these
exotic lands populated by unusual animals like parrots and also monkeys.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So let's get to the important part.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Please tell me that the monkey thing is true, because
the world is kind of a rough place right now,
And I feel like it would make me feel better
to know that a pirate captain could have had a
parrot on one shoulder and a monkey on the other one.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So there isn't much documentation about that specific combination, but
pirates with monkeys certainly weren't uncommon. Parrots were the more
practical pet though. Parrots would eat things that were already
on board, so you think about like fruits or seeds
or nuts, and they didn't really need that much to
sustain them. Plus they could be taught all these kind
of neat tricks like how to talk. And you know,
(16:55):
there's no better way for a pirate to start up
a conversation at port than by introducing people to the
talking bird that he, you know, picked up well at sea.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And still you think after a while it might be
kind of risky to walk around with a big, bright
bird on your shoulder. I mean, it seems like that's
a tough way to keep a low profile.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, but it's also good branding. I don't think that
many pirates actually kept their parrots for that long. According
to this historian, Angus Constam, author of the history of pirates,
he writes, back home, people would pay good money for
parrots and other exotic creatures, and sailors could easily buy
them in Caribbean ports. Some were kept, but most were
(17:33):
sold when the ship reached home. So really they were
selling them as soon as they got to port.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well that makes sense, So it's still it's nice to
know that pirates really did keep parrots, even if only.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
For a little while.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
But all right, well, I know there are a couple
more pirate myths that we want to take a look at.
But before we do, let's take a quick break. You're
(18:08):
listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about the
facts and fiction that fuel.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
The modern view of pirates. All right, mego.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
So one of the more interesting topics that I looked
into this week were the big gold ear rings that
pirates wore. And the question here wasn't whether or not
pirates really wore them. I think, you know, most historians
agree that many of them did. But why did they
wear them?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So the story I'd always heard is that the earrings
were away for pirates to pay for their burials, like
if a pirate happened to die on land instead of
at sea, the gold from their earrings could cover the costs,
and obviously, even for a pirate, that would be preferable
to just being put in this mass grave or left
out for the crows to eat.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I'm guessing yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I mean, there is some evidence that supports this idea.
But those earrings and other kinds of jewelry weren't just
a failsafe for pirate burial. I mean they were also
symbols of rebellion against the seventeenth and eighteenth century laws
that we're really meant to control what people could wear
or do in their private lives. So in England, just
for example, men weren't allowed to wear jewelry, and certain
(19:09):
colors were off limits for commoners to wear, and if
somebody didn't conform to those rules, they could be heavily
fined or even imprisoned. So, as this pirate historian, Gail
Cellinger put it, these so called sumptuary laws were quote
a legal way for the ruling class to separate themselves
from commoners by regulating what they wore, what they could drink,
and where they could live.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, I mean, it is easy to see how none
of that would sit very well with pirates. Who are
obviously big fans of flouting the law whenever possible.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
But for full disclosure, some historians do question how widespread
the practice of dressing flamboyantly and wearing ear rings really was,
and many of them would argue that the bandanas and
the sashes and ear rings that we usually picture pirates
wearing actually come from more like these series of drawings
in children's books, and that those depictions had really been
based on Spanish bandits, not pirates. But you know, as
(20:03):
was most things we've talked about today, there's not a
ton of evidence in either direction, though, so it's likely
that at least a few pirates did dress this way.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, and that kind of in your face fashion sense
would also fit into what we do know about pirates backgrounds.
Most of them actually started out as crew members aboard
the respective countries merchant marines or naval ships before turning
to a life of piracy, and from what I've read,
life aboard those ships was often rougher and actually more
tyrannical than it was on actual pirate ships. Like on
(20:33):
a merchant ship, for instance, crew members lived in these
squalid conditions. They were subject to a ton of rules
that were just as strict, if not stricter, than those
on land and merchant marines and naval captains. They had
the final say on everything that happened on their ships,
which left many crew members feeling oppressed and really voiceless
as a result.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, and it's really no wonder that so many of
them would jump ship and sign on as pirates instead,
because you know, despite their reputation, pirates weren't anarchic or
lawless when dealing with one another. I mean, their ranks
were composed of these societal outsiders and outcasts, you know,
that's definitely true, But they weren't so jaded as to
think that social orders of any sort were automatically a
(21:16):
bad thing. They just needed to find a better or
what they saw as a more fair system, So onboard
pirate ships, that's exactly what they did. I mean, the
pirates recognized that in order to prevent infighting and to
be able to keep morale high during their months at sea,
they needed to do things a little bit more democratically,
and so to that end, pirate captains took a vote
(21:37):
on just about everything, I mean, from where to go,
what to steal, how to deal with prisoners. So really,
the only time that the captain took complete control was
during a battle, and you know that's for obvious reasons.
That's not a time when it would be smart to
pause and take a vote.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I love this idea that like deciding what the steal
should be a democratic vote.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, exactly, it's so fun.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But you know, obviously there were more perks to pirate
democracy than just saying you know where the ship would
go or what you're going to steal. If you listen
to this breakdown I found from Robert Curson. He's this
pirate historian and author of the book Pirate Hunters. It's
pretty great. So so here's what he says. Quote, the
captain's vote didn't count any more than the lowliest deckhands.
(22:22):
If they wanted to throw the captain out, they could
dismiss him or lower his rank. They could maroon him
on an island or dump him into the sea, all
by vote. That was true. Even if a captain owned
his own ship, they had a constitution and even compensation
schemes for injuries. The captain almost never earned more than
two or three times the way to the lowliest deckhand.
(22:42):
Think about how that must have struck a guy who's
come from a tyrannical rule on a merchant ship where
the hours were terrible and the conditions even worse. He
gets on a pirate ship and suddenly he has a
real say in what they're doing. I mean, it sounds
kind of amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah, it's pretty weird to think about, but you know,
some of these pirates were practicing democracy nearly a century
before it took root in America and in France. And
you know those constitutions you mentioned were even written down
in some cases. And I was looking for some examples
of this, and one of them I was reading about
it was from one of the most prolific pirates of
this Golden Age, and his name.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Was black Bart Roberts.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Now, he managed to overtake more than four hundred ships
during his many years at sea, which obviously is no
small feat. But I think what I found most impressive
about his career was this set of bylaws that he
and a crew member drafted back in seventeen twenty two. Now,
this included some pretty progressive rules that you might not expect,
you know, from a pirate ship. But you know, take
(23:39):
this worker's compensation plan that you had mentioned.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
According to the.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Bylaws, quote, every man who shall become a cripple or
lose a limb in the service shall have eight hundred
pieces of eight from the common stock, and for lesser
hurts proportionately.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean, it's kind of amazing that they got that
sort of security from a pirate job, right, There's no
wonder so many people went into piracy.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, you know, to stick with Blackbart's bylaws for just
a second here. The other thing I think I was
struck by was the picture they painted of life aboard
his ship, because you know, we tend to think of
pirates as this rowdy bunch up all hours of the night,
drinking and gambling. Of course, that's how things were when
the pirates came to port, but according to these bylaws,
(24:23):
it was a very different story when they were at sea.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So just listen to this from it as well.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
It says none shall gain for money either with dice
or cards, and the lights and candles shall be put
out at eight at night, and if any of the
crew desire to drink after that hour, they shall sit
upon the open deck without lights.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
I mean, that's pretty amazing, and that there's this curfew
on a pirate ship, Like, that's not something I wouldn't
expected exactly. And at the same time, you know there's
no gambling. I mean, I guess if the goal is
to form some sort of piece, those dudes sound like
really smart moves. And you know, since we're talking about
how shockingly judicious pirates could be, I do want to
mention another famous pirate that fits that bill, and that's Blackbeard.
(25:07):
So he and his cohorts were based in the Bahamas
and they were only active for around seven years or so.
But this period from seventeen thirteen to seventeen twenty was
a super eventful one. In fact, there's some historians that
argue that the term Golden Asia piracy should really only
be applied to those seven years. In that seven year span,
so that kind of gives you an idea of how
(25:27):
successful black Beard and the other islander pirates were. By
seventeen seventeen, the pirates had actually thrown the commercial trade
of three separate empires into total disarray, and they even
managed to beat back the Royal Navy's warships. I mean,
whether you'd love them or hate them, these pirates really
knew how to shake things up.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
That's to put it mildly, I guess, but I mean,
what was Blackbeard's deal anyway, Like, was he one of
those legitimate sailors who went rogue or had he always
been more of a proper pirate?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, so, he and most of the other pirates from
the Bahamas start out on merchant and naval and in
a way, their actions as pirates were kind of this
revolt and revenge against their former bosses. And this is
kind of a tangent, but one of Blackbeard's contemporaries was
this guy named Captain Bellamy, and his crew especially loved
this new role that they were taking on. Like the
crew actually called themselves Robin Hood's Men, and Bellamy once
(26:18):
explained to a captive quote they vilify as the scoundrels
do when there is only this difference. They rob the
poor under the cover of law, and we plunder the
rich under the cover of our own courage.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I want to make sure we don't go too far
here and paint pirates is more heroic than they really were.
I mean, you're kind of saying Blackbeard was a level
headed guy, or that his actions were maybe justified in
some way, at least in his own mind, But how
does that square with his reputation as being really a
cruel and fearsome pirate. I mean he was a pretty
violent guy, right well.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean yes and no. So pirates on the Hole
did some pretty terrible things, and there's no question about that.
They invaded, they pillaged ships and colonies, they ransom hostages,
and pretty much ignored any laws but the ones they
made up for themselves at sea. But in a lot
of cases, including black Beards, that brutality was exaggerated. You know,
it was mostly by the imperial authorities on land and
(27:15):
the newspapers that they held sway over And if you
think about it, nearly every bit of pop culture associated
with pirates, including Treasure Island, is derived from those stories,
and it's inspired by Blackbeard and these other Bahamas pirates.
So that means a lot of our understanding of what
pirates did is skewed as well, since most of it
can be traced back to these somewhat embellished accounts.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So you're saying Blackbeard wasn't as terrifying and cutthroat as
we might think.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Exactly, And there are actually dozens of eyewitness accounts of
Blackbeard's victims and with the exception of his final bloody
showdown with the Royal Navy, not a single one of
them mentions the pirate captain actually killing anyone. And if
that's kind of hard to swallow it, it's probably because
black Beard and self purpose cultivated his image as this
fearsome force to be reckoned with. Like if you listen
(28:04):
to this description. I found this at the Smithsonian, but
you'll see what I mean. Quote Blackbeard wore a silk
sling over his shoulders, on which there were three braces
of pistols hanging in holsters like bandoliers. Under his hat,
he tied lit fuses, dangling some of them down the
sides of his face so as to surround it with
a halo of smoke and fire, making him look more
(28:25):
frightful than a fury from hell. Merchant crews would take
one look at this apparition and the army of wild
men around him, bearing cutlasses, muskets, and primitive hand grenades,
and invariably surrender without firing a shot. So I guess
it was all for show then, like kind of an
intimidation tactic, right, And I mean, some pirates really did
perform the horrible acts we read about like dragging someone
(28:48):
who crossed them beneath their ship, but that wasn't their
first choice, Like, they mostly wanted to just frighten people
into giving up without a fight. And that's actually what
the whole pirate flag was about. Like when a black
flag was hoisted, it is a message that another ship
should prepare to be boarded and pillaged, but also that
they wouldn't come to harm so long as they cooperated. Meanwhile,
you've got like a red flag, which was a much
(29:09):
more rare but a completely different story, and that meant
the pirates had come for blood. But this desire for
nonviolent resolution really makes a lot of sense when you
think about how practical pirates were in general. I mean,
like why slaughter your captives when you could just ransom
them for money or put them to work in your
own crew.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I mean, that's just just business one oh one. Right, So,
since we're on the subject of surprising pirate trades, we
should probably talk about how egalitarian pirates actually were, because
you know, not only did they welcome those of low
economic or social standing into their crews, but they also
made room for folks who were frequent targets of discrimination
(29:48):
on land. And that includes Africans, European Jews, and women.
But before we get into that, let's take one more
quick break.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Okay, Well, so you mentioned before the break that pirating
was sort of an equal opportunity profession, and that makes
sense when you think about it, because if you're on
the run from the Royal Navy or whatever, the race
or gender of your crewmates isn't going to be a
top priority. And for the most part, pirates welcomed all comers,
and that have to be pretty enticing for people who
felt repressed or restricted on land. I'm guessing right, like,
(30:34):
what did they have to lose?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, that makes sense, and I do think a great
example of that mentality are the bands of Jewish pirates
that took to the open Ocean during the early seventeen hundreds.
That this is honestly something I'd never heard about before
this week, And apparently historians are still piecing together their
history as well, like I was reading that just in
this past decade, several graveyards were found in the Caribbean,
(30:58):
and many of the tombstone there feature Hebrew writing and
stars of David right alongside those iconic skull and crossbones symbols.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I mean, that is pretty wild. So I hadn't heard
about this either, But what made so many Jewish people
go pirate?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Well, I guess the seeds of it were actually planted
in the very same month that Columbus set sail back
in fourteen ninety two. So after sending Columbus on his way,
the King and Queen of Spain ordered the expulsion of
all Jews and Muslims from the country. Now, Portugal did
the same thing just a few years later. So these
Spanish Portuguese Jews set out to find new homes, and
(31:35):
many of them wound up settling on Caribbean islands. And
in fact, by the seventeen twenties, when Jewish pirates first
set sail, an estimated twenty percent of Kingston, Jamaica's population
was descended from Jewish exiles.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, So a few.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Of these Jews started captaining their own pirate ships and
christening them with names like Queen Esther and the Shield
of Abraham. And for the most part, these Jewish pirates
would exclusively target Spanish and Portuguese ships, not surprisingly because
this was really seen his payback for those generations of
unjust treatment.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
I mean, This is fascinating. So it sounds like we're
still uncovering the full history of Jewish pirates. But I
am curious, are there any notorious ones we should know about, Like, like,
who's the Blackbeard of Jewish pirates?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
You know, I'm not sure about that exactly, but I
think my favorite was probably Schmool Pilachi, who supposedly joined
in a number of pirate raids against the Dutch and
Spanish ships.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
But here's the wild thing about Polacci. He was actually
a rabbi.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Wait, he was a rabbi pirate. I feel like that's
kind of an oxymoron, right.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Well apparently not.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I mean, by most accounts, Polachi was also pretty pious.
So not only did he insist that his crew donate
a tenth of their treasure to charity, he also made
sure they all kept kosher during their voyages.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's amazing. So no shellfish. But uh, you know, we're
talking about how piracy was this drastic kind of escape
for repressed people, and I think another great example of
that are the many women who built new lives for
themselves at sea. So most of them earned their keep
as servants or cooks or prostitutes, but a few also
found work as merchant, sailors, naval officers, and even pirates.
(33:17):
For instance, there's this Irish pirate named Grace O'Malley and
in the sixteenth century she became one of the few
female pirates to captain her own ship, and she made
a pretty frightening name for herself all along the coast
of Ireland. Like she had a bunch of really intense
scars on her face, which he claimed were from being
attacked by an eagle. And if that wasn't badass enough,
she also reportedly gave birth to her youngest son while
(33:38):
aboard her ship and then proceeded to fight off invaders
with her baby in one hand and a sword in
the other.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Is that unround?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Yeah, that's pretty impressive and definitely something Blackbeard can't claim
to have done. But yeah, I think for my money,
the undisputed queen of female pirates and honestly maybe just
pirates in general has got to be Captain Ching Shew.
In the early nineteenth century, she spent her youth working
as a courtison on a floating brothel in Canton, China. Now,
(34:06):
during this time she made a name for herself as
this really shrewd business woman, and apparently she had a
knack for blackmail and would often use the secrets that
she'd heard as a prostitute. And she would do this
in order to control her wealthy and influential clients. So,
as you might imagine, this was a pretty attractive skill
to a pirate, which is how she came to marry
(34:29):
this other very famous pirate, one of the South China Sea,
and his name was ching I Sao. And this guy
was no slouch when it came to pirrating and by
the time he married the twenty six year old ching
She this was in I think eighteen oh one, Chang
had already united a bunch of rival pirate gangs into
what he called the Red Flag Fleet.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So did Chingshi have any power herself or was she
kind of just this figurehead.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
No, she was definitely a very active participant in her
husband's inner prize. In fact, you know, many of these
stories report that she actually demanded equal control of the
fleet as a condition of their marriage, and her role
really only grew as time went on. So it was
only six years into their marriage that Chang passed away suddenly.
(35:16):
And this was at the age of forty two and
a few weeks later, Chang She took her husband's place
as the leader of the Red flag fleet.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Which to me sounds a little suspicious, like our husband
suddenly dies. But do we know how big that fleet
was that she inherited.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Well, we don't know how many ships are men she
inherited from her husband, but we do have a pretty
good estimate of the size of her fleet a few
years after she took over, and that's because in eighteen
oh nine, her forces captured an East India Company employee
named Richard Glasspool. Now, after he was released a few
months later, he writes this account of his experience, and
(35:54):
it included this detailed estimate of Chang She's forces. So,
according to him, there were roughly eighty thousand pirates under
her command and over eighteen hundred ships in her fleet.
And so to give you an idea of just how
vast her entourage was, consider that Blackbeard himself commanded only
four ships and three hundred pirates, and that was at
(36:15):
his peak.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I mean, those numbers really are insane, like eighty thousand
pirates and eighteen hundred ships, Like I I don't know
how you could actually keep that many pirates in check.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Well changed she borrowed from other pirates playbooks in that regard,
because once she took command, she quickly instituted this strict
code of laws for all of her men to follow,
and strict really is the key word here. And just
as an example, if any pirate disobeyed a superior's orders
or started giving orders of their own, they were immediately
(36:47):
beheaded right on the spot. And you know, she had
some really specific rules about female captives that you probably
won't find in any other pirate codes. Like there was
this one rule that said if a pirate took a
female prisoner for his wife, he had to be faithful
to her and couldn't sleep around.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
That's really interesting. But you know, I am still kind
of hung up on the sheer size of her operation.
I mean, her fleet probably like you could see it
rivaling some other nations entire armed forces from that time.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
I mean probably so.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
In fact, under Ching She's command, the Red Flag Fleet
fought off not only the Chinese military, but the East
India Company, the Portuguese Navy, and you know, they were
undefeated for three full years until Ching she finally retired
altogether back in eighteen ten.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Wait, so she retired like I didn't even know pirates
could do that.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I mean, of course, not many of them did, and
even fewer, if any, retired in a way that Ching
She did. And you know, you look back at her retirement,
it was actually part of a deal that she made
with the Chinese government. And you know, after years of defeat,
the officials were just desperate to get Ching She out
of the spotlight by any means necessary, and so they
(37:58):
extended this offer to her, wherein she and her forces
would surrender and go their separate ways. And this was
in return for amnesty and full pensions for every single
member of the crew.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Wait, all eighty thousand of them got pensions.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, isn't that wild?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
So she and her forces were seen as such a
big threat that the Chinese government basically paid them all
to stop being pirates. I mean, it was definitely a
one of a kind deal, at least as far as
I can tell.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
That is amazing, And you know, I know we're talking
about criminals here, but I have to say it is
pretty cool that not only were their female pirates, but
kind of the most badass pirates of them all tend
to be women here.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Yeah, and there's Actually, this great quote that I wanted
to read from a pirate historian and the author of
a book called Pirate Women. So her name is Laura
Silk Duncomb, and here she's talking about that attraction to
pirrating and the freedom it entailed that we mentioned earlier.
And while she's talking specifically in this case about female pirates,
I really think this could have applied to almost all
(39:01):
the ones that we've talked about today. So here's what
she says. All of these pirates had ships that were
very different and methods that were very different, but I
think they share the desire to control their own fates,
and the desire for freedom from convention would unite all
these women. Their hopes to escape the normal and be
a part of something adventurous would tie all these women together.
(39:23):
And we all share that desire for adventure, not the
desire for slitting throats or plundering the high seas. But
one can empathize with the desire to have a say
in how their life goes.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, I do feel like people want to have a
say in how their life goes, and I like that.
But how about we end on that note and start
the fact off. So the Pittsburgh Pirates used to go
(39:53):
by a totally different name, the Pittsburgh Alleghenies, you know,
named after the Mountain Range. But when they poasted the
second basement from the Philadelphia Athletics in the eighteen eighties,
Philadelphia newspapers were outraged. They called it a theft, and
they referred to the team as a bunch of pirates,
and the name stuck. That's how they got the name.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
One of my favorite pirates who isn't often talked about
these days is Jean Lafoote, who was a barefoot pirate
who used to be the nemesis of Captain Crunch. So
now I don't know the full story behind this rivalry. Apparently,
Captain Horatio P. Crunch was created by an ad firm,
and this was in response to a survey that claimed
(40:33):
kids hated soggy cereal. I love that they had to
do a survey to find out that people don't like
soggi cereal. But because the cereal was so crunchy, the
pirates wanted it anyway. The Captain was so popular and
did such a good job of fighting off lafoot that
there was once a public movement to promote him to
the rank of admiral, but Quaker Oaths was not convinced,
(40:55):
and he's been overlooked now for I don't know several decades.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, admiral crunches in a cereal, I'd pick off this scenreals, right.
So have you ever heard of Pirate Joe's in Vancouver?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah? I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
So it's this store that was recently shut down. But basically,
this guy in Canada would drive down to Trader Joe's
groceries in the US because there are no Trader Joe's
stores in Canada. He'd buy a ton of stuff in
bulk and then sneak it back up and sell it
at a higher cost. He had actually been banned from
Trader Joe's stores for doing this, so sometimes he'd wear
wigs or dresses or fake mustaches and pinstripe suits. It
(41:32):
got really elaborate. Sometimes he'd even recruit day laborers to
help him shop and pay at the register like it
was crazy. And when Trader Joe's took him to court
in twenty sixteen, they did this in the US, they
couldn't prove that he was actually hurting their business, so
he kind of got to keep doing it for a while,
and then finally Trader Joe's brought another court battle. During
(41:53):
the last court battle, he took the p off his
sign to change it from Pirate Joe's to Irate Joe's
and when he finally settled the case, the shop closed
down in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
All right, well, something equally ridiculous here. We've talked about
the Pastafarian religion before in the Church of the Flying
Spaghetti Monster, so for anybody who doesn't know, it was
this satirical religion that was invented really in response to
religious fundamentalists, and the main claim is that a flying
spaghetti monster is just as likely as any other type
(42:24):
of God, so that's the one they chose to worship.
But for some reason, the very first Pastafarian wedding also
had a pirate connection to it. Now, the event took
place in New Zealand. This was just a couple of
years ago, and the bride and groom were head to
toe in pirate gear and everyone there wore.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Eyepatches of course.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Right now, that said, there was also this nod to
pasta and so the officiant wore a colander on her head,
which is the official headdress of the church. The couple
exchanged rings of pasta, and in their vows they agreed
to always add when boiling spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Very romantic.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
So when Julius Caesar was twenty five years old, he
was kidnapped by pirates, and when the pirates asked for
a ransom of twenty talents of silver, he just laughed
in their faces and told them to up it to
fifty because he was worth so much more than that.
So that's actually the part of the story i'd heard before.
But the part I didn't know was that he was
stuck on the ship for thirty eight days, and during
(43:25):
that time he was not a good hostage. He was
just completely unintimidated by these pirates. Not only did he
refuse to coward to them, he actually treated them like
they were his servants. He'd write poetry and then forced
them to listen to it. When when he slept he
demanded they stopped talking, and instead of acting like a prisoner,
he just kind of like stomped around doing what he
(43:46):
wanted to do, and they kind of gave him respect
for it. Of course, while he did act chummy with
them the whole time, he let them know that they
should watch out. And when he was finally freed, he
of course rounded up a small fleet, found his way
back to them, took back as fifty talents, took the
rest of their possessions as well, and then eventually had
them killed, which you know, is very Julius Caesar of him.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
That is so Julius Caesar of him.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
But all right, well, one of the best ways to
fight off modern pirates might just be pop music, and
in particular the music of Britney Spears. I was look
at this old Guardian article from twenty thirteen and Britney
Spears emerged as this unlikely figurehead and a fight against
Somali pirates. And that's because British naval officers started blasting
(44:30):
the songs Oops, I did it again and Baby one
more time at them, and strangely the tactic proved more
intimidating than guns and harpoons, apparently because it's one naval
officer put it quote her songs were chosen by the
security team because they thought the pirates would hate them
the most. These guys can't stand Western culture or music,
making Brittany hits perfect And as soon as the pirates
(44:53):
get a blast of Brittany, they move on as quickly
as they can.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
So what I love about that story too, is like
you're talking about reporting from twenty thirteen, and those songs
I feel like came out in like two thousand and
two thousand and one sometime around then. Like they didn't
just like pick the latest pop songs. They went back
and specifically chose Brittany to scare.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Out fire and very specific.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
They're still just as powerful today, so I'd be curious
that if they go back and use them again.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Well, I do feel like you have to get the
trophy for that.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
I saved that one especially for last, just for that fact.
I knew i'd get this one locked up. Well, I'm
sure there are other great facts that we have not
mentioned today about pirates, and we'd love to hear those
from you guys. As always, you can always email us
part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us
up on Facebook or Twitter. But from Tristan, Gabe, Mango
and me, thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
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