History Made Every Day™

Pirate Trivia

• Welsh buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan served as the inspiration for novelist John Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold. When it was originally published in 1929, the book attracted little attention. Ten years later, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize.
• The exact origin of Jolly Roger, the generic term for a pirate flag, is unknown. It may come from "Old Roger," an English term for the devil, or from a corrupted version of the French "Jolie Rouge," meaning "pretty red." Pirate ships didn't fly Jolly Rogers at all times; instead, they'd often fly fake flags until their victims or enemies came into view.
• Port Royal, Jamaica, once known as the "wickedest city on earth" and as a wealthy haven for pirates, was devastated by an earthquake on June 7, 1692. Much of the thriving, densely populated community was destroyed. Port Royal was rebuilt and served as a British naval station in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, it is a small fishing town and tourist destination.
• Pirate ships flew Jolly Roger flags featuring motifs intended to intimidate, including skulls, crossbones, swords, skeletons, bleeding hearts and hourglasses, meant to symbolize that time was running out.
• In pirate language, "splice the mainbrace" means to have a drink.
• Treasure Island by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson was first published serially in a children's magazine between 1881 and 1882, under the title "The Sea-Cook." It was published as a book in 1883. One of the main characters, the pirate Long John Silver, is nicknamed the Sea Cook. Silver, who is missing one leg, was reportedly inspired by a writer-editor friend of Stevenson's who had lost a leg to disease.
• The "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride opened at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1967. It was reportedly the last attraction that Walt Disney (1901-1966) had a hand in planning before he died of lung cancer.
• Legend holds that the pirate Blackbeard had 14 wives and dozens of children. He cultivated an intimidating image and put cannon fuses under his hat to scare people. Blackbeard died in a battle with British navy lieutenant Robert Maynard off the North Carolina coast in 1718. Maynard allegedly cut off Blackbeard's head and attached it to the bowsprit of his ship as a trophy.
• Two of history's most famous female pirates are Anne Bonny, born in Ireland, and Mary Read, born in England. As members of Captain "Calico" Jack Rackham's crew, the two women disguised themselves as men and earned reputations as tough, fearless fighters. When Rackham and his crew were captured and sentenced to hang, Bonny, the captain's girlfriend, reportedly told him: "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hanged like a dog."
• Sir Henry Morgan, a man who reportedly enjoyed spending time in the rum shops and taverns of Port Royal, Jamaica, has a brand of rum named for him. The Seagram Company first started making Captain Morgan rum in Jamaica in 1944. Today, the brand is produced by the Diageo Corporation, the world's biggest beer, wine and spirits company, whose other brands include Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker.
• In pirate language, "to dance with Jack Ketch" means to go to the hangman.
• A privateer received a letter of marque from the country that commissioned him. This document authorized the privateer to attack and plunder the ships of enemy nations. With the 1856 Treaty of Paris, major European powers including England and France did away with letters of marque.
• The Caribbean Sea gets its name from the Caribs, one of the main Native American Indian groups in the region when Spanish explorers arrived in the 15th century. The Caribs were known as fierce fighters and practitioners of cannibalism. Although largely eliminated by the Europeans in the 17th century, some Caribs survive today in Guatemala and Dominica.
• In pirate language, "shiver me timbers" was used to express strong feelings or surprise.
• The term buccaneer is derived from "boucanier" and "boucan," a French term for the smoking process used by hunters on the island of Hispaniola to prepare meat. Driven out by the Spanish, these buccaneers joined others who had an axe to grind with the Spaniards and attacked their ships. By the 17th century, the term was used generically to refer to pirates and privateers throughout the West Indies.
• A cutlass was the weapon of choice for many pirates, who used the short, thick, single-edged sword for intimidation and fighting.
• Large pirate ships had a "poop deck," which refers to the highest deck at the back of the ship. An "orlop" is the lowest deck on the ship.
• Hardtack, made from flour, water and salt and similar to a cracker, was a staple of a pirate's diet. Unlike most foods, hardtack didn't quickly go bad during long trips at sea.
• Turkish corsairs were pirates and privateers who operated in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean from the 16th century through the first third of the 19th century, most commonly from the Barbary Coast ports of Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis in North Africa. The Barbary pirates first preyed on Spanish ships, in retaliation for Spain's defeat of Muslims there in 1492, and later expanded to all nations.
• Just as there were pirates, there were pirate hunters. Among the most well-known was Woodes Rogers, an English privateer who became the first royal governor of the Bahamas in 1718. At the time, the Bahamas were overrun with pirates. Rogers is credited with expelling the pirates--he offered amnesty to those who surrendered—and with cleaning up the disrepair in Nassau.

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