By wearing an eyepatch, a pirate going below deck could move the patch over to his other eye. Pirates who were in battle often had to move quickly from above deck where it was bright to the darkness below deck. It takes eyes a while to adjust between sunlight and darkness-sometimes up to 25 minutes. Believe it or not, eyepatches helped pirates see better in the dark. And they weren’t to cover a missing or wounded eye. However, eyepatches are a different story. A severe injury to a leg often led to infection and death, since there were usually no doctors to be found on the high seas. But the chances of a pirate using a wooden peg leg to replace one that had been badly hurt was unlikely. Pirates often got injured in battle or even in fights amongst themselves. Many believe these treasures are still waiting to be discovered.ĭid pirates have peg legs and wear eye patches? That said, one famous pirate named Captain William Kidd did bury much of his loot. Most of the items they plundered - like food, animal hides, and cloth - would have been ruined if they were buried. And it didn’t really make much sense to bury their bounty. In most cases, they divided up their loot right away so everyone got their share. X marks the spot! Historians say that pirates rarely buried their treasures. There are plenty of tales about pirates looting ships, burying their treasure, and creating a map that leads to its location. If there’s one thing that comes to mind when you think about pirates, it’s treasure. The 1950 film Treasure Island featured a fictional pirate named Long John Silver, who spoke with an accent and used words like ‘arrr’ and ‘avast.’ From that point on, most pirates in books and movies copied this style of speaking, and we began to believe that’s how pirates sounded.
PIRATES TREASURE ISLAND MOVIE
As for where the idea of a unique pirate language came from, we’ve got a movie to thank for that. But according to historians, pirates likely didn’t talk to each other using phrases like ‘me hearties’ and ‘scallywag.’ In fact, it’s believed that English-speaking pirates spoke the same English used by other sailors of the time. Lon Chaney and Shirley Manson in the silent film Treasure Island (1920)Īhoy there, matey! Shiver me timbers… pirates sure seem to have a language all their own. Step back in time to find out the truth about pirate life. But there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding these swashbuckling sailors.
You’ve probably heard a lot about pirates and how they sailed the seas in search of treasure.