The Book of Pirates Read online

  The Book of Pirates

  A Guide to Plundering, Pillaging and other Pursuits

  Jamaica Rose and Captain Michael MacLeod

  The Book of Pirates

  Digital Edition v1.0

  Text © 2010 Jamaica Rose and Captain Michael MacLeod

  Illustrations © 2010 as noted throughout and in last chapter

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

  Gibbs Smith, Publisher

  PO Box 667

  Layton, UT 84041

  Orders: 1.800.835.4993

  www.gibbs-smith.com

  Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publishing Data

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4236-0670-3

  ISBN-10: 1-4236-0670-1

  1. Pirates. 2. Piracy. I. MacLeod, Michael, 1953- II. Title.

  G535.R67 2010

  910.4’5—dc22

  2010009086

  To our own little pirates: Angela, Brooke, Michaela, and Zoey.

  To Jamaica Rose’s mom: Proofreader and fact-checker.

  Acknowledgments

  These are the people who inspired us and taught us the Way of the Pirates:

  Karen Balentine (Piranha Swann Kidd); Paul Barton (Stynky Tudor—Pyracy Pub); John Baur (Ol’ Chumbucket of Talk Like a Pirate Day); Richard Becker (pirate artist); Captain Erik Berliner (taught us sailing & navigation); Robert Chapin (swordmaster); Benjamin Cherry (Blackbeard—A New Spirit); Barry Clifford (Expedition Whydah); Dr. David Cordingly (Under the Black Flag); Anthony De Longis (stage combat trainer); Joseph Ditler (Joe Row, Jamaica Rose’s secret tryst); Joan Druett (our favorite Kiwi Maritime Historian); Michael and KallieMarie Dugal (touchstones); Bryan Dunn (The Sage Lion); Tamara Eastman (our Anne Bonny connection); Eugene Eckert (Baron von Eisenfaust); Captain Finbar Gittelman (Schooner Wolf); Ed Foxe (Pirate Historian across the Pond); Mallory Geller & Jan McCall (Mallory & McCall); Nancy Gray (Agnes the Red, costumer extraordinaire); Kendra Guffey (PirateMaster); Dennis Hanon (Capt. Syn); Steve Harness (Greydog Blackwheel); Gary Harper (Gunner Gary); Graham Harris (Oak Island); Danny Hennigar (Oak Island); Skip Henderson (shantyman); Brant Johnson (Roger the Red); Kenneth J. Kinkor (Expedition Whydah historian); Ray Kula (Kapt. Kula); Louie Lambie (Pirate Louie); Lane Leonard (for suggesting Pop Rocks); Benerson Little (The Sea Rover’s Practice); Alice Livermore (Mother Rackett); Don Maitz (pirate artist); Evaine Mansfield (Pilot of the Caribbean); Steve Mata; Dan McGrew (Duncan McGregor); Tony Malesic (Fiddler’s Green); Liese Maloy (Philistina d’Morte); Julie McEnroe (Pirates in Paradise); Sam Miller (who sneaks us into Disney pirate sets); David Moore (Queen Anne’s Revenge archeologist); James L. Nelson (for writing advice); Alice Palacio (Alice York Bradford); Steve and Alice Palacio (Blackmark Noriega); George Pepper (Capt. Cayenne); Gerard J. Reyes (The Spanish Pirate); Roderick the Sly (Fiddlers Green); Jon Rose (God’s Own Pyrotechnician); Michael “the Tailor” Sackrison (Fiddler’s Green); Capt. Horatio Sinbad (Meka II); Ernest Seliceo (Captain Jamie Bellows); Gail Selinger (Cap’n Ned, who got Jamaica Rose into the Sweet Trade); Michael Short (Tavish—Cossack Pirate); Elisabeth Shure (Dibba); Spydr; Rose Stayduhar (Rotten Rosie); John Richard Stephens (Dead Men Tell No Tales); Sgt. Charles L. Suggs, USMC Ret. (Shark); Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy of Talk Like a Pirate Day); Mitcheal Toles (Mad Eye Mitch); Amy Weyand (Barracuda d’Morte); Arthur Whittam (Cascabel—Flintlocks 101); Jefferson Wilmore (Jules Evermore); Glenn Woodbury (Arctic explorer); Richard Zacks (The Pirate Hunter); The whole Port Royal Privateer crew; The whole Rogue Privateers crew...and lots more who we forgot to list here.

  The Book of Pirates

  Table of Contents

  Intro: No Prey, No Pay

  Pirate Facts and Fiction

  Pirates of the Caribbean

  Rogues’ Haven

  Becomin’ a Pirate and Keepin’ the Code

  Dress Like a Pirate

  Sharp Pointy Things and Things That Go Ka-Boom!

  Land of the Freebooters

  Talk Like a Pirate

  Notorious Ladies of the Sea

  “X” Marks the Spot

  Hoist Yer Colors

  Give ’Em a Broadside!

  What Table Manners?

  Shiver Me Timbres!

  Games Pirates Played

  ’Ello, Beastie

  Are Pirates Long Gone? Think Again!

  Intro: No Prey, No Pay

  Are you looking for adventure? Excitement?

  Would you like to feel the wind in your hair as you scan the horizon with your spyglass, looking for heavily laden Spanish galleons filled with treasure?

  Would you like to learn how to fight with a sword or be part of a cannon crew, firing the ship’s massive cast-iron guns? Or find out what those symbols on the pirate flag really mean and how to design and make your own? These are just a few of the things we’ve got in store for you. So, do you want to sign the articles and set sail with us?

  Then come aboard! We’re Jamaica Rose and Cap’n Michael—and we’ll share our world of pirates with you. We’ll reveal all the secrets and teach you everything you need to know to be a proper swashbuckler, buccaneer, and rogue.

  Drag that rum keg over there and sit yourself down as we tell you about the pirates of old. Pirates have been sailin’ the seas for more than 3,000 years now. Even the Egyptians had trouble with us.

  The most famous of the rogues of the sea are the ones who sailed along the Spanish Main from the 1500s to the early 1700s. They hungered for the treasures of the New World and hunted the Spanish ships—the famed treasure galleons. They were the buccaneers and the pirates of the “Golden Age of Piracy.”

  The Spanish Main:

  This was the coastline (areas along the coast) of the Spanish Empire that surrounded the Caribbean Sea and was the departure point for the Spanish treasure fleets.

  Pirates are still sailin’ the seas, only now they have cell phones and AK-47s instead of cutlasses and flintlocks.

  Read about the wickedest pirates of all time. But learn that not all pirates were thought of as horrid criminals (at least by their own countries). Sometimes they were richly rewarded—and some were even knighted for their efforts.

  This book contains everything a young buccaneer needs to advance from Landlubber to an accomplished Sea Rover. We promise you the start of the adventure of a lifetime.

  We’ll give you advice on how to:

  Make the proper costume choices to be “piratically” fashionable.

  Find just the right pirate name.

  Make and wield your own cutlass.

  Get that proper fearsome look of a buccaneer, complete with a wicked scar or two.

  To start off, you might be wondering who were the pirates?

  Way long ago when people started traveling by water in the first boats (probably hollowed-out logs), there were other people who attacked them and stole their stuff. Those thieves were pirates. Pirates have been known by lots of names in different eras and different locations. You can learn about some of them in the next chapter. There have been river pirates, harbor pirates, and lake pirates, as well as pirates on the high seas. First and foremost, pirates are sailors. They are just a lot more CREATIVE about how they get their income.

  It was not always clear exactly who was or was not a pirate. People often called their enemies pirates just to give them a bad name, even if they weren’t really pirates. To this day, the British still call John Paul Jones a pirate, but he was one of the greatest American naval heroes. True pirates will rob anyone and don’t care what country their victims come from. They don’t get any pay unless they capture someone else’s cargo or treasure, hence the saying “no prey, no pay.”<
br />
  What Is Piracy?

  Law books will tell you the definition of piracy is “taking a ship on the High Seas.” The High Seas are the parts of the ocean that are at least three miles away from a coastline. That part of the ocean doesn’t belong to any country. The waters less than three miles away belong to that coastline’s country. But if somebody...

  captures or attacks someone else’s boat, ship, or other vessel floating on any kind of water (whether high seas, low seas, shoreline, river, or lake);

  fires upon the shoreline from a vessel to the shore;

  or uses ships to bring marauders to a shore to raid and plunder,

  ...then most people would probably call that piracy.

  In fact, people like using the words “piracy” and “pirates” so much that today there is also “software piracy,” “pirated music,” “pirate radio,” “corporate pirates,” and much more. None of these have much of anything to do with water, ships, or real pirates.

  So let’s get back to what’s really important—turning you into a proper pirate. Continue on to the next chapter and we’ll look at what you think you already know about pirates.

  Jamaica Rose and Cap’n Michael MacLeod. Portrait by Don Maitz.

  Pirate Facts and Fiction

  Pirates! The very word conjures up all sorts of visions of swashbuckling adventures, epic sea battles, and chests full of treasure. I bet you think you know a lot about pirates. You’ve got some ideas about what they wore, how they lived, what sort of ships they sailed, and who was in command. Classic tales in books and movies have helped shape our thoughts about the average pirate. But how much of what you know is TRUE?

  Cap’n Michael says:

  Let’s take a little quiz, me bucco, and see what ya really know!

  Here’s a Pirate’s Dozen (thirteen, that is) of things people believe about pirates. Read the statements that follow and decide if you think they are true or false. Once yer done with that, finish reading this chapter ta see how many ya got right.

  One: Pirates sank a lot of ships.

  Two: Pirates made prisoners walk the plank.

  Three: Missing body parts were a unique pirate thing.

  Four: Most pirates wore great big boots.

  Five: Tattoos were common among pirates.

  Six: Pirates were always drunk.

  Seven: All pirates say “Aarrrrrh” and “Yo ho ho.”

  Eight: Pirate captains could do anything they wanted. They kept the lion’s share of the treasure, and ruled their ships any way they wanted.

  Nine: A lot of pirates wore gold hoop earrings.

  Ten: Pirates always flew a black Jolly Roger flag, and it was a threat of DEATH.

  Eleven: Pirates were mostly white guys from England.

  Twelve: Pirates had parrots, monkeys, and other animals as pets.

  Thirteen: Pirate ships were huge, powerful ships with cannons everywhere.

  Pirates sank a lot of ships—FALSE!

  Aye, you’ve seen it many a time. A pirate vessel suddenly appears out of the mist, with cannons blazing, blowing holes in everything in sight. Sorry, mate, but it just ain’t so. Pirates didn’t want to blow holes in other ships, and they certainly DID NOT want to sink them—they wanted to PLUNDER them. It’s hard to plunder a ship that has sunk to the bottom of the sea.

  Instead of blowing big holes in the sides of a ship, a pirate would try to disable it by destroying the rigging (the sails and spars, and the lines holding them). When the rigging is mangled and broken, the ship cannot be controlled. Then it is much easier for the pirate to overtake and board her.

  Pirates used special types of cannonballs that messed up the rigging. One type of cannonball, called a chain shot or bar shot, had two halves that separated and spread apart. Between the two halves was a chain or bar inside a bar that slid out. This type of cannonball spun around and around, doing a LOT of damage to the rigging. It made a noise like a high-pitched scream as it traveled through the air. Not only did the noise terrify people, it also acted like a gigantic saw. ANYTHING that got in its way would be torn to pieces. Seeing one of these in action might make a merchant ship’s crew think seriously about surrender.

  Plunder:

  The way pirates get all those wonderful treasures while avoiding the fuss and bother of paying for them first.

  Pirates made prisoners walk the plank—MOSTLY FALSE!

  All the best pirate stories have someone walking a plank. Captain Hook made Wendy walk the plank. Captain Barbossa forced Captain Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann off the Black Pearl via a plank.

  Actually, forcing prisoners to walk a plank seems to have come along late in the pirate game. No one knows for sure where this idea came from. The first plank walking known took place in 1769. A mutineer named George Wood confessed that his crew had made prisoners walk the plank. These were not pirates, though many mutineers did become pirates.

  It was not until 1822 that pirates made prisoners walk the plank. William Smith, captain of the Blessing, was forced to walk the plank by the pirate crew of the Emanuel. Some stories claim Stede Bonnet, the pirate who sailed with Blackbeard, made prisoners walk the plank, but there are no records of this. Most victims were just killed and thrown over the side.

  Walking the Plank by Howard Pyle

  Mutineers:

  Sailors who figured they knew how to run their ship better than the captain. They usually took the captain prisoner, or killed him, and took control of the ship.

  Missing body parts were a unique pirate thing—FALSE!

  Look at just about any cartoon of a pirate, and he either has a hook instead of a hand, or a peg leg instead of a foot, or a patch covering up a missing eye—or maybe all three.

  True, being a pirate was a hazardous life, and pirates got injured—a LOT. The pirate articles (rules pirates agreed to) had orders giving extra shares of the treasure to pirates who lost limbs or eyes. They got even more if they lost their right arm instead of their left (because most pirates were right-handed). Whether the injured pirate could still be a useful part of the crew was another question.

  But were pirates the only ones who lost body parts? Were eye patches, hooks, and peg legs uniquely piratical accessories?

  An old sailor with TWO peg legs and an eye patch

  Articles:

  Rules the pirate crew voted on and agreed to live by.

  Eye Patch

  If you see someone with an eye patch, you immediately think “pirate.” It is easy to imagine a pirate losing an eye in a sea battle or a sword fight. The earliest reliable record of a one-eyed pirate with an eye patch we can find is that of Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah (an Arab pirate), who died in 1826. There might have been others, but no one wrote about them, so we just don’t know.

  Some people think pirates might have worn eye patches to help their vision adjust quickly from the bright sunlight on deck to the dark underbelly of the ship. The TV show MythBusters tested this out, and it does seem to be a pretty good idea. Out in the bright sunlight, the eye patch is worn over one eye to keep it used to the dark. When a pirate (or sailor) had to run belowdecks, he could switch the patch to the other eye, and he could instantly see in the dim light. He didn’t have to wait for his eyes to adjust. But if this did happen, no one wrote about it.

  Cap’n Michael says:

  If ya was all scarred up where yer eye used ta be, or if yer bad eye was sorta weird lookin’, ya might want to cover that up with a fancy-lookin’ patch when ya went into port. Don’t want to scare off the ladies, ya know.

  There were (and still are) lots of non-piratical people with only one eye.

  The British admiral Horatio Nelson was blind in one eye. However, he did NOT wear an eye patch (even though some paintings and statues show him with one).

  The famous Spanish admiral Don Blas de Lezo also lost an eye, and he did not wear an eye patch either.

  Around 1545, the young Spanish princess Ana de Mendoza y la Cerda was horsing around with one of the roya
l guards when the tip of his rapier accidentally poked out her eye. She did not let this stop her. In fact, she turned it to her advantage. Despite missing an eye, as Princess Ana grew up in the royal court, she became known as a great beauty. The eye patch just added to her mystique. Every dress she owned had a matching bejeweled eye patch.

  So, when your mom says, “Be careful, you’ll poke your eye out,” you might want to listen to her. It could happen.

  Rapier:

  A long thin, straight sword, usually used by gentlemen and officers.

  Hook

  Many sailors and pirates were injured in sea battles and sailing accidents. Cannonballs whizzing across from the enemy ship did a lot of damage. Flying ropes and pullies from broken rigging whipping around could easily shatter someone’s bones. Surgeons were still learning a lot about dealing with injuries and infections. Back then, usually the best they could do was to hack off the injured limb. Despite all those amputations, no real pirates are known to have worn hooks. Although it would help explain a lot of the missing eyes...

  Pirate captain William Condon had a shooting battle with a mutineer. Condon killed the mutineer, but not before the mutineer shot Condon in the arm and shattered the bones. The arm had to be amputated. The Barbary pirate Aruj Barbarossa lost an arm in battle with a Spanish enemy. Both Admiral Horatio Nelson and Admiral Don Blas de Lezo, whom we met above, were each missing an arm. There is no record of any of these men having hooks.