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"If this don't fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day."
      --Robert Louis Stevenson on Treasure Island

Leg injuries were a common shipboard injury, especially from combat. Given the state of seventeenth century surgery, amputation was often the best prescription for a leg or arm injury. Disabilities were often mitigated through the use of wooden legs. (No mention has been found of substituting a hook for a lost hand.) Injured seamen often continued to sail, usually as the ship's cook or in some other job that didn't require. It was also common for seamen voyaging to the tropics to acquire birds and animals to sell and to keep as souvenirs. Parrots were popular because they were colorful and easy to take care of. They also brought good prices on the European bird markets. Pirates had their share of the birds as plunderand it's recorded that they even used them to bribe officials.

Each crew was an individual entity so there were a great many variations. Flags were used by pirates for a very practical reason, to intimidate their prey, filling them with fear. It was common knowledge that pirates would show no quarter if their intended victims showed any resistance. If the sight of a pirate flag would cause a ship to heave-to (turn into the wind and stop), then the pirates could minimize risk and capture an undamaged ship. Pirate flags evolved from the red flags flown by privateers (armed civilian ships authorized to capture enemy merchant ships in time of war). Black and red flags were both used. The symbols of skulls, bones and even skeletons, beside their obvious association with death, conveyed a fatalistic reference that the crew wasn't afraid of death. Other symbols used with skulls included weapons (portent of the slaughter to come) and hourglasses and wings (indicating that the victims' time was short and that surrender was the best option). The term "Jolly Roger" is believed to come from the French name for the red privateer flag, the Jolie Rouge (Jolly Red).

In the early seventeenth century, European squatters on the nominally Spanish island of Hispaniola used to hunt wild cattle and pigs that roamed the island. The hunters (predominantly French) cured the meat they caught by smoking it in a fire using a platform called a boucan (from a native Arawak Indian word). The hunters became known as boucanniers. Constant Spanish attacks fueled by religious differences (the boucanniers were mainly Protestant) drove them to Tortuga and into full-time piracy.

Pirate society was a mirror of its times and the status of women was on par with other chattel. Women were rarely involved in any maritime activity and in fact were regarded as bad luck on board a vessel. Mary Read and Anne Bonny sailed with the minor pirate Calico Jack . Their stories became embellished largely because they broke so many societal taboos. Biographies have them "raised as boys" and reports say that "they were both very profligate, cursing and swearing much, and very ready and willing to do anything." They were eventually captured with Jack (and a drunken crew). Both were sentenced to death, but reprieved when it was discovered that they both were pregnant. Read died in a Jamaican prison, but Anne's fate is unrecorded. Beside Read and Bonny, the only women mentioned in pirate histories include Alwida from Scandinavia, Grace O'Malley from Ireland and the Chinese pirate leader, Mrs. Cheng. (Yes, really.)

But pirates followed their own laws. Angus Konstam notes the irony that, "pirates had to turn their backs on the law of nations, and the near-absolute power granted to captains at sea. To replace them they set about establishing their own egalitarian form of constitution..." The rules of conduct for captain and crew were often written down, outlining conditions of service, restitution in the case of death or injury and the agreed division of any plunder. The captain and second-in-command, the quartermaster were usually elected by the crew. The captain had the power of command, but too many mistakes would result in the crew voting him out of office. Pirate health plans provided compensation for injury and death. The rules were designed to keep harmony among a society outside the law and defined by the wooden walls of the ship.

Most films seem to tell stories in which people wear pirate costumes, not stories about pirates. Over seventy films have been pirate-themed and as David Cordingly writes in "Under the Black Flag," it is curious how few of the films follow the historical events with any accuracy. Unfortunate, since the truth is often a story superior to anything a screenwriter can conjure up." It's doubly unfortunate when productions spend millions to get the details and scenery just right. The poster child for this bi-polar approach is 1995's "Cutthroat Island", a very bad film which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest loss of money for a film company ever.

(Although there was the case of the brig Vhan Fredericka that was taken in 1829... but never mind.) In fact, pirates used a variety of tortures, usually to extract information about hidden valuables. A. O. Exquemelin, writing about pirates in the late seventeenth century, described some, "... one was to stretch their limbs with cords, and at the same time beat them with sticks and other instruments. Others had burning matches places betwixt their fingers, which were thus burnt alive. Others had slender cords or matches twisted around their heads, till their eyes burst out of the skull." Women were not spared either, "A woman there was by some set bare upon a baking stove and roasted, because she did not confess of money which she had only in their conceit." For those with a need to know more, your local library has plenty of information on pirate means of persuasion.

Coined money was rare in the Americas and ships carrying gold or silver from the mines to Europe were usually heavily escorted by warships. Most pirate plunder was in the form of "trade goods." These often Included slaves, ivory and spices from Africa, rum, tobacco and sugar from the Americas and manufactured goods from Europe. What smart pirates did was to "fence" these items through friendly officials and merchants. Then they would divide the proceeds and party like it's 1699. By the way, some pirates would free any slaves they came upon; some would resell them as "cargo," and some would keep them as servants or crew, but give them shares of loot.

Most pirates had a pretty short run. The most famous had one to three years of glory before they were caught and killed. If one didn't die in a shipboard fight (like Blackbeard), the standard penalty was hanging (like Kidd). Lesser penalties could include years in prison (not very pleasant), rowing in a Spanish galley (until death) or digging gold in a West African mine (effectively a death sentence). Many black pirates were sold into slavery if captured. Even after death, punishment continued. One notable post-execution rite included tarring parts of the deceased pirate's corpse and putting the body in an iron cage (a gibbet). The gibbet was hung from a post on a headland where ships entering and leaving port could see the body rotting. The decomposition process could take two years, during which seagulls pecked out the eyes. To most sailors, "being hung out to dry" was the worst of fates.

Piracy is still an institution in areas of Asia and West Africa. Piracy was linked with drug running in the Caribbean in the 1960's and 1970's. Today in Indonesia, pirates use speed boats and assault rifles to attack and take large ships, and in Southern China, the local authorities are suspected of being in league with pirates who capture ships, kill the crews and rename the ships for resale. By the way, current US law states that Whoever, being a citizen of the United States, commits any murder or robbery, or any act of hostility against the United States, or against any citizen thereof, on the high seas, under color of any commission from any foreign prince, or state, or on pretense of authority from any person, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for life." So don't get any ideas.