10 Rare Facts about Pirates
Tip: Highlight text to annotate itX
10 Rare Facts About Pirates
The Jolly Roger flag, with its black background and white skull and crossbones, was designed to be scary.
This flag was not used by all pirates, usually it was only flown by those sailing in the Spanish Main.
Pirates believed that wearing pierced earrings would improve their eyesight.
Almost all pirates stole their ships because they couldn’t buy ships incase they got caught and sent to jail.
Pirate Captain’s would change out of their expensive, flashy clothes if there was a chance they might be captured.
This way they could pretend they where only one of the crew, and not somebody important and hopefully escape.
Although pirates have been around since the 15th century, most pirating happened between a short period of 1690 and 1720.
On the Caribbean island of St Thomas you will find a place called ‘Black Beard’s Castle’.
It is believed that this is where the famous pirate spent many hours looking out for approaching ships.
Even the most famous pirates, such as Blackbeard or Bartholomew Roberts, only were active in piracy for a couple of years.
Roberts, who had a very long and successful career for a pirate, was only active for about three years from 1719 to 1722.
Pirates rarely buried their Treasure.
The “treasure” consisted of perishable goods like fabric, cocoa, food or other things that would quickly become ruined if buried.
Payments in ransom and tribute to pirates amounted to 20% United States annual expenditures in 1800.
This is one reason for the beginning of the United States Navy.
It was extremely rare, but women did occasionally strap on a cutlass and pistol and take to the seas.
The most famous examples were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who sailed with “Calico Jack” Rackham in 1719.
