Facts about pirates

Facts about pirates

Vocabulary On board ombord Gambling spelande Cards and dice kort och

tärning Weapons vapen Be ready for battle vara

redo för strid equal amounts lika mängd

crew besättning improve their förbättra deras eyesight syn a safe haven en trygg hamn protect skydda revolting hemsk scurvy lumpna, slitna stale gammal, unken

Pirate’s Code Pirate’s Code Of Conduct No fighting on board the ship. No gambling with cards and dice

on board ship. No women on board ship. All weapons and pirates are to be

ready for battle at all time.

Every pirate gets equal amounts of food and drink.

Every pirate gets equal amounts of all loot captured.

The Captain and the Quartermaster get twice as much.

Any pirate, who loses an arm or leg in a fight, gets an extra half.

Every pirate gets to vote on where the ship goes and what the crew does.

Every pirate does what the Captain or Quartermaster says.

True Pirate Facts The Jolly Roger flag, with its black

background and white skull and crossbones, was designed to be scary.

All pirates did not use this flag; only those sailing in the Spanish Main did. 

Pirates believed that wearing pierced earrings would improve their eyesight.

Pirates believed that having women on board their ship was bad luck. They also believed that whistling on a ship would cause the weather to turn stormy.

Pirates would take over island ports and make them a safe haven for pirates.

Almost all pirates stole their ships because they couldn’t buy ships in case they got caught and sent to jail.

Once they had taken over a ship they had to convert it for pirate life, this usually meant making more room for sailors to live on board and make the decks stronger to hold the weight of the heavy cannons.

Ships, sailing on their own, often sailed close to warships or joined other convoys of ships to protect themselves from pirates.

Pirates could only attack one ship at a time, so if the sailors travelled in groups there was less chance of their boat being the one that was attacked.

Although pirates have been around since the 15th century, most pirating happened between 1690 and 1720. On the Caribbean island of St Thomas you will find a place called ‘Black Beard’s Castle’.

Pirates probably didn’t have talking parrots.

Scurvy & Scary Facts About

Being A Pirate The life of a pirate wasn’t always full of

adventure and partying. Sailing is a slow way to get around so

pirates could be at sea for many months.

Life was sometimes really, really boring, plus the food they ate was often revolting.

Pirates would collect fresh food and drink when they landed.

They didn’t have fridges, freezers, or even cans of Baked Beans, so the food had to be eaten quickly before it would go stale and mouldy.

After a few months at sea all the pirates had to eat were stale, dry crackers covered in weevils.

Not eating enough good food often made the pirates sick. Scurvy was caused by a lack of vitamin C. Pirates knew they had it when their teeth started falling out and their skin went pale.

If they only had a stomach–ache and spent all their time going to the toilet, they probably had Dysentery.

Another common disease on a pirate ship was Gangrene. If a pirate got a cut on his arms or legs sometimes it got infected and the skin started to die - this is Gangrene. The only way to keep the pirate alive was to saw off the arm or leg.

Or what about Yellow Fever? That was caught from mosquitoes and gave the pirate a high fever. Some people just got better from it, others died.

A pirate’s life wasn’t always fun! The other revolting bit is what happened to them when they got caught. But I don’t want you to get nightmares so I will leave this bit out.