AARGH! Did pirates really look like that?

[Richard P Titus]

All of the visuals of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series are tremendous but I can't help but wonder how much liberty Hollywood took to make everything exceptionally attractive and palatable for moviegoers.

I've looked for pirate clothing & costume reference on line. There is a good amount, but, as authentic as people want to suggest, how accurate are the representations shown?

Some of the most flamboyant pirate images of all time have to be those created by Howard Pyle (author, illustrator 1853-1911). They're beautifully executed but often "over the top" showing a lot of blood red capes and sashes giving his scenes a very theatrical look. As "nice" as these images are, probably no one really believes that's how these guys really dressed.

With that preamble, I'd just like to ask if anyone knows visual reference for "authentic" pirates. I'm doing some illustrations for my book and have skirted that project feeling I had no trustworthy references on which to base drawings.

(And, as a trivia note -- sources say "walking the plank" was entirely a Hollywood fabrication. Pirates found much more horrific ways of dispatching their enemies . . . unless, of course, your foe is Peter Pan where plank walking is a "kinder" execution and more suitable for a children's fairy tale.)

Thanks, me hearties!

Richard

 

[Ireth]

Attractive? Palatable? *remembers grubby, filthy pirates with scars and horrible teeth* Hm...

 

[Heliotrope]

Hi Richard,

I'm working on a pirate story right now, so I hope I can be helpful

Everything we see in fiction about pirates comes from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Almost everything. In reality, pirates did not all say "aaaaargh" or sing "fifteen men on a dead man's chest". They did not have parrots on their shoulders or wear sashes and bandana's (although it is possible some did).

RLS wrote Treasure Island almost 150 years after the golden age of piracy, so even in his day pirates were already stereotyped and cliched somewhat.

The truth about pirates:

- There is no pirate 'language' because pirates all spoke different languages. Pirates crews came from all around the world, including British, French, Spanish and Portugese sailors, African slaves, Native Americans, Mexicans, etc. They would have all spoken a variety of languages and had their own jargon.

- because there was no one place that pirates came from, they all would have dressed very differenty, and basically in anything they could buy or get there hands on. This means that some pirates, such as "Calico" Jack Rackham (who is in my story) was named "calico" because he so loved bright colors and patterns in his clothes. I do imagine that he was sort of over the top, and I think that Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Carribbean films was probably based on Rackham.

Now, when we look at films like Pirates of the Caribbean, I do think that they have done a fine job of trying to stay accurate as far as period dress. They are likley not too far off of what pirates would have worn, but not all pirates would look like Orlando Bloom or Johnney Depp.

Remember that the Golden Age of piracy was around the mid 1700's, so there are really no photographs. But life would have been hard. Very hard. Poor nutrition, horrible living conditions, scurvy, no health care. Men aged fast. My story, Blackbeard Sleeps in the Subway plays on this a little bit, because I imagine pirates looking something like the homeless in New York's subway, expecially as in photos taken by Lee Jefferies:

Lee Jeffries

My pirates in my story have the same sort of look as the images of the homeless in the link above. Hard lives, substance abuse, lack of nutrition and health care.

But remember too that Pirates were not all criminals. On record they are, but the reality was that many pirates were simply deserters from the Navy. Poor living conditions on naval ships, plus becoming disillusioned with constant war, plus the fact that they did not "sign up" but were often conscripted, meant that a lot of men simply deserted the navy and took up privateering. Sometimes they were even spies for their own government.

Some pirates, like Jack Rackham, have been known for never, ever killing a civilian. Ever. He killed other pirates, and, being an English naval sailor, killed French sailors, but never a civilian.

I hope that helps a little bit

 

[skip.knox]

Also, those are Caribbean pirates. There have been pirates for as long as merchants went to sea. Pompey rather famously cleared pirates out of the Mediterranean, an astounding military accomplishment. There were pirates all through the Middle Ages. And, for the most part, a pirate was little more than a merchant who had not yet made enough profit for the voyage and decided to turn his ship to other purposes. That is, individual captains went back and forth regularly between "pirate" and "merchant".

 

[Richard P Titus]

Maybe I was thinking more of the Howard Pyle images. He definitely portrayed them as dashing and romantic. If you're referring to Pirates of the Caribbean, I think you're right. The art directors certainly took a more realistic approach.

 

[Richard P Titus]

Blackbeard Sleeps in the Subway -- great title.

Thanks for the info.

 

[R.H. Smith]

Not sure if i'm too late for this, but you can try watching Black Sails from Starz. That show, i think, accurately portrays pirates in the Caribbean, back when the bahamas were the pirates "home" base, so to speak. Hope this helps

 

[Tholepin]

An excellent source are: A Pirate of Exquisite Mind (Dampier) by Diana Preston; William Dampier written by W. Clark Russell; A New Voyage Round the World by William Dampier.

A source-book about pirates written by a gentleman-of-fortune. He wrote the first travel book, gave us the word Bar-B-Que, met Alexander Selkirk when he was rescued from the island, aka Robinson Caruso. DeFoe plagiarized Dampier's account.

Anyhow, lots of sterling, well written history from a true man of the ages. See Barns & Nobel or Amazon.

 

[ChasingSuns]

Not sure if i'm too late for this, but you can try watching Black Sails from Starz. That show, i think, accurately portrays pirates in the Caribbean, back when the bahamas were the pirates "home" base, so to speak. Hope this helps

I've been watching this as well, and from what I can tell, it's a much better visual reference than your average Hollywood film in terms of historical accuracy.

 

[ATKH]

Would you call the visuals of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag accurate, apart from the fact that many characters look much too healthy and attractive for their roles? I think the way every important, notorious pirate embraces their own style (Calico Jack being very flamboyant and Blackbeard opting for a dark, intimidating look that fits well with his image) is quite plausible, and the emphasis on heavy overcoats does not seem too far-fetched, considering how much time is spent on sea in harsh conditions (and they look cool enough for videogame wear, that is).

Not to go all off-topic, but could any of you point me to a good resource for information on early 20th/late 19th-century pirates?