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Speaker 1: I guess what, mango? What's that? Will? So, a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks ago, you quoted this old deep thought by

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Speaker 1: Jack Handy and it took me by surprise. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember doing this? So I don't remember what we were

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Speaker 1: talking about, but I definitely remember quoting Deep Thoughts, and

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Speaker 1: I think it was like the face of a child

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Speaker 1: can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.

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Speaker 1: That is definitely the one that was one of my favorites,

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Speaker 1: although it's hard to pick a favorite, And honestly, it

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Speaker 1: had been a few years since i'd really binged on

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Speaker 1: Deep Thoughts, and I feel like that's the only way

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Speaker 1: to experience them, like you have to read a hundred

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Speaker 1: at a time, and so I was a little bit

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Speaker 1: overdue for this. And for any listeners who might not

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Speaker 1: remember Deep Thoughts, they were these silly and stupid one

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Speaker 1: liners that were delivered as though they were these inspirational

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Speaker 1: and meaningful pieces of advice. And you know, Jack Candy

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Speaker 1: actually been writing these since the mid eighties, but I'm

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Speaker 1: pretty sure you and I both discovered them when Handy

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Speaker 1: would read them on Saturday Night Live. Is that is

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Speaker 1: that where you first heard them? Yeah, definitely, that's when

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Speaker 1: when I was first exposed to him. Yeah, so this

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Speaker 1: was the early nineties. I guess we were both in

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Speaker 1: middle school at the time. And I thought about another

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Speaker 1: one when Tristan was wearing these fancy kicks the other day.

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Speaker 1: He's got lots and lots of shoes, but he had

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Speaker 1: some some really fancy ones on, and so I thought

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Speaker 1: about this when it said before you criticize someone, you

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Speaker 1: should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when

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Speaker 1: you criticize them, you're a mile away from them and

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Speaker 1: you're in their shoes. So stupid. I love that, but

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Speaker 1: it's kind of good advice. I guess it definitely is.

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Speaker 1: And actually, one of the other things I noticed is

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Speaker 1: that there was more than one deep thought about pirates weirdly,

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Speaker 1: but I think my favorite was pirates were always going

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Speaker 1: around searching for treasure and never realized the real treasure

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Speaker 1: was the fond memories they were creating. Well, I do

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Speaker 1: feel like you're reading that is a sign because we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about doing an episode on pirates for such

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Speaker 1: a long time now, we definitely have. I mean that

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Speaker 1: that's how we knew it was time to do this,

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Speaker 1: because we've been keeping this list of all the pirate

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Speaker 1: stereotypes and I wanted to know what of them are

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Speaker 1: actually true and you know, like we're pirates anything like

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Speaker 1: the ones that we see in the movies. Did they

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Speaker 1: actually say stuff like shiver mey timbers or buried treasure?

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Speaker 1: Or did they really carry around monkeys and parrots? And

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Speaker 1: my god, I hope that they did. But it's time

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Speaker 1: to find out, So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as

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Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my friend man Guesh Ticketer and

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the soundproof glass, I actually

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Speaker 1: don't know what Tristan is doing today. I am up

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Speaker 1: in New York. I'm in my hotel room, in this

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Speaker 1: very fancy studio, which is just my ask in my

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Speaker 1: hotel room. So it may not sound as great as

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Speaker 1: Tristan usually makes it sound, but mano, I gotta know

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Speaker 1: what is Tristan doing. So he did not disappoint. He

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Speaker 1: showed up in a total pirate Halloween costume. Um, he's

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Speaker 1: got everything. He's got an ipatch, a bandanna, try corner hat,

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Speaker 1: he's got hoop earrings, he's got a stuffed parrot. On

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Speaker 1: his shoulder, and he even has a try corner hat

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Speaker 1: for his stuffed parrots. I'm not sure how true to

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Speaker 1: life that part is, but it is a nice touch.

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Speaker 1: So well done, Tristan McNeil. Oh wow. And actually, I

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Speaker 1: just as we're talking, I just got a text from

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Speaker 1: Ramsey's showing me a picture of Tristan. This is amazing.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you could say every part of his costume

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Speaker 1: is pretty much in line with the way that we

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Speaker 1: conceive of pirates, because I mean, I guess this is

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Speaker 1: how we're used to seeing them in books and pop culture.

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Speaker 1: So thank you Tristan for furthering this stereotype of pirates.

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Speaker 1: But it does make us wonder like, how much, if

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Speaker 1: any of this is actually true. And I don't just

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Speaker 1: mean how pirates dressed in real life, but how they

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Speaker 1: acted to Like, on the one hand, parrots we see

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Speaker 1: in movies and theme parks off and come off as

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Speaker 1: these really these charming and kind of rough around the

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Speaker 1: edges folk heroes, almost like Robin Hoods of the Sea

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Speaker 1: or something. Yeah. I mean, do you think about like

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Speaker 1: Wesley from The Princess Bride and he's just kind of

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Speaker 1: a gentleman pirate. Yeah, that's that's exactly right. And you know,

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Speaker 1: when you read these historical accounts and pirates mostly though

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Speaker 1: sound like these bloodthirsty outlaws, it's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: mixed message. So with today's show, we thought it would

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Speaker 1: be fun to try to make sense of the competing

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Speaker 1: pirate narratives and to do that will fact check some

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Speaker 1: of the biggest stereotypes we typically associate with pirates and

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Speaker 1: see which ones hold water. And then a little bit

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Speaker 1: later we'll separate pirate truth from pirate fiction when we

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Speaker 1: share a few of our all time favorite pirates stories. So, Mago,

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Speaker 1: you want to kick us off, like what pirate cliche

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Speaker 1: do you feel like we should start with today? Well,

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Speaker 1: I was thinking about it. You know, it was international

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Speaker 1: talk like a Pirate Day not too long ago, and

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Speaker 1: while I did manage to slip a few hours into

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Speaker 1: my conversation this year, I also, you know, I couldn't

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Speaker 1: help feeling like a little bit of a phony since

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Speaker 1: I actually have no idea how pirates talked, and as

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Speaker 1: it turns out, nobody does. So piracy was as peaked

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Speaker 1: during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so there aren't really

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Speaker 1: any audio recordings to refer to, and the witness accounts

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Speaker 1: that we do have only include kind of a handful

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Speaker 1: of quotes from actual pirates. What about writing from the pirates?

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Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like there's got to be at

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Speaker 1: least one pirate autobiography floating around out there, wouldn't there be? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Actually there really aren't. There. There isn't much of a

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Speaker 1: record of anything written by pirates themselves. Blackbeards supposedly kept

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Speaker 1: a diary of all the exploits, but that's never been recovered.

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Speaker 1: And so the little bit of writing we do have

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Speaker 1: from actual pirates comes mostly from the ones who started

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Speaker 1: out as nobility before going rogue, and since they tend

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Speaker 1: to be really well educated, their speech patterns probably wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have mimiced those of most pirates anyway. So, you know,

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Speaker 1: you think about all the talk of salty dogs and

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Speaker 1: scally wags and pirates inviting folks to shiver me timbers

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Speaker 1: whatever means, But like, none of those are phrases that

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Speaker 1: pirates actually used. Yeah, probably not. I mean, like I

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, there's no real evidence one way or the other,

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Speaker 1: but most scholars think English speaking pirates from the so

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Speaker 1: called Golden Age of piracy probably spoke the same way

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Speaker 1: merchant sailors did at the time. A lot of both

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Speaker 1: of the people in these groups came from a riverfront

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Speaker 1: neighborhoods in London, so it's likely they spoke with similar

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Speaker 1: accents and used common slang. But sadly you don't really

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Speaker 1: see shiver me timbers coming up in in much of

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Speaker 1: that discussion. That's a real disappointment. But I'm guessing the

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Speaker 1: pirate jargon we're used to mostly comes from books and movies, right,

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Speaker 1: stuff like Treasure Island or Peter Pan. I guess yeah,

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Speaker 1: And Treasure Island in particular is the one that will

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Speaker 1: come off a lot today. A lot of the phrases

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Speaker 1: we connect with pirates were first popularized by the book

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty three, and then again in Disney's movie

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Speaker 1: adaptation in the nineteen fifties. And actually the movie version

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Speaker 1: is also credited for our association of pirates with these

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Speaker 1: gruff and vaguely Scottish accents, and that's because it starred

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Speaker 1: Robert Newman as the fictional pirate Long John Silver. So

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Speaker 1: Newman was a native of southwest England, and as such

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Speaker 1: he spoke with this really distinctive regional dialect called West

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Speaker 1: Country English, and some of the dialect's characteristics line up

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Speaker 1: perfectly with how most of us imagined pirates to have talked. So,

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Speaker 1: for example, West Country speakers tend to emphasize their rs.

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Speaker 1: They also replaced the verb is with b, which is,

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Speaker 1: you know, a decidedly pirate move when you think of

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Speaker 1: constructions like where be the rum? And if that wasn't enough,

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Speaker 1: West Country speakers are even known to replace the word

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Speaker 1: yes with our sometimes huh. So our conception of pirate

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Speaker 1: speech seems to be pretty arbitrary when you when you

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Speaker 1: break it down like this, I mean, if it really

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Speaker 1: does go back to just that one performance. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: Newman's role in Treasure Island wasn't his only one as

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Speaker 1: a pirate. He also appeared in a couple of other

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Speaker 1: pirate movies in the era, and it was all of

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Speaker 1: this together that started to influence other people's portrayal of pirates,

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Speaker 1: until finally the West Country accent just became the standard.

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Speaker 1: And while it might seem random that Southwest English accent

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Speaker 1: would become the de facto voice, there's actually more of

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Speaker 1: a historical connection than you might expect. So just listen

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Speaker 1: to this explanation I found on slate quote. It's not

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Speaker 1: entirely arbitrary that Newton should have used an exaggeration of

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Speaker 1: his own dialect to play long John Silver. The West Country,

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Speaker 1: the southwest corner of England, including Cornwall, Somerset, Devon, Dorset

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Speaker 1: and Bristol, has a long seafaring tradition, and so many

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Speaker 1: historical pirates would likely have spoken in a similar way.

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Speaker 1: Both Blackbeard and Sir Francis Drake were from that area,

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Speaker 1: although Sir Francis was technically a privateer. But perhaps the

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Speaker 1: most famous inhabitant of the West Country is Hagrid from

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Speaker 1: the Harry Potter series. Can't you just imagine Haggard saying

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Speaker 1: you're a pirate? Harry end quote? Yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 1: can easily imagine that, And I actually can't believe that

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Speaker 1: I've never made that connection before, because Haggard totally sounds

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Speaker 1: like a pirate or yeah, fictional one, I guess. But

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Speaker 1: you know, there is some evidence that pirates really did

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Speaker 1: have their own unique way of speaking, including some bits

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Speaker 1: of nautical lingo that eventually found their way into popular usage.

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Speaker 1: And now the origin of these phrases can be pretty

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Speaker 1: tough to pin down, but there are at least a

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Speaker 1: few that are thought to have come from pirates and privateers, including,

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Speaker 1: you know, learn the ropes, and of course three sheets

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Speaker 1: to the wind. And the first of these came from

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Speaker 1: the need for sailors to understand how to use the

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Speaker 1: complex system of ropes and pulleys that controlled the ship's sails,

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Speaker 1: so they would literally have to learn the ropes. And

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Speaker 1: so was three sheets to the wind just as literal?

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Speaker 1: Or was that a term for being super drunk like

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Speaker 1: how we use it today? This one was actually pretty

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Speaker 1: literal too, And and actually the original phrase pirates used

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Speaker 1: was three sheets in the wind, not to it. And

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Speaker 1: and so you might guess that the sheets in question

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Speaker 1: were the sails on a ship, but actually they were

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Speaker 1: the ropes that controlled those sails. So apparently if three

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Speaker 1: or more ropes became loose, the sales would start flapping,

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Speaker 1: and then the crew can lose control of where the

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Speaker 1: ship's headed. So if somebody's really drunk, they're just as

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Speaker 1: out of control as a ship with three sheets and

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Speaker 1: the wind m So another question I was eager to

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Speaker 1: answer is whether or not pirates really hid buried treasure.

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Speaker 1: And while it does seem like this happened on occasion,

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Speaker 1: it was definitely not a widespread practice, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: I could only find a couple of historical accounts of

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Speaker 1: pirates actually burying their loot, and even in those cases,

202
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Speaker 1: the pirates only hit it for a short period while

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Speaker 1: they waited for the heat from their latest tist to

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Speaker 1: die down. In fact, pirate treasure never stayed buried for long,

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Speaker 1: and they certainly didn't circulate a bunch of treasure maps

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Speaker 1: with big red xs on them for people to go

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Speaker 1: looking for it. And that's partly because pirates didn't really

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Speaker 1: deal in treasure chests full of gold or pieces of

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Speaker 1: eight or whatever you like to imagine like. Instead, when

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Speaker 1: pirates looted chips, they were stealing things like coffee and

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Speaker 1: sugar and tea and textiles like whatever those ships were in,

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Speaker 1: and then they would sell those spoils on the black market,

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Speaker 1: and that's how they'd end up with the pirate gold

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Speaker 1: we associate with them. But even then, once pirates had

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Speaker 1: all this golden hand, they weren't super frugal or forward

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Speaker 1: thinking enough to invest it. Instead, you know, according to

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Speaker 1: this maritime historian named David Accordingly, pirates typically blew their

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Speaker 1: loot on drinking, gambling, and women as soon as they

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Speaker 1: got to port. Yeah, I mean, I'd say that fits

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Speaker 1: with the pirate lifestyle a lot more than squirreling away

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Speaker 1: your money. And you know, I mean I think about this,

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Speaker 1: burying treasure would effectively be like putting your money in

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Speaker 1: a bank, and I don't know, banking doesn't strike me

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Speaker 1: as this very piratey thing to do. But exactly anyway,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this idea of buried treasure had to come

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Speaker 1: from somewhere, though, So do you do you think it

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Speaker 1: just spawn out of those few scattered accounts that you found?

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's why I thought at first, But it

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Speaker 1: turns out this is another case that's rooted less in

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Speaker 1: history and more in treasure Island. So in the book,

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Speaker 1: long John Silver is on the hunt for a stash

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Speaker 1: of hidden gold, and of course a secret treasure man

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Speaker 1: is the key to finding it. But what's funny is

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Speaker 1: that Robert Louis Stevenson didn't actually invent this idea, and

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Speaker 1: he didn't base it on real life either. Instead, he

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Speaker 1: flat out stole the idea from another seventeenth century author,

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Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe. Poh really, yeah, So It comes from

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Speaker 1: post short story The gold Bug, and the main characters

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00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,680
Speaker 1: hunt down Captain Kid's treasure using a cipher that's based

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Speaker 1: on how frequently certain letters appeared in the English language

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Speaker 1: in this story. And this is pretty much the same

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Speaker 1: premise as in Treasure Island, except Stevenson substituted a map

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Speaker 1: in place of the cipher, and the author later copped

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00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:39,080
Speaker 1: this too, like like in his preface to the book,

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00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:41,960
Speaker 1: he said, quote, the map was the chief part of

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Speaker 1: my plot. For that I broke into the gallery of

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Speaker 1: Mr Poe. M alright, Well, a pattern is definitely starting

248
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Speaker 1: to emerge here because I actually have another pirate stereotype

249
00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,360
Speaker 1: that we can at least partly thank Treasure Island for,

250
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Speaker 1: And that's the idea that pirates made people walk the plank.

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Speaker 1: Not to be fair, plank walking did ex is among

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Speaker 1: pirates to some degree, but most historians will tell you

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Speaker 1: that it was a pretty rare form of punishment. Now,

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Speaker 1: the most recognizable example of the practice occurred in the

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Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds, I think, and this was when an

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00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:15,720
Speaker 1: eyewitness reported that a British ship captain had been abducted

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Speaker 1: by pirates and that quote, a plank was run on

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Speaker 1: the starboard side of their schooner, upon which they made

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00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,800
Speaker 1: Captain Smith walk, and as he approached the end, they

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00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:28,079
Speaker 1: tilted the plank when he dropped into the seat. Now

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00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:30,720
Speaker 1: beyond that, we know that some Caribbean pirates also forced

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Speaker 1: captured sailors to walk the plank, and there even some

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00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:37,160
Speaker 1: accounts of Mediterranean pirates taking part in something similar back

264
00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:39,800
Speaker 1: in the days of ancient Rome. In this case, the

265
00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,880
Speaker 1: pirates would suspend a ladder out over the ocean and

266
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Speaker 1: then mockingly invite prisoners to crawl out on it and

267
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,400
Speaker 1: swim back home to freedom. That seems pretty cruel, But

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Speaker 1: I'm curious how does Treasure Island fit into all of this. Basically,

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Speaker 1: Robert Louis Stevenson and a few other writers of his

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Speaker 1: air are mostly responsible for making plank walking, you know,

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00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:02,120
Speaker 1: more ubiquitous than it really was, and their stories presented

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00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:04,600
Speaker 1: as kind of the go to form of punishment that

273
00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,600
Speaker 1: pirates used, and this idea was only enforced by popular

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00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,480
Speaker 1: illustrations and paintings from this same time period. Now all

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00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,120
Speaker 1: of that really cemented. Plank walking is one of the

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00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,840
Speaker 1: visual icons of piracy, and the interesting thing about this

277
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:21,680
Speaker 1: misplaced attention is that it actually makes some pirates seem

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00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,960
Speaker 1: less cruel than they really were, because the pirates really

279
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:27,400
Speaker 1: wanted to do away with a mutinous crew member or

280
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:30,720
Speaker 1: a troublesome captive. I mean, they had far worse methods

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00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,160
Speaker 1: than simply forcing somebody overboard. And you know, some of

282
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,680
Speaker 1: the more common practices included marooning someone onto an island,

283
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:41,000
Speaker 1: which almost always resulted in a slow death for the victim.

284
00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:45,280
Speaker 1: Then there was the especially grizzly punishment called keel hauling,

285
00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:47,480
Speaker 1: and this was when the victim was tied naked to

286
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: a rope, thrown overboard, and then just tragically dragged beneath

287
00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,760
Speaker 1: the entire length of the ship while barnacles cut up

288
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:56,760
Speaker 1: their skin. It's it's pretty gross to read about it. It

289
00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:59,840
Speaker 1: It feels horrible. In fact, I want to get us

290
00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:02,520
Speaker 1: on have your note A S A P. So I'm

291
00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:04,640
Speaker 1: just gonna come right out and tell you that pirates

292
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:10,400
Speaker 1: almost certainly kept parrots as pets. And so this is

293
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:13,480
Speaker 1: another pirate trope that was popularized by a treasure Island

294
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:15,840
Speaker 1: long John Silver was the first fictional pirate to walk

295
00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,560
Speaker 1: around with a parrot on his shoulder, but in this case,

296
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:22,160
Speaker 1: Stevenson was really drawing from history. So to give a

297
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,520
Speaker 1: little background when we talk about the Golden Age of piracy,

298
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:27,480
Speaker 1: which I still find such a funny phrase to say,

299
00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:30,760
Speaker 1: you know, we're really referring to this period from about

300
00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:34,400
Speaker 1: the mid sixteen hundreds to round seventeen thirty. And in

301
00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:37,359
Speaker 1: that time, the recent discoveries of the America's in Australia

302
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,280
Speaker 1: had created a boom and exploration. So for the first

303
00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,080
Speaker 1: time in history, multiple nations were shipping tons and tons

304
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:47,760
Speaker 1: of money and valuable goods all across this largely uncharted

305
00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:51,400
Speaker 1: and unprotected oceans, and of course this made them easy

306
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,880
Speaker 1: picking for enterprising pirates, hence the term Golden Age. But

307
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,000
Speaker 1: in order to rob ships of their precious cargo, pirates

308
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,240
Speaker 1: had to go where the ships went, which meant taking

309
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,680
Speaker 1: to trade routes that mostly led to the Caribbean or

310
00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:05,720
Speaker 1: West Africa or the various coasts along the Indian Ocean.

311
00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,400
Speaker 1: And this required long voyages that lasted weeks or months

312
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,760
Speaker 1: at a time and often took the pirates to these

313
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:16,920
Speaker 1: exotic lands populated by unusual animals like parrots and also monkeys.

314
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:19,960
Speaker 1: So let's get to the important part. Please tell me

315
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,160
Speaker 1: that the monkey thing is true? Because the world is

316
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,200
Speaker 1: kind of a rough place right now, and I feel

317
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:28,080
Speaker 1: like it would make me feel better to know that

318
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:30,400
Speaker 1: a pirate captain could have had a parrot on one

319
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:33,640
Speaker 1: shoulder and a monkey on the other one. So there

320
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 1: isn't much documentation about that specific combination, but pirates with

321
00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:42,680
Speaker 1: monkeys certainly weren't uncommon. Parents were the more practical pet though.

322
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,600
Speaker 1: Parrots would eat things that were already on board, so

323
00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:47,840
Speaker 1: you think about like fruits or seeds or nuts, and

324
00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:51,160
Speaker 1: they didn't really need that much to sustain them. Plus

325
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,280
Speaker 1: they could be taught all these kind of neat tricks

326
00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,040
Speaker 1: like how to talk. And you know, there's no better

327
00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:58,360
Speaker 1: way for a pirate to start up a conversation at

328
00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,880
Speaker 1: port than by introducing people to talking bird that he,

329
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,320
Speaker 1: you know, picked up. Well let's see. Well that's a

330
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,720
Speaker 1: good point. And still you think after a while it

331
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:08,040
Speaker 1: might be kind of risky to walk around with a big,

332
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:10,280
Speaker 1: bright bird on your shoulder. I mean, it seems like

333
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:13,160
Speaker 1: that's a tough way to keep a low profile. Yeah,

334
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:17,280
Speaker 1: but it's also good branding. I don't think that many

335
00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,240
Speaker 1: pirates actually kept their parents for that long. According to

336
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,680
Speaker 1: this historian, Angus Constant, author of the history of pirates.

337
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,000
Speaker 1: He writes, back home, people would pay good money for

338
00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:30,320
Speaker 1: parrots and other exotic creatures, and sailors could easily buy

339
00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:33,680
Speaker 1: them in Caribbean ports. Some were kept, but most were

340
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,199
Speaker 1: sold when the ship reached home. So really they were

341
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:38,399
Speaker 1: selling them as soon as they got to port. That

342
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,280
Speaker 1: makes sense. So it's still it's nice to know that

343
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,720
Speaker 1: pirates really did keep parents, even if only for a

344
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:45,879
Speaker 1: little while. But all right, well, I know there's a

345
00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:47,639
Speaker 1: couple more pirate myths that we want to take a

346
00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:49,840
Speaker 1: look at. But before we do, let's take a quick break.

347
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:09,760
Speaker 1: They're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about

348
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:12,840
Speaker 1: the facts and fiction that fuel the modern view of pirates.

349
00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:15,320
Speaker 1: All right, Mago. So one of the more interesting topics

350
00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:17,919
Speaker 1: that I looked into this week were the big gold

351
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,040
Speaker 1: earrings that pirates wore. And the question here wasn't whether

352
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,639
Speaker 1: or not pirates really wore them. I think, you know,

353
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,560
Speaker 1: most historians agree that many of them did, but why

354
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:29,480
Speaker 1: did they wear them? So the story I'd always heard

355
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:31,520
Speaker 1: is that the ear rings were away for pirates to

356
00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,960
Speaker 1: pay for their burials, Like, uh, if a pirate happened

357
00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:37,480
Speaker 1: to die on land instead of at sea, the gold

358
00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:40,880
Speaker 1: from their earrings could cover the cost, and obviously, even

359
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:43,280
Speaker 1: for a pirate, that would be preferable to just being

360
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:45,760
Speaker 1: put in this mass grave or left out for the

361
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,280
Speaker 1: crows to eat. I'm guessing yeah. I mean, there is

362
00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:51,760
Speaker 1: some evidence that supports this idea. But those earrings and

363
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,320
Speaker 1: other kinds of jewelry weren't just a fail safe for

364
00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:57,200
Speaker 1: pirate burial. I mean they were also symbols of rebellion

365
00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,760
Speaker 1: against the seventeenth and eighteenth century laws that we're really

366
00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,399
Speaker 1: meant to control what people could wear or do in

367
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,680
Speaker 1: their private lives. So in England, just for example, men

368
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 1: weren't allowed to wear jewelry, and certain colors were off

369
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,040
Speaker 1: limits for commoners to wear, and if somebody didn't conform

370
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:17,399
Speaker 1: to those rules, they could be heavily fined or even imprisoned. So,

371
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,359
Speaker 1: as this pirate historian, Gael Sellinger put it, the so

372
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:23,280
Speaker 1: called sumptuary laws were quote a legal way for the

373
00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,879
Speaker 1: ruling class to separate themselves from commoners by regulating what

374
00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,640
Speaker 1: they wore, what they could drink, and where they could live. Well,

375
00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:32,680
Speaker 1: I mean it is easy to see how none of

376
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:34,880
Speaker 1: that would sit very well with pirates, who are obviously

377
00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 1: big fans of flouting the law whenever possible, right, yeah, exactly,

378
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 1: But for full disclosure, some historians do question how widespread

379
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,399
Speaker 1: the practice of dressing flamboyantly and wearing ear rings really was.

380
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 1: And you know, many of them would argue that the

381
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:53,400
Speaker 1: bandanas and the sashes and earrings that we usually picture

382
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,439
Speaker 1: pirates wearing actually come from more like these series of

383
00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:59,320
Speaker 1: drawings and children's books, and that those depictions had really

384
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:03,040
Speaker 1: been based in Spanish bandits, not pirates. But you know,

385
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 1: as was most things we've talked about today, there's not

386
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,400
Speaker 1: a ton of evidence in either direction, though, so it's

387
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 1: likely that at least a few pirates did dress this

388
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:14,119
Speaker 1: way well, and that kind of in your face fashion

389
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,280
Speaker 1: sense would also fit into what we do know about

390
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,520
Speaker 1: pirates backgrounds. Most of them actually started out as crew

391
00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:23,560
Speaker 1: members aboard the respective countries merchant marines or naval ships

392
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,320
Speaker 1: before turning to a life of piracy. And from what

393
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,399
Speaker 1: I've read, life aboard those ships was often rougher and

394
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,400
Speaker 1: actually more tyrannical than it was on actual pirate ships.

395
00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,240
Speaker 1: Like on a merchant ship, for instance, crew members lived

396
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,320
Speaker 1: in these squalid conditions. They were subject to a ton

397
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,160
Speaker 1: of rules that were just as strict, if not stricter,

398
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:45,520
Speaker 1: than those on land and merchant marines and naval captains.

399
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 1: They had the final say on everything that happened on

400
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:51,440
Speaker 1: their ships, which left many crew members feeling oppressed and

401
00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,200
Speaker 1: really voiceless as a result. Yeah, and it's it's really

402
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,240
Speaker 1: no wonder that so many of them would jump ship

403
00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 1: and and sign on as pirates instead, because you despite

404
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 1: their reputation, pirates weren't antarchic or lawless when dealing with

405
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 1: one another. I mean, their ranks were composed of these

406
00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:11,280
Speaker 1: societal outsiders and outcasts, you know, that's definitely true. But

407
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,160
Speaker 1: they weren't so jaded as to think that social orders

408
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,600
Speaker 1: of any sort were automatically a bad thing. They just

409
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:19,919
Speaker 1: needed to find a better or what they saw as

410
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,600
Speaker 1: a more fair system, So on board pirate ships, that's

411
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,879
Speaker 1: exactly what they did. I mean, the pirates recognized that

412
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,159
Speaker 1: in order to prevent infighting and to be able to

413
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,439
Speaker 1: keep morale high during their months at see, they needed

414
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,520
Speaker 1: to do things a little bit more democratically, and so

415
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,360
Speaker 1: to that ind pirate captains took a vote on just

416
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:41,719
Speaker 1: about everything, I mean, from where to go, what the steel,

417
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,280
Speaker 1: how to deal with prisoners. So really, the only time

418
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 1: that the captain took complete control was during a battle,

419
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,040
Speaker 1: and you know that's for obvious reasons. That's not a

420
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,240
Speaker 1: time when it would be smart to pause and take

421
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: a vote. I love this idea that like deciding what

422
00:21:56,600 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 1: the steel should be a democratic vote. Yeah, exactly, it's

423
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,040
Speaker 1: so fun. But you know, obviously there were more perks

424
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:06,119
Speaker 1: to pirate democracy than just saying you know where the

425
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,560
Speaker 1: ship would go or what you're gonna steal. If you

426
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 1: listen to this breakdown I found from Robert Curson used

427
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: this pirate historian and author of the book Pirate Hunters.

428
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:17,879
Speaker 1: It's pretty great. So so here's what he says. Quote,

429
00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,920
Speaker 1: the captain's vote didn't count any more than the lowliest deckhands.

430
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:24,400
Speaker 1: If they wanted to throw the captain out, they could

431
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,640
Speaker 1: dismiss him or lower his rank. They could maroon him

432
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,119
Speaker 1: on an island or dump him into the sea, all

433
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,000
Speaker 1: by vote. That was true even if a captain owned

434
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 1: his own ship, they had a constitution and even compensation

435
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,880
Speaker 1: schemes for injuries. The captain almost never earned more than

436
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,320
Speaker 1: two or three times the way to the lowliest deckhand.

437
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,399
Speaker 1: Think about how that must have struck. A guy who's

438
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,280
Speaker 1: come from a tyrannical rule on a merchant ship where

439
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: the hours were terrible and the conditions even worse. He

440
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:53,199
Speaker 1: gets on a pirate ship and suddenly he has a

441
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 1: real say in what they're doing. I mean, it sounds

442
00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 1: kind of amazing. Yeah, it's pretty weird to think about,

443
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 1: but you know, some of these pirate were practicing democracy

444
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,199
Speaker 1: nearly a century before it took root in America and

445
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,120
Speaker 1: in France. And you know, those constitutions you mentioned were

446
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:10,000
Speaker 1: even written down in some cases. And I was looking

447
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 1: for some examples of this, and one of them I

448
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,200
Speaker 1: was reading about it was from one of the most

449
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,159
Speaker 1: prolific pirates of this Golden Age, and his name was

450
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: Black Bart Roberts. Now, he managed to overtake more than

451
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 1: four hundred ships during his many years at sea, which

452
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: obviously is no small feat. But I think what I

453
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: found most impressive about his career was this set of

454
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,720
Speaker 1: by laws that he and a crew member drafted back

455
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: in seventeen twenty two. Now, this included some pretty progressive

456
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 1: rules that you might not expect, you know, from a

457
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,360
Speaker 1: pirate ship. But you know, take this worker's compensation plan

458
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 1: that you had mentioned According to the by laws, quote,

459
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 1: every man who shall become a cripple or lose a

460
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,199
Speaker 1: limb in the service shall have eight hundred pieces of

461
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: eight from the common stock, and for lesser hurts proportionately.

462
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of amazing that they got that

463
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:00,199
Speaker 1: sort of security from a pirate job, right, Like, no

464
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:03,479
Speaker 1: wonder so many people went into piracy. Yeah, and you know,

465
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,679
Speaker 1: to stick with black Bart's by laws for just a

466
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: second here. That The other thing I think I was

467
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,720
Speaker 1: struck by was the picture they painted of life aboard

468
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: his ship, because you know, we tend to think of

469
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: pirates as this rowdy bunch of all hours of the night,

470
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: drinking and gambling. Of course, that's how things were when

471
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 1: the pirates came to port, but according to these by laws,

472
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: it was a very different story when they were at sea.

473
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 1: So just listen to this from it as well. It

474
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 1: says none shall game for money, either with dice or cards,

475
00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 1: and the lights and candles shall be put out at

476
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: eight at night, and if any of the crew desire

477
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,239
Speaker 1: to drink after that hour, they shall sit upon the

478
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 1: open deck without lights. I mean, that's pretty amazing, and

479
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,360
Speaker 1: that there's this curfew on a pirate ship, Like, that's

480
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,440
Speaker 1: not something I would have expected exactly. And at the

481
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,439
Speaker 1: same time, you know there's no gambling. I mean, I

482
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 1: guess if the goal is to form some sort of piece,

483
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 1: those do sound like really smart moves. And you know,

484
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 1: since we're talking about how shockingly judicious pirates could be,

485
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: I do want to mention another famous pirate that fits

486
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: that bill, and that's black Beard. So he and his

487
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,640
Speaker 1: cohorts were based in the Bahamas and they were only

488
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: active around seven years or so. But this period from

489
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: seventeen thirteen to seventeen twenty was a super eventful one.

490
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: In fact that there's some historians that argued that the

491
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,120
Speaker 1: term Golden Age of piracy should really only be applied

492
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: to those seven years and that seven year span, so

493
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: that kind of gives you an idea of how successful

494
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: black Beard and the other islander pirates were. By seventeen seventeen,

495
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 1: the pirates had actually thrown the commercial trade of three

496
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: separate empires into total disarray, and they even managed to

497
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: beat back the Royal Navy's warships. I mean, whether you

498
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,200
Speaker 1: love them or hate him, these pirates really knew how

499
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: to shake things up. Yeah, that's to put it mildly,

500
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 1: I guess, But I mean, what was black beard deal anyway, Like,

501
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,440
Speaker 1: was he one of those legitimate sailors who went rogue

502
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: or had he always been more of a proper pirate? Yeah, so,

503
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,440
Speaker 1: he and most of the other pirates from the Bahamas

504
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,400
Speaker 1: started out on merchant naval ships, and in a way,

505
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 1: their actions as pirates were kind of this revolt and

506
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: revenge against their former bosses. And this is kind of

507
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 1: a tangent, but one of black Beard's contemporaries was this

508
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: guy named Captain Bellamy, and his crew especially loved this

509
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 1: new role that they were taking on. Like the crew

510
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: actually called themselves Robin Hood's Men, and Bellamy once explained

511
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: to a captive quote they vilify as the scoundrels do

512
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: when there's only this difference. They robbed the poor under

513
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 1: the cover of law, and we plunder the rich under

514
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 1: the cover of our own courage. I want to make

515
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 1: sure we don't go too far here and paint pirates

516
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: is more heroic than they really were. I mean, you're

517
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: kind of saying black Beard was a level headed guy,

518
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,800
Speaker 1: or that his actions were maybe justified in some way,

519
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,239
Speaker 1: at least in his own mind. But how does that

520
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: square with his reputation as being really a cruel and

521
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 1: fearsome pirate. I mean he was a pretty violent guy,

522
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,480
Speaker 1: right well, I mean yes and no. So pirates on

523
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: the whole did some pretty terrible things, and there's no

524
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 1: question about that. They invaded, they pillared ships and colonies,

525
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 1: their ransom hostages, and pretty much ignored any laws but

526
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 1: the ones they made up for themselves at sea. But

527
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, including Black Beards, that brutality

528
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: was exaggerated. You know, it was mostly by the imperial

529
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 1: authorities on land and the newspapers that they held sway

530
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: over And if you think about it, nearly every bit

531
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: of pop culture associated with pirates, including Treasure Island, is

532
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: derived from those stories, and it's inspired by black Beard

533
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,280
Speaker 1: and these other Bahamas pirates. So that means a lot

534
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: of our understanding of what pirates did is skewed as well,

535
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 1: since most of it can be traced back to these

536
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:39,679
Speaker 1: somewhat embellished accounts. So so you're saying black Beard wasn't

537
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: as terrifying and cut throats as we might think, exactly,

538
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: And there are actually dozens of eyewitness accounts of Black

539
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:50,360
Speaker 1: Beards victims and with the exception of his final bloody

540
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: showdown with the Royal Navy, not a single one of

541
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 1: them mentions the pirate captain actually killing anyone. And if

542
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: that's kind of hard to swallow it, it's probably because

543
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 1: black Beard and self purpose. He cultivated his image as

544
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: this fearsome force to be reckoned with. Like if you

545
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 1: listen to this description, I found this at the Smithsonian.

546
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: But but you'll see what I mean. Quote black Beard

547
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: wore a silk sling over his shoulders, on which there

548
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:16,400
Speaker 1: were three braces of pistols hanging in holsters like bandeliers.

549
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,760
Speaker 1: Under his hat, he tied lit fuses, dangling some of

550
00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: them down the sides of his face so as to

551
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 1: surround it with a halo of smoke and fire, making

552
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: him look more frightful than a fury from hell. Merchant

553
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 1: crews would take one look at this apparition and the

554
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 1: army of wild men around him, bearing cutlasses, muskets, and

555
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: primitive hand grenades, and invariably surrender without firing a shot.

556
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: So I guess it was all for show then, like

557
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 1: kind of an intimidation tactic, right, And I mean, some

558
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: pirates really did perform the horrible acts we read about,

559
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: like dragging someone who crossed them beneath their ship, but

560
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: that wasn't their first choice, Like, they mostly wanted to

561
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: just frighten people into giving up without a fight. And

562
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: that's actually what the whole pirate flag was about. Like

563
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: when a black flag was hoisted, it was a message

564
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 1: that another ship should prepare to be boarded and pillaged,

565
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:05,960
Speaker 1: but also that they wouldn't come to harm so long

566
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: as they cooperated. Meanwhile, you've got like a red flag,

567
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: which was a much more rare but a completely different story,

568
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: and that meant the pirates had come for blood. But

569
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: this desire for non violent resolution really makes a lot

570
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: of sense when you think about how practical pirates were

571
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: in general. I mean, like why slaughter your captives when

572
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: you could just ransom them for money or put them

573
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: to work in your own crew. I mean, that's just

574
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: just business one oh one. Right, So, since we're on

575
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: the subject of surprising pirate traits, we we should probably

576
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: talk about how egalitarian pirates actually were, because you know,

577
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: not only did they welcome those of low economic or

578
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 1: social standing into their cruise, but they also made room

579
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: for folks who were frequent targets of discrimination on land,

580
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: and that includes Africans, European Jews, and women. But before

581
00:29:53,560 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: we get into that, let's take one more quick break. Okay, Well,

582
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 1: so you mentioned before the break that pirrating was sort

583
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: of an equal opportunity profession, and that makes sense when

584
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: you think about it, because if you're on the run

585
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: from the Royal Navy or whatever, the race or gender

586
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 1: of your crewmates isn't going to be a top priority.

587
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 1: And for the most part, pirates welcomed all commers and

588
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: that have to be pretty enticing for people who felt

589
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: repressed or restricted on land. I'm guessing right, like, what

590
00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 1: did they have to lose? Yeah, that makes sense, and

591
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,719
Speaker 1: I do think a great example of that mentality are

592
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: the bands of Jewish pirates that took to the open

593
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: Ocean during the early seventeen hundreds. That this is honestly

594
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: something I'd never heard about before this week, and apparently

595
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: historians are still piecing together their history as well, Like

596
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: I was reading that just in this past decade, several

597
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: graveyards were found in the Caribbean and many of the

598
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 1: tombstone is their feature Hebrew writing and stars of David

599
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:07,480
Speaker 1: right alongside those iconic skull and crossbones symbols. I mean,

600
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: that is pretty wild. So I hadn't heard about this either,

601
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 1: But what made so many Jewish people go pirate? Well,

602
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: I guess the seeds of it were actually planted in

603
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: the very same month that Columbus set sail back in

604
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: four two. So after sending Columbus on his way, the

605
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: King and Queen of Spain ordered the expulsion of all

606
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: Jews and Muslims from the country. Now, Portugal did the

607
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: same thing just a few years later. So these Spanish

608
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: Portuguese Jews set out to find new homes, and many

609
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: of them wound up settling on Caribbean islands. And in fact,

610
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: by the seventeen twenties, when Jewish pirates first set sail,

611
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 1: un estimated twenty of Kingston, Jamaica's population was descended from

612
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: Jewish exiles. Yeah, so a few of these Jews started

613
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,680
Speaker 1: captaining their own pirate ships and christening them with names

614
00:31:56,720 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: like Queen Esther and the Shield of Abraham. And for

615
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 1: the most part, these Jewish pirates would exclusively target Spanish

616
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 1: and Portuguese ships, not surprisingly because this was really seen

617
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:11,400
Speaker 1: his payback for those generations of unjust treatment. I mean,

618
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. So it sounds like we're still uncovering

619
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 1: the full history of Jewish pirates. But I am curious

620
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: are there any notorious ones we should know about, Like, like,

621
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: who's the Blackbeard of Jewish pirates? You know, I'm not

622
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 1: sure about that exactly, but I think my favorite was

623
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: probably Schmool Polachi, who supposedly joined in a number of

624
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: pirate raids against the Dutch and Spanish ships. But here's

625
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: the wild thing about Polacci. He was actually a rabbi, right,

626
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: he was a rabbi pirate, Like that's kind of an oxymoron, right,

627
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,080
Speaker 1: Well apparently not. I mean, by most accounts, Polacci was

628
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: also pretty pious. So not only did he insist that

629
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: his crew donate a tenth of their treasure to charity,

630
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: he also made sure they all kept kosher during their voyages.

631
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So no shellfish. But uh, you know what

632
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: we're talking about, how piracy was this drastic kind of

633
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 1: escape for repressed people. And I think another great example

634
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: of that are the many women who built new lives

635
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: for themselves at sea. So most of them earned their

636
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: keepers servants or cooks or prostitutes. But if you also

637
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: found work as merchant sailors, naval officers, and and even pirates.

638
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: For instance, there's this Irish pirate named Grace O'Malley and

639
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 1: in the sixteenth century she became one of the few

640
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: female pirates to captain her own ship, and she made

641
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: a pretty frightening name for herself all along the coast

642
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: of Ireland. Like she had a bunch of really intense

643
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: scars on her face, which he claimed were from being

644
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: attacked by an eagle. And if that wasn't badass enough,

645
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: she also reportedly gave birth to her youngest son while

646
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: aboard her ship and then proceed to fight off invaders

647
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: with her baby in one hand and a sword into other.

648
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: Is that Yeah, that's pretty impressive and definitely something black

649
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 1: Beard can't claim to have done. But yeah, I think

650
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 1: for my money, the undisputed queen of female pirates and

651
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 1: and honestly maybe just pirates in general has got to

652
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: be Captain Ching Shew. In the early nineteenth century, she

653
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: spent her youth working as a cortison on a floating

654
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: brothel in Canton, China. Now, during this time she made

655
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 1: a name for herself as this really shrewd businesswoman, and

656
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:15,640
Speaker 1: apparently she had a knack for blackmail and would often

657
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:19,400
Speaker 1: use the secrets that she'd heard as a prostitute. And

658
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: she would do this in order to control her wealthy

659
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: and influential clients. So, as you might imagine, this was

660
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: a pretty attractive skill to a pirate, which is how

661
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 1: she came to marry this other very famous pirate, one

662
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: of the South China Sea, and his name was Ching

663
00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 1: I Saw. And this guy was no slouch when it

664
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: came to pirrating. And by the time he married the

665
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 1: twenty six year old Ching she this was in I

666
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,160
Speaker 1: think eighteen o one, Chang had already united a bunch

667
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: of rival pirate gangs into what he called the Red

668
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:53,240
Speaker 1: Flag Fleet. So did Ching she have any power herself

669
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 1: or was she kind of just this figurehead. No, she

670
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: was definitely a very active participant in her husband's in

671
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 1: her prize, and in fact, you know, many of these

672
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,840
Speaker 1: stories report that she actually demanded equal control of the

673
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,239
Speaker 1: fleet as a condition of their marriage, and her role

674
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: really only grew as time went on. So it was

675
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: only six years into their marriage that Chang passed away suddenly.

676
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:18,880
Speaker 1: And this was at the age of forty two, and

677
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 1: a few weeks later change she took her husband's place

678
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: as the leader of the red flag fleet, which to

679
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 1: me sounds a little suspicious, like her husband suddenly dies.

680
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: But do we know how big that fleet was that

681
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: she inherited. Well, we don't know how many ships are

682
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: men she inherited from her husband, but we do have

683
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,080
Speaker 1: a pretty good estimate of the size of her fleet

684
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 1: a few years after she took over, And that's because

685
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:46,040
Speaker 1: in eighteen o nine, her forces captured an East India

686
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: Company employee named Richard Glasspool. Now, after he was released

687
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: a few months later, he writes this account of his experience,

688
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: and it included this detailed estimate of change she's forces. So,

689
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: according to him, that were roughly eighty thousand pirates under

690
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: her command and over eighteen hundred ships in her fleet.

691
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: And so to give you an idea of just how

692
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: vast her entourage was, consider that Blackbeard himself commanded only

693
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 1: four ships and three hundred pirates, and that was at

694
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: his peak. I mean, those numbers really are insane, Like

695
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:23,279
Speaker 1: eighty thousand pirates and ships like I don't know how

696
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 1: you could actually keep that many pirates in check. Well,

697
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,320
Speaker 1: chance she borrowed from other pirates playbooks in that regard,

698
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: because once she took command, she quickly instituted this strict

699
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 1: code of laws for all of her men to follow,

700
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 1: and strict really is the key word here. And just

701
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,800
Speaker 1: as an example, if any pirate disobeyed as Superior's orders

702
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,319
Speaker 1: or started giving orders of their own, they were immediately

703
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,239
Speaker 1: beheaded right on the spot. And you know, she had

704
00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:53,720
Speaker 1: some really specific rules about female captives that you probably

705
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: won't find in any other pirate codes, Like there was

706
00:36:57,200 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: this one rule that said if a pirate took a

707
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,320
Speaker 1: female prisoner for his wife, he had to be faithful

708
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: to her and couldn't sleep around. That's really interesting. But

709
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 1: you know, I am still kind of hung up on

710
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 1: the sheer size of her operation. I mean, her fleet

711
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: probably like you could see it rivaling some of the

712
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:17,399
Speaker 1: nation's entire armed forces from that time. I mean probably so.

713
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 1: In fact, under Chin She's command, the Red Flag Fleet

714
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:23,399
Speaker 1: fought off not only the Chinese military, but the East

715
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:27,439
Speaker 1: India Company, the Portuguese Navy, and you know, they were

716
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 1: undefeated for three full years until Ching She finally retired

717
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:35,640
Speaker 1: altogether back in eighteen ten. Wait, so she retired, like

718
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: I didn't even know pirates could do that. I mean,

719
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: of course, not many of them did, and even fewer,

720
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: if any, retired in a way that Ching she did.

721
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: And you know, you look back at her retirement, it

722
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 1: was actually part of a deal that she made with

723
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: the Chinese government. And you know, after years of defeat,

724
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,839
Speaker 1: the officials were just desperate to get Ching She out

725
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: of the spotlight by any means necessary, and so they

726
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 1: extended this offer to her wherein she and her forces

727
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:04,400
Speaker 1: would surrender and go their separate ways. And this was

728
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 1: in return for amnesty and full pensions for every single

729
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: member of the crew. Wait, all eighty thousand of them

730
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: got pensions. Yeah, isn't that wild? So she and her

731
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: forces were seen as such a big threat that the

732
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:21,720
Speaker 1: Chinese government basically paid them all to stop being pirates.

733
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,359
Speaker 1: I mean, it was definitely a one of a kind deal,

734
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: at least as far as I can tell. That is amazing,

735
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 1: And you know, I know we're talking about criminals here,

736
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 1: but I have to say it is pretty cool that

737
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: not only were their female pirates, but kind of the

738
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: most badass pirates of them all tend to be women. Here. Yeah,

739
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,160
Speaker 1: and there's actually this great quote that I wanted to

740
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: read from a pirate historian and the author of a

741
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,960
Speaker 1: book called Pirate Women. So her name is Laura Silk

742
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: Duncom And and here she's talking about that attraction to

743
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:54,800
Speaker 1: pirrat ng and the freedom and entail that we mentioned earlier.

744
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 1: And well she's talking specifically in this case about female pirates.

745
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 1: I really think this could have applied to almost all

746
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 1: the ones that we've talked about today. So here's what

747
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:06,399
Speaker 1: she says. All of these pirates had ships that were

748
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: very different and methods that were very different. But I

749
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:12,400
Speaker 1: think they share the desire to control their own fates,

750
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: and the desire for freedom from convention would unite all

751
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,920
Speaker 1: these women. Their hopes to escape the normal and be

752
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 1: a part of something adventurous would tie all these women together.

753
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,600
Speaker 1: And we all share that desire for adventure, not the

754
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: desire for slitting throats or plundering the high seas. But

755
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 1: one can empathize with the desire to have a say

756
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 1: and how their life goes. Yeah, I do feel like

757
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 1: people want to have a say and how their life goes,

758
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,759
Speaker 1: and I like that. But how about we end on

759
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:53,160
Speaker 1: that note and start the fact off. So the Pittsburgh

760
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 1: Pirates used to go by a totally different name, the

761
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,640
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Alleghanies, you know, named after the Mountain range. But

762
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:02,360
Speaker 1: when they poached the second baseman from the Philadelphia Athletics

763
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:06,439
Speaker 1: in the eighteen eighties, Philadelphia newspapers were outraged. They called

764
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:08,400
Speaker 1: it a theft, and they referred to the team as

765
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:11,200
Speaker 1: a bunch of pirates, and the name stuck. That's how

766
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:14,360
Speaker 1: they got the name. Wow. One of my favorite pirates

767
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,719
Speaker 1: who isn't often talked about these days is John Lafoote,

768
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 1: who was a barefoot pirate who used to be the

769
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: nemesis of Captain Crunch. So I don't know the full

770
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 1: story behind this rivalry. Apparently, Captain Horatio P. Crunch was

771
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 1: created by an ad firm and this was in response

772
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,840
Speaker 1: to a survey that claimed kids hated soggy serial I

773
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 1: love that they had to do a survey to find

774
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 1: out that people don't like soggy cereal. But because the

775
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,600
Speaker 1: cereal was so crunchy, the pirates wanted it anyway. That

776
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 1: the Captain was so popular and did such a good

777
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: job of fighting off Lafoote that there was once a

778
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: public movement to promote him to the rank of admiral.

779
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: But Quaker Oath was not convinced, and he's been overlooked

780
00:40:56,320 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: now for I don't know several decades. Yeah, Admiral Crunch

781
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 1: is into cereal. I'd pick off this right. So have

782
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 1: you ever heard of Pirate Joe's in Vancouver? Yeah? I

783
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: don't think so. So it's this store that was recently

784
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,320
Speaker 1: shut down. But basically, this guy in Canada would drive

785
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 1: down to Trader Joe's groceries in the US because there

786
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 1: are no Trigger Joe's stores in Canada. He'd buy a

787
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: ton of stuff in bulk and then sneak it back

788
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: up and sell it at a higher cost. He had

789
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 1: actually been banned from Trader Joe's stores for doing this,

790
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: so sometimes he'd wear wigs or dresses or fake mustaches

791
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 1: and pinstripe suits. It got really elaborate. Sometimes he'd even

792
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 1: recruit day laborers to help him shop and pay at

793
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 1: the register like it was crazy. And when Trader Joe's

794
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 1: took him to court in two thousand and sixteen, they

795
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: did this in the US, they couldn't prove that he

796
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:48,239
Speaker 1: was actually hurting their business, so he kind of got

797
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: to keep doing it for a while, and then finally

798
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: Trader Joe's brought another court battle. During the last court battle,

799
00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:55,840
Speaker 1: he took the p off his sign to change it

800
00:41:55,880 --> 00:42:00,320
Speaker 1: from Pirate Joe's to I Rate Joe's. When he finally

801
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 1: settled the case, the shop closed down in two thousand seventeen. Alright, well,

802
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: something equally ridiculous here. We we've talked about the Postafarian

803
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:11,200
Speaker 1: religion before in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,

804
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,839
Speaker 1: So for anybody who doesn't know, it was this satirical

805
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,720
Speaker 1: religion that was invented really in response to religious fundamentalist

806
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: and the main claim is that a flying spaghetti monster

807
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 1: is just as likely as any other type of God,

808
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:28,359
Speaker 1: so that's the one they chose to worship. But for

809
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 1: some reason, the very first Postafarian wedding also had a

810
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:35,239
Speaker 1: pirate connection to it. Now, the event took place in

811
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 1: New Zealand. This was just a couple of years ago,

812
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 1: and the bride and groom were head to toe in

813
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 1: pirate gear and everyone there wore eye patches of course,

814
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,279
Speaker 1: right now, that said, there was also this nod to

815
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: pasta and so the officiant wore a colender on her head,

816
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: which is the official headdress of the church. The couple

817
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:59,000
Speaker 1: exchanged rings of pasta and and their vows they agreed

818
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: to always add all when boiling spaghetti. Very romantic. So

819
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,840
Speaker 1: when Julius Caesar was years old, he was kidnapped five pirates,

820
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 1: and when the pirates asked for a ransom of twenty

821
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,080
Speaker 1: talents of silver, he just laughed in their faces and

822
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: told them to up it to fifty because he was

823
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 1: worth so much more than that. So that's actually the

824
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:20,799
Speaker 1: part of the story i'd heard before. But the part

825
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:22,840
Speaker 1: I didn't know was that he was stuck on the

826
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:26,879
Speaker 1: ship for thirty eight days, and during that time he

827
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 1: was not a good hostage. He was just completely unintimidated

828
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,840
Speaker 1: by these pirates. Not only did he refuse to coward

829
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,360
Speaker 1: to them, he actually treated them like they were his servants.

830
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: He'd write poetry and then forced them to listen to

831
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:42,240
Speaker 1: it when he when he slept, he demanded they stopped talking,

832
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:44,719
Speaker 1: and instead of acting like a prisoner, he just kind

833
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 1: of like stomped around doing what he wanted to do,

834
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,839
Speaker 1: and they kind of gave him respect for it. Of course,

835
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:51,759
Speaker 1: while he did act chummy with them the whole time,

836
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: he let them know that they should watch out. And

837
00:43:54,200 --> 00:43:57,359
Speaker 1: when he was finally freed, he of course rounded up

838
00:43:57,360 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: a small fleet, found his way back to them, took

839
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 1: back his fifty talents, took the rest of their possessions

840
00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: as well, and then eventually had them killed, which you

841
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 1: know is very Julius Caesar of him. That is so

842
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:10,920
Speaker 1: Julius Caesar of him. But all right, well, one of

843
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:13,919
Speaker 1: the best ways to fight off modern pirates might just

844
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: be pop music, and in particular the music of Brittney Spears.

845
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:20,879
Speaker 1: I was look at this old Guardian article from two

846
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:25,360
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen and Britney Spears emerged as this unlikely figurehead

847
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 1: and a fight against Somali pirates. And that's because British

848
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: naval officers started blasting the songs Oops, I did it

849
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 1: again and Baby one more time at them, and strangely

850
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: the tactic proved more intimidating than guns and harpoons, apparently

851
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,360
Speaker 1: because it's one naval officer put it quote her songs

852
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,680
Speaker 1: were chosen by the security team because they thought the

853
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 1: pirates would hate them the most. These guys can't stand

854
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: Western culture or music, making Brittany hits perfect and as

855
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: soon as the pirates get a blast of Brittany, they

856
00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 1: move on as quickly as they can. So what I

857
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 1: love about that story too, is like you're talking about

858
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: reporting for two and those songs I feel like came

859
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: out in like two thousand, two thousand one septime around

860
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 1: a minute. It's like they didn't just like pick the

861
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 1: latest pop songs. They went back and specifically chose Brittany

862
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:17,320
Speaker 1: to scare off, very specific. They're still just as powerful today,

863
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:19,399
Speaker 1: so I'd be curious that they if they go back

864
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 1: and use them again. Well, I do feel like you

865
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 1: have to get the trophy for that. I saved that

866
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: one especially for last, just for that fact. I knew

867
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:28,600
Speaker 1: i'd get this one locked up. Well, I'm sure there

868
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:30,879
Speaker 1: are other great facts that we have not mentioned today

869
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 1: about pirates, and we love to hear those from you guys.

870
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: As always, you can always email us part Time Genius

871
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 1: and How Stuff Works dot com or hit us up

872
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:41,360
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter. But from Tristan, Gabe, Mango and me,

873
00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 1: thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part

874
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:00,319
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and

875
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the

876
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:06,400
Speaker 1: important things. We couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil

877
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song

878
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does

879
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,920
Speaker 1: the exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with

880
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 1: support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown

881
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,359
Speaker 1: and Lucas Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show

882
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 1: to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what

883
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really

884
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:26,360
Speaker 1: really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a

885
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:28,720
Speaker 1: good review for us. Did we? Did we forget Jason?

886
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 1: Jason who