WEBVTT - Who's the Greatest Pirate of All-Time? 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:05.080 I guess what, mango? What's that? Will? So, a couple 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.720 of weeks ago, you quoted this old deep thought by 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:09.920 Jack Handy and it took me by surprise. Do you 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.799 remember doing this? So I don't remember what we were 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.960 talking about, but I definitely remember quoting Deep Thoughts, and 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.240 I think it was like the face of a child 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.840 can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face. 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.880 That is definitely the one that was one of my favorites, 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.720 although it's hard to pick a favorite, And honestly, it 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:29.880 had been a few years since i'd really binged on 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.000 Deep Thoughts, and I feel like that's the only way 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.640 to experience them, like you have to read a hundred 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:36.760 at a time, and so I was a little bit 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.199 overdue for this. And for any listeners who might not 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.800 remember Deep Thoughts, they were these silly and stupid one 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.080 liners that were delivered as though they were these inspirational 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.520 and meaningful pieces of advice. And you know, Jack Candy 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.080 actually been writing these since the mid eighties, but I'm 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.320 pretty sure you and I both discovered them when Handy 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.680 would read them on Saturday Night Live. Is that is 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:58.840 that where you first heard them? Yeah, definitely, that's when 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:00.920 when I was first exposed to him. Yeah, so this 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.000 was the early nineties. I guess we were both in 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.920 middle school at the time. And I thought about another 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.800 one when Tristan was wearing these fancy kicks the other day. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.679 He's got lots and lots of shoes, but he had 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.399 some some really fancy ones on, and so I thought 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.320 about this when it said before you criticize someone, you 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.399 should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.200 you criticize them, you're a mile away from them and 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.280 you're in their shoes. So stupid. I love that, but 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.920 it's kind of good advice. I guess it definitely is. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.200 And actually, one of the other things I noticed is 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.200 that there was more than one deep thought about pirates weirdly, 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.120 but I think my favorite was pirates were always going 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.800 around searching for treasure and never realized the real treasure 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.520 was the fond memories they were creating. Well, I do 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.400 feel like you're reading that is a sign because we've 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.880 been talking about doing an episode on pirates for such 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.720 a long time now, we definitely have. I mean that 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.720 that's how we knew it was time to do this, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.400 because we've been keeping this list of all the pirate 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.600 stereotypes and I wanted to know what of them are 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.160 actually true and you know, like we're pirates anything like 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:10.360 the ones that we see in the movies. Did they 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.239 actually say stuff like shiver mey timbers or buried treasure? 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.680 Or did they really carry around monkeys and parrots? And 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.480 my god, I hope that they did. But it's time 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:44.600 to find out, So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:46.880 welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.680 always I'm joined by my friend man Guesh Ticketer and 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.600 on the other side of the soundproof glass, I actually 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.160 don't know what Tristan is doing today. I am up 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.200 in New York. I'm in my hotel room, in this 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.480 very fancy studio, which is just my ask in my 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.680 hotel room. So it may not sound as great as 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.280 Tristan usually makes it sound, but mano, I gotta know 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.239 what is Tristan doing. So he did not disappoint. He 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:12.480 showed up in a total pirate Halloween costume. Um, he's 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.680 got everything. He's got an ipatch, a bandanna, try corner hat, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.000 he's got hoop earrings, he's got a stuffed parrot. On 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.399 his shoulder, and he even has a try corner hat 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.440 for his stuffed parrots. I'm not sure how true to 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.960 life that part is, but it is a nice touch. 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.480 So well done, Tristan McNeil. Oh wow. And actually, I 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.800 just as we're talking, I just got a text from 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:39.160 Ramsey's showing me a picture of Tristan. This is amazing. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.680 I mean, you could say every part of his costume 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.360 is pretty much in line with the way that we 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:47.680 conceive of pirates, because I mean, I guess this is 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.240 how we're used to seeing them in books and pop culture. 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.600 So thank you Tristan for furthering this stereotype of pirates. 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:56.880 But it does make us wonder like, how much, if 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.480 any of this is actually true. And I don't just 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.520 mean how pirates dressed in real life, but how they 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.320 acted to Like, on the one hand, parrots we see 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.480 in movies and theme parks off and come off as 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.760 these really these charming and kind of rough around the 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.880 edges folk heroes, almost like Robin Hoods of the Sea 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:15.720 or something. Yeah. I mean, do you think about like 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.320 Wesley from The Princess Bride and he's just kind of 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.760 a gentleman pirate. Yeah, that's that's exactly right. And you know, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.440 when you read these historical accounts and pirates mostly though 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.680 sound like these bloodthirsty outlaws, it's a bit of a 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.479 mixed message. So with today's show, we thought it would 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.400 be fun to try to make sense of the competing 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.240 pirate narratives and to do that will fact check some 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.320 of the biggest stereotypes we typically associate with pirates and 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.160 see which ones hold water. And then a little bit 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.520 later we'll separate pirate truth from pirate fiction when we 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.320 share a few of our all time favorite pirates stories. So, Mago, 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.120 you want to kick us off, like what pirate cliche 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.479 do you feel like we should start with today? Well, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.720 I was thinking about it. You know, it was international 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:00.240 talk like a Pirate Day not too long ago, and 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.000 while I did manage to slip a few hours into 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.799 my conversation this year, I also, you know, I couldn't 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.480 help feeling like a little bit of a phony since 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.040 I actually have no idea how pirates talked, and as 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.880 it turns out, nobody does. So piracy was as peaked 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.520 during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so there aren't really 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.239 any audio recordings to refer to, and the witness accounts 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.920 that we do have only include kind of a handful 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.920 of quotes from actual pirates. What about writing from the pirates? 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:30.159 I mean, it feels like there's got to be at 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:34.400 least one pirate autobiography floating around out there, wouldn't there be? Yeah? 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.680 Actually there really aren't. There. There isn't much of a 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.720 record of anything written by pirates themselves. Blackbeards supposedly kept 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.799 a diary of all the exploits, but that's never been recovered. 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.000 And so the little bit of writing we do have 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.479 from actual pirates comes mostly from the ones who started 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.440 out as nobility before going rogue, and since they tend 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.720 to be really well educated, their speech patterns probably wouldn't 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.440 have mimiced those of most pirates anyway. So, you know, 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.240 you think about all the talk of salty dogs and 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.800 scally wags and pirates inviting folks to shiver me timbers 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:09.039 whatever means, But like, none of those are phrases that 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.520 pirates actually used. Yeah, probably not. I mean, like I 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.360 mentioned earlier, there's no real evidence one way or the other, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.400 but most scholars think English speaking pirates from the so 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.039 called Golden Age of piracy probably spoke the same way 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.920 merchant sailors did at the time. A lot of both 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.560 of the people in these groups came from a riverfront 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.320 neighborhoods in London, so it's likely they spoke with similar 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.720 accents and used common slang. But sadly you don't really 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.159 see shiver me timbers coming up in in much of 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:40.640 that discussion. That's a real disappointment. But I'm guessing the 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.960 pirate jargon we're used to mostly comes from books and movies, right, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.120 stuff like Treasure Island or Peter Pan. I guess yeah, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.600 And Treasure Island in particular is the one that will 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.640 come off a lot today. A lot of the phrases 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.320 we connect with pirates were first popularized by the book 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.200 in eighteen eighty three, and then again in Disney's movie 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.839 adaptation in the nineteen fifties. And actually the movie version 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.839 is also credited for our association of pirates with these 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.480 gruff and vaguely Scottish accents, and that's because it starred 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.960 Robert Newman as the fictional pirate Long John Silver. So 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.239 Newman was a native of southwest England, and as such 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.360 he spoke with this really distinctive regional dialect called West 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.560 Country English, and some of the dialect's characteristics line up 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.640 perfectly with how most of us imagined pirates to have talked. So, 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.840 for example, West Country speakers tend to emphasize their rs. 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:33.000 They also replaced the verb is with b, which is, 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.600 you know, a decidedly pirate move when you think of 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.680 constructions like where be the rum? And if that wasn't enough, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.320 West Country speakers are even known to replace the word 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.080 yes with our sometimes huh. So our conception of pirate 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.560 speech seems to be pretty arbitrary when you when you 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.160 break it down like this, I mean, if it really 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.080 does go back to just that one performance. Yeah, So 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.560 Newman's role in Treasure Island wasn't his only one as 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:58.480 a pirate. He also appeared in a couple of other 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.880 pirate movies in the era, and it was all of 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.200 this together that started to influence other people's portrayal of pirates, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.120 until finally the West Country accent just became the standard. 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.840 And while it might seem random that Southwest English accent 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.560 would become the de facto voice, there's actually more of 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.640 a historical connection than you might expect. So just listen 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.840 to this explanation I found on slate quote. It's not 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.000 entirely arbitrary that Newton should have used an exaggeration of 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.400 his own dialect to play long John Silver. The West Country, 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.680 the southwest corner of England, including Cornwall, Somerset, Devon, Dorset 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:34.120 and Bristol, has a long seafaring tradition, and so many 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.920 historical pirates would likely have spoken in a similar way. 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.280 Both Blackbeard and Sir Francis Drake were from that area, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.360 although Sir Francis was technically a privateer. But perhaps the 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.520 most famous inhabitant of the West Country is Hagrid from 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.920 the Harry Potter series. Can't you just imagine Haggard saying 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.200 you're a pirate? Harry end quote? Yeah, I mean I 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.080 can easily imagine that, And I actually can't believe that 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.320 I've never made that connection before, because Haggard totally sounds 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.760 like a pirate or yeah, fictional one, I guess. But 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.320 you know, there is some evidence that pirates really did 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.960 have their own unique way of speaking, including some bits 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.800 of nautical lingo that eventually found their way into popular usage. 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.400 And now the origin of these phrases can be pretty 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.600 tough to pin down, but there are at least a 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.440 few that are thought to have come from pirates and privateers, including, 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.040 you know, learn the ropes, and of course three sheets 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.600 to the wind. And the first of these came from 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.000 the need for sailors to understand how to use the 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.200 complex system of ropes and pulleys that controlled the ship's sails, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.040 so they would literally have to learn the ropes. And 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.760 so was three sheets to the wind just as literal? 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.200 Or was that a term for being super drunk like 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.120 how we use it today? This one was actually pretty 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.600 literal too, And and actually the original phrase pirates used 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.520 was three sheets in the wind, not to it. And 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:53.679 and so you might guess that the sheets in question 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.640 were the sails on a ship, but actually they were 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.600 the ropes that controlled those sails. So apparently if three 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.439 or more ropes became loose, the sales would start flapping, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.440 and then the crew can lose control of where the 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.439 ship's headed. So if somebody's really drunk, they're just as 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.840 out of control as a ship with three sheets and 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.360 the wind m So another question I was eager to 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.199 answer is whether or not pirates really hid buried treasure. 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:20.840 And while it does seem like this happened on occasion, 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.760 it was definitely not a widespread practice, and in fact, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.840 I could only find a couple of historical accounts of 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.920 pirates actually burying their loot, and even in those cases, 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.079 the pirates only hit it for a short period while 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.240 they waited for the heat from their latest tist to 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.880 die down. In fact, pirate treasure never stayed buried for long, 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.680 and they certainly didn't circulate a bunch of treasure maps 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:43.680 with big red xs on them for people to go 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.400 looking for it. And that's partly because pirates didn't really 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.480 deal in treasure chests full of gold or pieces of 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.880 eight or whatever you like to imagine like. Instead, when 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.560 pirates looted chips, they were stealing things like coffee and 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.160 sugar and tea and textiles like whatever those ships were in, 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.880 and then they would sell those spoils on the black market, 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:04.880 and that's how they'd end up with the pirate gold 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.600 we associate with them. But even then, once pirates had 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.040 all this golden hand, they weren't super frugal or forward 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.400 thinking enough to invest it. Instead, you know, according to 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.559 this maritime historian named David Accordingly, pirates typically blew their 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.240 loot on drinking, gambling, and women as soon as they 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.200 got to port. Yeah, I mean, I'd say that fits 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.240 with the pirate lifestyle a lot more than squirreling away 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.400 your money. And you know, I mean I think about this, 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.120 burying treasure would effectively be like putting your money in 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:37.120 a bank, and I don't know, banking doesn't strike me 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.480 as this very piratey thing to do. But exactly anyway, 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:42.839 I mean, this idea of buried treasure had to come 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:44.480 from somewhere, though, So do you do you think it 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.200 just spawn out of those few scattered accounts that you found? 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:49.840 I mean, that's why I thought at first, But it 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.040 turns out this is another case that's rooted less in 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.199 history and more in treasure Island. So in the book, 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.520 long John Silver is on the hunt for a stash 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.920 of hidden gold, and of course a secret treasure man 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.560 is the key to finding it. But what's funny is 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:06.400 that Robert Louis Stevenson didn't actually invent this idea, and 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.560 he didn't base it on real life either. Instead, he 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.440 flat out stole the idea from another seventeenth century author, 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:17.319 Edgar Allan Poe. Poh really, yeah, So It comes from 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.400 post short story The gold Bug, and the main characters 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.680 hunt down Captain Kid's treasure using a cipher that's based 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.400 on how frequently certain letters appeared in the English language 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.600 in this story. And this is pretty much the same 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.679 premise as in Treasure Island, except Stevenson substituted a map 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.920 in place of the cipher, and the author later copped 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.080 this too, like like in his preface to the book, 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.960 he said, quote, the map was the chief part of 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.720 my plot. For that I broke into the gallery of 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.480 Mr Poe. M alright, Well, a pattern is definitely starting 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.880 to emerge here because I actually have another pirate stereotype 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.360 that we can at least partly thank Treasure Island for, 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.720 And that's the idea that pirates made people walk the plank. 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.440 Not to be fair, plank walking did ex is among 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.480 pirates to some degree, but most historians will tell you 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.680 that it was a pretty rare form of punishment. Now, 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.520 the most recognizable example of the practice occurred in the 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.800 mid eighteen hundreds, I think, and this was when an 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.720 eyewitness reported that a British ship captain had been abducted 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.560 by pirates and that quote, a plank was run on 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.720 the starboard side of their schooner, upon which they made 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.800 Captain Smith walk, and as he approached the end, they 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.079 tilted the plank when he dropped into the seat. Now 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.720 beyond that, we know that some Caribbean pirates also forced 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.640 captured sailors to walk the plank, and there even some 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.160 accounts of Mediterranean pirates taking part in something similar back 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.800 in the days of ancient Rome. In this case, the 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.880 pirates would suspend a ladder out over the ocean and 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.760 then mockingly invite prisoners to crawl out on it and 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.400 swim back home to freedom. That seems pretty cruel, But 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.440 I'm curious how does Treasure Island fit into all of this. Basically, 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.680 Robert Louis Stevenson and a few other writers of his 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.520 air are mostly responsible for making plank walking, you know, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.120 more ubiquitous than it really was, and their stories presented 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.600 as kind of the go to form of punishment that 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.600 pirates used, and this idea was only enforced by popular 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.480 illustrations and paintings from this same time period. Now all 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.120 of that really cemented. Plank walking is one of the 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.840 visual icons of piracy, and the interesting thing about this 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.680 misplaced attention is that it actually makes some pirates seem 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.960 less cruel than they really were, because the pirates really 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.400 wanted to do away with a mutinous crew member or 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.720 a troublesome captive. I mean, they had far worse methods 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.160 than simply forcing somebody overboard. And you know, some of 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.680 the more common practices included marooning someone onto an island, 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.000 which almost always resulted in a slow death for the victim. 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.280 Then there was the especially grizzly punishment called keel hauling, 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.480 and this was when the victim was tied naked to 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:52.320 a rope, thrown overboard, and then just tragically dragged beneath 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.760 the entire length of the ship while barnacles cut up 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:56.760 their skin. It's it's pretty gross to read about it. It 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.840 It feels horrible. In fact, I want to get us 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.520 on have your note A S A P. So I'm 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.640 just gonna come right out and tell you that pirates 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:10.400 almost certainly kept parrots as pets. And so this is 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.480 another pirate trope that was popularized by a treasure Island 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.840 long John Silver was the first fictional pirate to walk 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.560 around with a parrot on his shoulder, but in this case, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.160 Stevenson was really drawing from history. So to give a 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.520 little background when we talk about the Golden Age of piracy, 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.480 which I still find such a funny phrase to say, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.760 you know, we're really referring to this period from about 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.400 the mid sixteen hundreds to round seventeen thirty. And in 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.359 that time, the recent discoveries of the America's in Australia 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.280 had created a boom and exploration. So for the first 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.080 time in history, multiple nations were shipping tons and tons 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.760 of money and valuable goods all across this largely uncharted 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.400 and unprotected oceans, and of course this made them easy 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.880 picking for enterprising pirates, hence the term Golden Age. But 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.000 in order to rob ships of their precious cargo, pirates 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.240 had to go where the ships went, which meant taking 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.680 to trade routes that mostly led to the Caribbean or 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.720 West Africa or the various coasts along the Indian Ocean. 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.400 And this required long voyages that lasted weeks or months 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.760 at a time and often took the pirates to these 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.920 exotic lands populated by unusual animals like parrots and also monkeys. 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:19.960 So let's get to the important part. Please tell me 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.160 that the monkey thing is true? Because the world is 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.200 kind of a rough place right now, and I feel 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.080 like it would make me feel better to know that 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.400 a pirate captain could have had a parrot on one 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.640 shoulder and a monkey on the other one. So there 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:38.480 isn't much documentation about that specific combination, but pirates with 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.680 monkeys certainly weren't uncommon. Parents were the more practical pet though. 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.600 Parrots would eat things that were already on board, so 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.840 you think about like fruits or seeds or nuts, and 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.160 they didn't really need that much to sustain them. Plus 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.280 they could be taught all these kind of neat tricks 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.040 like how to talk. And you know, there's no better 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.360 way for a pirate to start up a conversation at 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.880 port than by introducing people to talking bird that he, 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.320 you know, picked up. Well let's see. Well that's a 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.720 good point. And still you think after a while it 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.040 might be kind of risky to walk around with a big, 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.280 bright bird on your shoulder. I mean, it seems like 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.160 that's a tough way to keep a low profile. Yeah, 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.280 but it's also good branding. I don't think that many 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.240 pirates actually kept their parents for that long. According to 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.680 this historian, Angus Constant, author of the history of pirates. 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.000 He writes, back home, people would pay good money for 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.320 parrots and other exotic creatures, and sailors could easily buy 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.680 them in Caribbean ports. Some were kept, but most were 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.199 sold when the ship reached home. So really they were 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.399 selling them as soon as they got to port. That 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.280 makes sense. So it's still it's nice to know that 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.720 pirates really did keep parents, even if only for a 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:45.879 little while. But all right, well, I know there's a 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:47.639 couple more pirate myths that we want to take a 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.840 look at. But before we do, let's take a quick break. 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:09.760 They're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.840 the facts and fiction that fuel the modern view of pirates. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.320 All right, Mago. So one of the more interesting topics 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.919 that I looked into this week were the big gold 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.040 earrings that pirates wore. And the question here wasn't whether 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.639 or not pirates really wore them. I think, you know, 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.560 most historians agree that many of them did, but why 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.480 did they wear them? So the story I'd always heard 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:31.520 is that the ear rings were away for pirates to 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.960 pay for their burials, Like, uh, if a pirate happened 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.480 to die on land instead of at sea, the gold 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.880 from their earrings could cover the cost, and obviously, even 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.280 for a pirate, that would be preferable to just being 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.760 put in this mass grave or left out for the 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.280 crows to eat. I'm guessing yeah. I mean, there is 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.760 some evidence that supports this idea. But those earrings and 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.320 other kinds of jewelry weren't just a fail safe for 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.200 pirate burial. I mean they were also symbols of rebellion 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.760 against the seventeenth and eighteenth century laws that we're really 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.399 meant to control what people could wear or do in 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.680 their private lives. So in England, just for example, men 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.760 weren't allowed to wear jewelry, and certain colors were off 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.040 limits for commoners to wear, and if somebody didn't conform 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.399 to those rules, they could be heavily fined or even imprisoned. So, 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.359 as this pirate historian, Gael Sellinger put it, the so 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.280 called sumptuary laws were quote a legal way for the 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.879 ruling class to separate themselves from commoners by regulating what 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.640 they wore, what they could drink, and where they could live. Well, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:32.680 I mean it is easy to see how none of 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:34.880 that would sit very well with pirates, who are obviously 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.480 big fans of flouting the law whenever possible, right, yeah, exactly, 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.480 But for full disclosure, some historians do question how widespread 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.399 the practice of dressing flamboyantly and wearing ear rings really was. 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:49.520 And you know, many of them would argue that the 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.400 bandanas and the sashes and earrings that we usually picture 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.439 pirates wearing actually come from more like these series of 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.320 drawings and children's books, and that those depictions had really 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.040 been based in Spanish bandits, not pirates. But you know, 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.480 as was most things we've talked about today, there's not 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.400 a ton of evidence in either direction, though, so it's 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.879 likely that at least a few pirates did dress this 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.119 way well, and that kind of in your face fashion 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.280 sense would also fit into what we do know about 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.520 pirates backgrounds. Most of them actually started out as crew 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:23.560 members aboard the respective countries merchant marines or naval ships 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.320 before turning to a life of piracy. And from what 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.399 I've read, life aboard those ships was often rougher and 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.400 actually more tyrannical than it was on actual pirate ships. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.240 Like on a merchant ship, for instance, crew members lived 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.320 in these squalid conditions. They were subject to a ton 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.160 of rules that were just as strict, if not stricter, 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.520 than those on land and merchant marines and naval captains. 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.000 They had the final say on everything that happened on 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:51.440 their ships, which left many crew members feeling oppressed and 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.200