Pirate Myth Busting with Sherrill Joseph

Shiver me timbers! I'm surprised that some of this pirate 'lore' is not true at all! And Sherrill Joseph ought to know with her newest book featuring these seafaring bandits!

I’m pleased to welcome Sherrill Joseph back with a guest post, featuring the many myths she encountered while doing research for her newest book, Macadamia Street: Hidden Skeleton (Book 7 in her Middle-Grade series, The Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries.)

I became enamored with pirates in 2003 when Johnny Depp staggered across the silver screen as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Well, shiver me timbers! What a motley crew of scurvy but hilarious knaves dazzled my eyes as I downed popcorn. But I wondered: Was Hollywood’s depiction of the seafaring scoundrels historically accurate? It differed somewhat from pirates in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Treasure Island. And how factual was that work? Little did I know that the seed of a future book was germinating.

That book has arrived: Macadamia Street: Hidden Skeleton, Book 7 in my Middle-Grade series, The Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries. Learn more at: https://sherrilljoseph.com/books

So, listen well, me hearties, as I unravel some yarns, er, myths, from my research about the Golden Age of Piracy’s ocean-going thieves.

Pixaby: Free HD Stock

Myth Buster #1: Pirates were not always carefree rabblerousers! Many were starving and seriously ill with scurvy from lack of Vitamin C. Their conduct on a ship and in port was also constrained by the Pirates’ Code. It was authored by the treacherous pirate captain Black Bart in the 1720s as articles, or rules, of agreement for orderly, safe behavior for the good and success of all. Everyone on the ship had to sign the Code to sail, including the captain and officers. Most pirate ships’ captains adopted the Code with personal changes. One rule was that a sailor risked death if he brought women or boys aboard. Another was no drinking or brawling was allowed in port. (No rum for you, Captain Jack Sparrow. Bah, yo-ho!) Yet another was that all candles must be extinguished by 8 p.m. so everyone was rested for what the next day brought. The other rules are in my book!

Myth Buster #2: Crew members did not fear the ship’s captain! Crew, officers, and the captain were considered of equal rank. This ensured everyone worked as a team to capture the prime directive: treasure. Life on board was, therefore, a democracy. A captain wanted the crew to like him so he would not be marooned, and his ship stolen. The crew wanted to be respected by the captain and officers who led them to riches and divided the treasure equitably according to the Pirate Code.

Pixaby: Inspired Images

Myth Buster #3: Pirates did not bury their treasure! They needed their portion to buy food, medicine, personal supplies, hand hooks, and peg legs in ports. Most lived from one plunder to the next. Few pirates survived to retire, so they freely spent their earnings.

Myth Buster #4: Pirates did not tend to have pet parrots! That was Stevenson’s creation for Treasure Island’s Captain Long John Silver, who sported a parrot on his shoulder. The artist Howard Pyle continued the trope in his book of pirates published in 1921. Cats were the favored pets as they helped eradicate rats on pirate vessels. Exotic birds could fetch a good price if sold in England, but most pirates died before returning to their homeland. More importantly, pirates were wanted felons and did not want to advertise their presence or profession by selling an exotic animal or bird.

Pixaby: iPicture

Myth Buster #5: Pirates’ gold earrings were not merely decorative! They served as burial money for the ship’s captain to pay for any expenses for his deceased crew member.

Myth Buster #6: Pirates did not make their enemies walk the plank! The preferred torture was keelhauling. A rope was tied around the miscreant’s waist. He was then pulled overboard, under the ship, and back aboard. If he escaped drowning, he was often lacerated by the splinters on the keel, whereby his bloody wounds attracted sharks.

Pixaby: Heinz-Will-Koch

Myth Buster #7: Pirates did not wear boots! (Though it made them look cool and more ferocious in the movies!) Boots were too difficult to walk in on a swaying ship. And navigating sand and ocean water was impossible with the heavy footwear. Pirates wore small leather shoes with top buckles, popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Avast, me hearties! Thank you for reading my seven strange but true myth busters for Book 7. Now, keep a weather eye open, not covered with a black patch, as ye navigate life!

Learn more about the entire series by clicking the button below.

Sherrill Joseph was a shy kid whose friends came mainly from books. Her hero Nancy Drew taught her to seek adventures and help people near home. Convinced early on that she was an architect in a former life, Sherrill was receptive to the magic of her Southern California neighborhood’s historic Craftsman and Spanish houses. To this day, she still dramatizes those old “castles,” filling them with mysteries and exaggerated occurrences. Once retired in 2013 from teaching kids for thirty-five years, the child in Sherrill created the award-winning Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries series so other children could gallop with her and her four sleuths down dusty passageways and climb endlessly winding staircases after clues to capture the bad guys and solve the mystery at hand. Please come join them and their standalone adventures!

Follow Sherrill adventures here on Substack or on her website, Facebook, or Instagram. Sherrill is also a member of the Blackbird Writers, offering interesting and entertaining content for mystery / suspense lovers right here on Substack.