A
Anonymous
Guest
Mods, feel free to move this to 'Chat' if it doesn't look Fortean enough, but I reckon it's to do with the way we view 'reality' and 'history' and suchlike.
I recently got invited to a fancy dress party where the theme of the evening was 'Pirates'. Accordingly, the other guests and I all dressed up in clothes we associated with pirates. My question is this: Where have these 'conventions' of how pirates supposedly dress come from? I have a horrible suspicion that they're all derived from fiction rather than fact...
I identified the following themes:
1) Exotic pet - Eg, parrot, monkey, etc.
Obviously, pirates would be keen to have exotic, hard-to-come-by animals as status symbols, but is there any real-life documentation of such pets? The only one I can think of is Long John Silver's parrot, Captain Flint, but he's a work of fiction. Was he based on a real pirate pet?
2) Wooden leg
Again, the fictional Silver is the only one I know about. Was he the archetype? Was there a significant number of real pirates with prostheses, relative to 'normal' sailors, or everyday folk, even?
3) Hook.
Fictitious Captain Hook had a hook for a hand, but did the trend start and end with him? Did he have any real-life precursors?
4) Skull-and-Crossbones flag
All fictional pirates hoist the 'Jolly Roger', but why would you do that if you were a real pirate? It'd be a dead give-away if you were sneaking up on a merchant vessel or trying to avoid the navy.
5) The catchphrases:
"Arrrrr"
"Shiver me timbers!"
"Yo ho ho!"
etc...
All stemming from fiction? (Does Silver actually say "Arrr, Jim-lad!" at any point in 'Treasure Island'?)
Any thoughts...?
I recently got invited to a fancy dress party where the theme of the evening was 'Pirates'. Accordingly, the other guests and I all dressed up in clothes we associated with pirates. My question is this: Where have these 'conventions' of how pirates supposedly dress come from? I have a horrible suspicion that they're all derived from fiction rather than fact...
I identified the following themes:
1) Exotic pet - Eg, parrot, monkey, etc.
Obviously, pirates would be keen to have exotic, hard-to-come-by animals as status symbols, but is there any real-life documentation of such pets? The only one I can think of is Long John Silver's parrot, Captain Flint, but he's a work of fiction. Was he based on a real pirate pet?
2) Wooden leg
Again, the fictional Silver is the only one I know about. Was he the archetype? Was there a significant number of real pirates with prostheses, relative to 'normal' sailors, or everyday folk, even?
3) Hook.
Fictitious Captain Hook had a hook for a hand, but did the trend start and end with him? Did he have any real-life precursors?
4) Skull-and-Crossbones flag
All fictional pirates hoist the 'Jolly Roger', but why would you do that if you were a real pirate? It'd be a dead give-away if you were sneaking up on a merchant vessel or trying to avoid the navy.
5) The catchphrases:
"Arrrrr"
"Shiver me timbers!"
"Yo ho ho!"
etc...
All stemming from fiction? (Does Silver actually say "Arrr, Jim-lad!" at any point in 'Treasure Island'?)
Any thoughts...?