Boats and Ships
Peg legs and parrots, but X marks no spot...

In movies, pirate ship captains are often educated aristocrats played by Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks. In reality, pirate captains were out-of-work sailors with a knack for leadership.

When Queen Anne's War (England vs. France) ended in 1713, the British navy shrank from 50,000 sailors to 15,000 sailors. These unemployed sailors, plus captured slaves and a few women, created the "Golden Age of Piracy."

David Cordingly, author of Under The Black Flag, answers often asked questions about pirates:

Q: Did pirates have wooden legs?
A:Yes, often. Pirates were frequently injured from canon fire or shipboard accidents. The medical solution of the time: cut it off.

Q: Did pirates put parrots on their shoulders?
A:Yes. Parrots were a popular pirate souvenir from exotic trips (and easier to keep than monkeys). Parrots were valuable in London bird markets and as bribes to British naval officers.

Q: Did pirates make people walk the plank?
A: Only one recorded instance (1829) of walking the plank is known. "Real pirates had no time for such ceremonies," says Cordingly. When a pirate wanted to kill, he'd hack the victim with a cutlass or throw him overboard.

Q: Did pirates use black flags with skull and crossbones?
A: This was one of many symbols pirates put on flags. Others were bleeding hearts, blazing balls, hour glasses and whole skeletons. The skull and crossbones became famous through the pirate stories of Robert Louis Stevenson and movies.

Q: Did pirates use an X on a map to mark hidden treasure?
A: No. This myth stems from the cover art on the first edition of Stevenson's Treasure Island in 1881. "The effect of Treasure Island on our perception of pirates cannot be overestimated," says Cordingly. He says that except for the notion that X marks the spot the novel is remarkably accurate.