Why do they allways show pirates with a patch,wood leg & hook?Did they really look like that? If true...why?

Question

Did they loose their hand,leg & eye in some kind of accident?

Answer 1

I agree with the other posters that many of the pirate stereotypes go back to Robert Louis Stevenson's character Long John Silver in Treasure Island.

However a few things about those stereotypes should be kept in mind:

1. The eye patch: Pirates were pirates because they wanted to capture ships. In order to maximize the value of the ships they captured, pirates avoided cannon firing if at all possible. A ship intact is worth more than a sinking ship. So when resisted, they preferred to board a ship rather than shoot it. The eye patch is invaluable in boarding a target vessel.

On a bright Carribean day you come alongside the quarry and jump on board. The crew smartly retreats below deck where it's dark. You go below without the eyepatch and can't see a thing because your eyes have to adjust to the dark. You'll get dead very quickly. If instead you move the eye patch from one eye to the other, the formerly covered eye has perfect vision.

2. The peg leg and hook: Medical care on the high seas in the 1600's and 1700's was primitive. If your ship had a doctor at all, he was almost never an educated physician. The typical ship's surgeon was a glorified barber who knew a little bit about dealing with wounds and knew a couple herbal remedies. The typical treatment for any serious injury was amputation. Splinter cut your thigh: take the leg. Finger crushed by the anchor: take the hand. A nice neat intentional wound had a much greater chance to heal than a gash.

Sailing is a dangerous business, piracy more so. In that environment, it was very hard for a veteran to have all of his body parts to middle age.

Answer 2

There were the occasional pirates that would suffer some disfiguring incident. Some would lose an eye, or some would lose a leg, etc. But it was unlikely that many would survive long if they lost all of the above. Many other sailors suffered these injuries too, but a Pirate didn't really have the option of going back home and being a farmer if he was injured, he was a wanted man. So he would usually have to stay a pirate.

Then of course, once Hollywood got a hold of the image, they blew it all out of proportion.

Answer 3

It is not entirely a stereotype. Sailing was a dangerous business, especially if you were in the navy. Injuries such as lost eyes hands and legs were fairly common. When a sailor lost an eye or an appendage, he was no longer an "able bodied seaman", and would most likely lose his job. There was no welfare in those days, so the sailor still had to work to survive. Most of the time he had no other skills besides seamanship, and so couldn't make a living any other way . Becoming a pirate was an attractive option. Pirate captains were less fussy about physical condition of their sailors than the navy or the merchant marine.

Answer 4

I would have no peg legs, however I would have an eye patch over my left eye. I would have a rough looking parrot sitting on my shoulder. That bird has an attitude literally, it will scream at you if you try to tell it something it doesn't like. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Matey! We would sail the entire world. ;)

Answer 5

Probably lost hand, eye, leg in sword fights. Hooks, wooden legs , and eye patches were the best fixes they had back then.

Answer 6

Blame Robert Louis Stevenson, with his "Long John Silver" character in his novel "Treasure Island".

"In popular culture, pirates are associated with a stereotypical manner of speaking and dress. This tradition owes much to Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in Disney's 1950 film adaptation of Treasure Island."

"Piracy : Piracy in popular culture and fiction" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy#Piracy_in_popular_culture_and_fiction

"In popular culture, the modern pirate stereotype owes its tradition mostly to depictions of Captain Hook and his crew in theatrical and film versions of "Peter Pan", as well as Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in the film "Treasure Island"."

"Pirates in popular culture" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_in_popular_culture

Answer 7

Naw, it can be traced back to the description of Long John Silver in the book Treasure Island.

Answer 8

One word: Hollywood.