Factrum publishes a selection of facts from the publication Hotshowlife, which tells what the sea robbers really were, terrifying decent sailors.
Antique piracy
Image source: Hotshowlife.comPirates were known in antiquity, they were called "leistas". Ancient pirates, unlike the robbers of the New Age, plundered small coastal villages, attacked lonely travelers and sold them into slavery. Piracy flourished in the 16th and 18th centuries, when trade flourished and it was not yet possible to provide adequate protection.
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Despite the ingrained fame of drunkards, many pirate ships were dry, and most pirates only allowed themselves to drink on land. The myth that pirates run rum instead of blood in their veins has spread thanks to the popularity of Stevenson's novel Treasure Island.
The history of the blindfold
An eye patch did not always mask the injury. Sailors often had to descend into poorly lit holds, it takes some time for the human eye to adapt to the darkness. But if a pirate wore a bandage, then removing it in the dark, he immediately saw well with one eye.
Jolly Roger Pirate Flag
Jolly Roger - a flag with human bones on a black background is strongly associated with a robber ship. It is generally believed that pirates walked under it constantly, but this is not true. It was a signal that there was an epidemic on the ship. Outlawed, pirates hid and camouflaged their ships by flying flags of different countries. For example, when attacking the Spaniards, the robbers raised the English flag, since at that time Spain and England were at war.
Privateers and Corsairs
A very interesting fact is the existence of legal piracy. Some countries with developed maritime trade have partially legalized piracy, deriving income from the robbery. A privateer is a private person who has received a letter of marque. Such a person had the right to seize and destroy ships of hostile and neutral countries in exchange for a certain percentage of the loot, which was deducted to the employer. Corsair is a synonym for privateer.
How was the booty divided?
The pirates had their own loot distribution system. The quartermaster gave a tenth share to the captain, the rest of the booty was divided into equal parts. For injury, each team member had the right to receive compensation. The least received were the team members who did not take part in the battles.
Francis Drake
The famous corsair and navigator Francis Drake was the first Englishman to sail around the world. He became famous for opening the strait between the island of Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica, as well as the defeat of the Spanish fleet in 1578. For his contribution to the field of geography and service to the crown, he was awarded a knighthood.
Discipline
In the movies, pirates are portrayed as cruel barbarians, undisciplined, with a complete lack of manners. Is it so? Even the military could envy their discipline. For violation of the order, the perpetrators were severely punished. The offender could be left alone on a desert island, beaten or tied to a mast. Many captains of pirate ships were well-read and educated people, because they had to manage the navigation of the ship and monitor the health of all mechanisms.
Why do pirates need earrings in their ears and where does a parrot come from?
On screens, we often see pirates depicted with an earring in their ear and a parrot on their shoulder. In fact, only the most experienced thugs were allowed to wear the earring when they crossed the equator or overcame Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Of course, there could be no question of training exotic birds by a team of thugs.
Where are the treasures buried?
The most common misconception about pirates is their wealth, as well as the fact that they buried loot on the islands. Most often, pirate ships did not possess impressive firepower, and their size was not so significant. With such an arsenal, it made no sense to storm large ships and well-armed Spanish galleons. Small consignments of goods plundered from private merchants were sold by pirates for much less than their value. Sea robbery was a very dangerous occupation, and the pirate's age was not great, so there was no point in burying the treasure.
Igor Y
In Soviet cinema, I think this question was better. For example, the same Drozdov, being a film consultant, would hardly have advised a pirate of the Caribbean to sit an Australian parrot on his shoulder.
But all this needs to be checked.
I recall the Soviet 3-episode "Treasure Island" - it was presented to the viewer as a children's film, although ... Cap Flint, the green (in the original) Silver parrot (played by O. Borisov), was a large white cockatoo with a luxurious crest.
True, this was a trifle compared to everything else. I would not call this film childish - it was just stupid (the difference is enormous).
However, Cap Flint could still be a cockatoo parrot. I copy the words of Silver:
"... He sailed with England, with the famous captain England, a pirate. He visited Madagascar, Malabar [Malabar is an area on the southwestern coast of India], Suriname [Suriname is the same as Dutch Guiana (in South America )], in Providence [Providence - an island in the Indian Ocean], in Porto Bello [Porto Bello - a port in Scotland]. He saw how cargo is caught from sunken galleons [galleons are Spanish ships that transported gold from Spanish America to Spain.] That's when he learned to shout “piastres.” And there is nothing to be surprised about: that day three hundred and fifty thousand piastres were caught, Hawkins! This parrot was present during the attack on the Viceroy of India not far from Goa [Portuguese colony in India]. he looks like a baby ... "
All notes are taken from the text of the book. India is mentioned twice - and from India to Indonesia, where white cockatoos live, is not so far. However, Silver could lie - he was a master of this business.
And Stephenson, the writer, and even more so! : mrgreen:
As for small breeds - why not? After all, a pirate's parrot is not a weapon of intimidation, but on the contrary a piece of his human qualities. I think that's why they got birds. There was nothing good to expect from the rabble that was in the pirate crew, only "a feather to the bochin" And the bird was just that outlet where you can put the remnants of sentimentality.
Or maybe the pirate captain had a parrot like a jester with the king.
Jesters, which is typical, were often smarter than their masters. (After all, a pirate is such a simple ruba toa-guy: duel_2:, and he also spent the loot from it very simply: prost :)
Bite, gray cockatiel. (Spring 1994 - Autumn 2004).
Vasya, a green necklace parrot. (Year of birth - 2005, spring).
How to feed your parrot correctly:
The sage knows that through wisdom one can come to sorrow. And the cynic does not know that through sorrow one cannot come to wisdom.
A cynic can neither justify himself, nor explain what is happening around him - therefore he does both at the same time.
The cynic loves nature so much that he tries to imitate it - from this nature suffers first.
The cynic does not see the difference between freedom, adulthood, and causing harm - three very distant things from each other.
Do you want to go on a short trip around the region with your friends and not depend on anyone? Rent a minibus at http://turkostroma.ru/page.php?url\u003dzakaz_arenda_mikroavtobusa and more. There are so many interesting things around.Ever since John Silver appeared before us on a wooden leg with a parrot on his shoulder, pop culture has made the parrot an indispensable element of the pirate, or rather his shoulder. But here it is very difficult to separate reality from fiction. How do we represent a pirate? A parrot, a wooden leg, an eye patch, a bandana, a strange growling Scottish accent ... But how was it really?
The parrot was almost certainly a real friend of the pirate. John Silver, star of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, was the first fictional pirate to appear everywhere with his beloved parrot, but according to historians and piracy experts, the image was based on real facts. And the reasons why the parrot became closely associated with pirates gives us a pretty good idea of \u200b\u200bthe actual pirates of the Golden Age.
The golden age of piracy is from the mid-1600s to 1730. This period saw several major geopolitical and economic movements that in fact created the space for piracy. The discovery of America and Australia led to a boom in the exploration of new territories, which, in turn, led to the fact that fabulous sums of money and a huge amount of value were transported across the oceans. Money, gold, slaves, spices and other expensive goods traveled from one part of land to another. The transport ships were poorly protected, and the vastness of the oceans and the difficult conditions of sea travel made them weak and vulnerable shells. Many former sailors, who knew the seas well, wondered why they should waste their energy ferrying goods and trying to make money when they could just steal it all.
And so the pirates appeared.
Different periods of the Golden Age of piracy led to the emergence of various forms of piracy. Angus Constam, author of The History of the Pirates and one of the foremost experts in the world, believes the term should be limited to an eight-year period from 1714 to 1722.
It is worth noting that the pirates who were robbing ships must have been somewhere near their targets, hence they traveled along trade routes, which explains why they ended up in the right place at the right time. They stayed close to ships and lived mainly in the Caribbean, West Africa and the Indian Ocean coast.
On sea cruises, not only people went, but also animals, and they were needed to maintain morale on the ship. Sea voyages could last for weeks or even months, and as you might guess, they were incredibly boring and lacking in comfort. And it was the animal that could help to cheer up during the trip. Which one?
As you might guess, cats were best suited for the role of a companion. They did not require much food, and ate mostly ship rats. They are also warm, fluffy and purring creatures that lift your spirits. But I would like to note that in those days cats were considered soulless creatures, and we began to love them quite recently. You can read more in a recent article about cat ladies. Dogs, in those days, were mostly owned by aristocrats, and they were considered pets for high society, so it is unlikely that a dog could be on board a pirate ship.
It is worth noting that pirates often found themselves in rather exotic countries, and they had quite a little free time and the total net income was extremely low, so they had no particular reason to limit themselves to common European pets such as cats and dogs. ... Monkeys, for example, became pirates' pets more often than cats and dogs, so Captain Barbossa has a "favorite monkey" in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. But the parrot was the smarter choice. They eat little compared to a dog, cat or monkey, and their food (seeds, fruits, nuts) can be easily stored on board. They are bright, funny and have intelligence - you can show off in the port, which was important for pirates.
Previously, people who stayed on the shore paid good money for parrots and other exotic animals, and sailors could easily buy them in many Caribbean ports. Some were kept for themselves, but most were sold when the ship came home. They were flamboyant, they could be taught to talk, and they were well appreciated in London's bird markets. American cities like Boston and Charleston, where you could sell a parrot, were much smaller than London in those days, and pirates were often notorious and persecuted criminals who had a hard time entering a port in a populous city like London.
William Dampier, a British explorer, noted that the best parrots were brought from Veracruz, a coastal region of Mexico. Pirates may have changed, but humans have not. Veracruz is still one of the largest illegal parrot trade outlets, and is where parrots are illegally hunted every year.
So we can conclude that parrots were really the most beloved pets of pirates, and all this because they could be sold at a high price, they ate little, were a kind of beautiful blunder, and they sat on the shoulder, because the pirate taught him to speak so that in the end, sell it at a higher price.
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Many, in childhood, read the entertaining novel "Treasure Island" by the English writer - Robert Stevenson. When John Silver showed up at the tavern owned by the mother of young John - the main character of the work, a parrot was sitting on the shoulder of the old pirate. It is John Silver who represents the most classic image of a pirate. Well, of course, he did not appear from scratch, like a parrot sitting on his shoulder.
After all, pirates - mainly plowed warm seas, in particular, of course - the Caribbean Sea. And they often stopped on the opposite islands, where they rested and made various purchases, in particular, they bought parrots. The pirates were especially attracted by colorful birds, such as the Ara parrots, they were not afraid even of the powerful beaks of the aratung, which could bite the mast rope at once! Or chop off a piece of a pirate's cocked hat. But pirates are pirates - that such nonsense will not intimidate them.
Some people wonder how this parrot can sit quietly on its shoulder and not try to fly anywhere, did the pirates really know how to tame them so well? But far from always such perseverance of a parrot depended only on diligent upbringing, often the unfortunate bird was simply cut off its wings ... And where would a rude sailor delve into the intricacies of training and keeping a bird. It's good that she was alive and well, even with clipped wings! After all, a parrot needs a special diet, but how does a sea wolf know about this? Often, the birds had to be content with what their owners ate. Well, a pirate parrot shouldn't be dead!
The sailors were especially amused by the ability of these birds to talk. Rather, to imitate human speech. It is easy to imagine what "cultural" words such an ass could type! Arriving most of the time in the company of drunken sailors and officers. If such a parrot, having lived for several years with the corsairs, accidentally ended up in a decent society, then we can say with great confidence that many ladies would faint from his heavy words!
An interesting observation: as you know, parrots, especially their large species, like the aforementioned ARA, live long enough. From 70 to 100+ years! So they were quite capable of outliving their "sea master", and sometimes more than one. And since the parrots were trusted, they could well conduct a discussion on the topic "where to bury the prey" in their presence. A parrot, later could reproduce the words of the pirates in the presence of an outside person. And these words could well contain very interesting, secret information. Thus, the pirate parrot turned into a real compass capable of pointing to the "treasure island"!
