Untrue Stereotypes of the Life of a Pirate


Treasure Island, published in the early 1880s, gave us many different stereotypes about Pirates that are still used to this day. Everything from pirate captains having a parrot sidekick to walking the plank can be traced back to this book. 

 Over the course of history, there have been many parts of a pirate's life that most people assume we're part of an average pirate's everyday life. Many of these stereotypes were brought into the world by Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, Treasure Island. 

Image result for treasure island book cover
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Cliché such as peg legs and parrots are also rooted in literary myth. Long John Silver, the main villain of Treasure Island, had a peg leg and parrot that was often depicted to be sitting on his shoulder. It is also thought that Captain Ahab from the book Moby-Dick by Herman Melville could also have helped lead to this thought, as often in the book he is described as having an ivory leg.

Other stereotypes that have been associated with a pirates' life that aren't entirely based on the truth include things like eyepatches. Which, while the reasoning behind the use of eyepatches -- It is said that eyepatches were used to quickly adapt from the bright sunlight of being on the deck of a ship to the darkness of below deck. However, the use of eye patches was an incredibly rare thing for pirates to use.

Another myth about pirates has to due with the skull and crossbones flag. While the skull and crossbones were flown in the time of pirates by pirates, it generally meant that so long as you handed over your ship's goods, you would be sent on your way unharmed. Unlike if you flew a red flag, which meant that they were willing to hurt you and your crew to obtain the goods on your ship.

While some there are some rare cases of these things being present in pirate lives, like eyepatches and peg legs. It is only in a few isolated cases, they were by no means normal things that happened while sailing the high seas and many of them were brought into the world by Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island. 

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