Pirate Myths

Myths about pirates begun with the novel "Treasure Island." It was published on January 28, 1882 by the Cassell and authored by Robert Louis Stevenson. It brought adoration for the genre of pirate novels. It gained so much notoriety that the genre of pirates were made into movies, comic books, and Halloween costumes. The book idolized pirates in a way.
 Before the novel, the truth about pirates was sort of obscured. Pirate fiction really blew up with the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" with the actor Johnny Depp. The film depicted pirates as romantic, nimble, living a blissful life on the seas, and overall good people for the most of them. One major myth about pirates is that they only fought when the needed such as protecting their gold from other thieving pirates and only fighting as hard as they need to. Any pirate would favor stealing loot without a fight, but when they decided to fight, they fought barbarously. And if any crewmates were chicken, including the captain, they would have been killed. Another myth about pirates is that they buried their loot so no one would be able to get to it. Pirates did not expect to reach their elder years because of the lifestyle they chose. This means that having a plan for when they grow old was not on their minds. The only thing they worried about was collecting all the booty they could before their time came up. Then they would spend it all on women and rum as fast as possible. Another myth about pirates is that they made their enemies walk the plank. Pirates preferred keel-hauling, which is binding their enemies to the bottom of the ship. This way they would drown and be pommeled by debris, which is a much more painful way to die than walking the plank.

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