13 Now-You-Know Facts About Pirates They Didn’t Teach At School
![13 Now-You-Know Facts About Pirates They Didn’t Teach At School](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/797839_320x180.jpg)
We all love pirates. It's not that surprising really. Absolute mad lads, who love the sea, parrots, hook hands, grog and loot galore. There's just something about the fantasy of breaking away from society, living on the run and frequenting tropical ports of call in between daring raids for treasure.
The thing is though, there's probably a lot of facts about pirates you never knew. For example, did you know modern workers comp reforms can largely be traced back to practices on pirate ships, where crews had formal systems for compensating injuries? We couldn't believe the true story behind the jollyroger.
The name Blackbeard probably makes you think of a scourge of the seas who enjoyed a long reign of terror. The reality is … not quite that.
So if you're hankerin' for more fascinating pirate facts, gird your loins, hoist the mizzen, swab the poop decks and get scrolling!
Here’s the full story, plus 12 others:
![We kind of owe the existence of workers' comp to 18th-century pirates. It was a pretty dangerous profession, so pirates figured out a compensation scheme for injuries, and their system was one of the earliest around. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/1/797851.jpg)
![The standard pop culture pirate flag is actually just one guy's personal flag. It belonged to John Calico Jack Rackham, who had a pretty uneventful two-year pirate career. His only lasting influence is, well, that flag. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/2/797852.jpg)
![A surprisingly high number of 18th-century pirates were actually from Africa. The reason for that is pretty simple- a pirate ship was one of the few places at that time where a slave could actually free themselves. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/9/797849.jpg)
![There's a theory that pirates wore eyepatches SO they could see in the dark. There's no historical source for it, but some think pirates kept an eyepatch over a good eye to instantly see well when they went below decks. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/5/0/797850.jpg)
![When pirates caught a merchant vessel, some of its crew joined the pirates. That was relatively common, anyway, and the reason was simple: the conditions aboard merchant (and military) ships were terrible. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/8/797848.jpg)
![Back in the day, Jamaica used to be the base of operations for Jewish pirates. Today, if you go to Kingston's Hunts Bay Cemetery, you can find tombstones that have the skull and crossbones sign plus Hebrew text. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/7/797847.jpg)
![The most successful pirate in recorded history was a Chinese prostitute. Cheng I Sao was active in the early 19th century, and at her most powerful commanded 000 sailors and a fleet of over 500 ships. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/5/797845.jpg)
![Turns out, the Mississippi River was surprisingly full of piracy back in the day. But things started to calm down in the 1820s, when steamboats grew more common - being faster and more secure, they weren't worth attacking. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/6/797846.jpg)
![Pirate booty actually typically wasn't doubloons, gold artifacts, and SO on. They robbed merchant ships, which mostly carried goods like tobacco, cotton, cloth, spices, sugar, wood, etc., so that's what pirates would get. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/4/797844.jpg)
![Turns out, we probably owe the popularity of guacamole to a pirate. William Dampier, who became a pirate in 1679, wrote down the first ever guac recipe (and We also got the words tortilla and soy sauce from him). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/3/797843.jpg)
![The standard pirate speech comes from a 1950s pirate movie - - Treasure Planet. Robert Newton played Long John Silver, arrr'd a lot, and used phrases like shiver me timbers. That's how the whole thing got started. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/2/797842.jpg)
![Pirate crews were surprisingly ready to stick together and cooperate. For example, in 1717, pirates threatened to kill every New Englander they captured if members of another pirate crew, who were in prison, suffered. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/1/797841.jpg)
![The fearsome Blackbeard was only active for a grand total of two years. He's first mentioned as a pirate in 1716 (he was a privateer from 1701 to 1713), and they caught and killed him in 1718 - and that was that. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/0/797840.jpg)