One thing that I don't think a lot of people consider is that insurance existed back then, as now, as a protection against loss. So when pirates boarded a ship they wished to capture, the crew would sometimes surrender with little or no resistance because their cargo was insured. To resist risked injury or death. Of course that doesn't mean that every ship that fell prey to pirates was insured, nor that every ship gave up without a fight, but it does add an interesting historical wrinkle that things were not always as they show in the movies.
The choice was simple, really: fight, and even if you win you'll be short men and possibly horribly injured. If you lose, you die and they take your stuff anyway. If you surrender, they take your stuff and you don't get hurt.
Those ships that weren't formally insured were 'self-insured' - i.e. once an owner's fleet was large enough, the probability of total loss was diminished, and the ship-owner could reimburse traders for lost cargo. Insurance was more about customers' cargo than the vessels themselves.
They actually did have insurance back than and you should always fact check yourself now is it the same thing as today by no means but they did have it. insurance during this time. Although the concept of insurance as we know it today didn’t exist, there were some practices related to protecting sailors and their well-being: Health ‘Insurance’ at Sea: Sailors faced various challenges, including wounds from battles, shipboard accidents, and illnesses contracted from unfamiliar places, people, and foods. The inhabitants of the Île d’Oléron, an island off the coast of France, created maritime laws in the 12th century. These laws influenced health care practices at sea during the golden age of piracy. The British Royal Navy also developed plans to protect sailors, which expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries. Pirates, having often served on naval and merchant marine ships, adopted rudimentary health care plans and modified them to fit their situation3. Cargo Insurance: As piracy increased along the Middle Passage (the transatlantic slave trade route), merchant vessel owners needed to insure their cargo. Not only was there a threat of natural disasters, but also the risk of plundering pirates4. Preserving a Race of Men: Josiah Burchett, writing about the navy, emphasized the importance of caring for sailors when wounded or sick at sea. He believed that preserving these men was crucial for the good of the country. Even merchant shipmasters aimed to maintain seamen’s health, recognizing that hungry, unhealthy sailors wouldn’t lead to successful voyages3. In summary, while formal insurance policies didn’t exist, efforts
Pirates racked up so much on insurance most companies stop insurance on slave ships, to even the consideration of stopping trade through the middle passage. In order to combat piracy Britan did pardons, then hangings, while allowing free trade between colonies, and even charters to other Nations. It Flushed alot of Gold into Britain's economy, and also spread out trade forcing the Pirates to spread out and lose their numbers
Yes, Robert Louis Stevenson, the illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, and Walt Disney's later adaptations, entrenched the stereotypical pirate image into everyone's minds.
No wasn't by any means a distorted picture it was a fictional book with real characters pirates of the Caribbean was a distorted picture everyone knows what a pirate was and is now some did it sanctioned and some not but during the golden age of pirating it was actual freedom and they all had a code some of them were actually honorable and some did it for adventure and to make a name I wish I could have been there in the golden age there's always something about saying FU and the middle finger to the British and Spanish empires
Highly recommend the tv series “Black Sails” to anyone interested in a more accurate (but still dramatic) look at the lives of many of these pirates. Incredibly well done show, with great acting and storylines
Eye patches were because of the eye damage from staring at the sun for daylight navigation. Ruby lenses would filter the sun so sextants with these ruby or emerald filters were highly prized because you wouldn’t go blind using them. You would rotate out of being the navigator when you lost your sight so the next able seaman would become the navigator and the old navigator would get compensation for the loss for as long as you sailed. Being a navigator was a pay raise and a mark of advancement. Sailing with a bunch of one eyed men ensures you are on a very skilled ship. This make more money.
I would love more on pirates and sailors! How about a special on the day-to-day life of sailors? What they ate, how they slept, what their daily routines and duties were, what they wore, how they behaved in port, how they were recruited and retired? I've done a lot of sailing myself and would love to know what life was really like for them!
I'm reading "the wager" at the moment, first book I've read that takes the glamour out of sailing at sea. Jesus christ the conditions described are dreadful. I've decided I'd have been like a short distance sailer/pirate! A weekend pirate if you will
@dcarson89 Absolutely agreed, our little 25-foot sailboat sounds luxurious by comparison! If you read "The Sea-Rover's Practice" by Benerson Little (non-fiction about pirates and privateers etc.), the state of the bilge sounds COMPLETELY HORRIFYING. People passed out if they were down there too long from the fumes and noxious smells from all the fetid water polluted with urine and feces and god knows what else, YUCK.
1650-1730 (or even earlier as the French Flibustiers had a stronghold on Tortuga in 1625) is more the 'Golden Age of Sea-Roving' rather than Piracy. Sea-Roving is a broader term (used by a top, reliable author of piratical books, Benerson Little) to cover the fact that it's it covers a few eras different piracy - Golden Age of Buccaneering (with piracy focused at the Spanish, mostly on Commisions) followed by the Golden Age of Piracy (which mainly gets kickstarted by the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet wrecks and the pirates who get wind of it). What's even more interesting is the periods inbetween the dying Buccaneering Age and the Golden Age of Piracy (and another instance when Nassau was reclaimed by the British), where basically Nations with overseas colonies wanted more order so came down hard on piracy. Piracy had dried up and unless you hired yourself out as Privateers for the upcoming wars, you were in a problematic career. The death nail on this was Port Royal and its pirate-friendly ways sinking into the sea during an earthquake that made many pirates say farewell and go on the Pirate Round - sailing from the Caribbean (and North America) to the Indian Ocean/Red Sea to prey on Arab and Mughal shipping, via West Africa and Madagascar.
Having women on board a ship would likely lead to many fights between men. Ruining crew moral and making the likelihood of mutiny much higher. This is the likely reason women on ships was considered bad luck.
Some did. Rarely. Mostly because imperial gold was stamped. And took it back in a few months or when they thought it was safe. But not really burying them, but hiding in different places, like caves. If they would steal jewelry or similar other things, yes. Spent almost immediately on food and hoes.
Corsairs were pirates predominantly from Northern Africa that used to raid shipping on the Mediterranean. There were also Malay and Arab pirates in the South China and Sulu Sea regions of SE Asia who used a type of small sailing and rowing vessel, the prau, and raided coastal towns and villages, taking everything of value including women and children to sell as slaves, and killing and destroying absolutely everyone and everything else. This branch of piracy went on until the mid-to late-19th century. Regarding the Caribbean pirates in the video they also plundered Indian vessels so they weren't limited to the Atlantic coast and Caribbean in their range, they were global.: They even had a stronghold in Madagascar back in the day (18th century.)
also renegade Portuguese mariners during the 15th & 16th centuries terrorized the largest area of ocean up to that point in human history. orchestrating and executing pirating activities from North Africa to Japan and almost everything in between, as they were the 1st European pirates in the Indian ocean and far East at least a century before other European ships arrived on the scene.
Black Sails is an excellent TV production, a prequel to Treasure Island. It mixes historic characters in with the story. Btw, I question whether the Spanish were mining gold and silver in the new world as much as "mining" the native peoples of those lands who'd been digging it out of the earth for centuries.
Zheng Yi Sao had no actual connection with the Golden Age of Piracy, so it would have been totally unrelated. Honestly lumping the two types of piracy together is super misleading anyways. Chinese Pirates functioned more like cartels and businesses, unlike the Caribbean more "rogue" type of pirates, who started off as government agents and then behaved like Guerrilla fighters who's main aim was to get rich and survive. They aren't really comparable
1- Dutch sailors, who could also be pirates at the time, wore earrings as a fashion. 2- Corsair/Filibuster generally refers to the French. Zea Roover (sp?) refers to Dutch, that said both the French and Dutch would join English Buccaneers depending. 3- Kidd was not reknown, his crew mutineed against him during the 9 years war, he was considered to be an awful leader. He was good at talking to rich backers, that was about it....until he wasn't and then danced the Tiburne Jig. 4- Piracy was already considered a crime before Kidd. Henry Every was already being documented before Kidd. The manhunt was for him... Actually this caused me to stop watching and do a rebuttal....
@@lindacarlton3154 the issue is there are soooooo many myths that it's tough to sift through them all. As far as I've found they just thought they looked cool. Dutch sailors tended to be extremely stylish with lots of crazy patterns and sashes. In many ways they fit our modern image of pirates.
@TheOldBreed I feel bad for Rebecca Simon, her and I were just talking the other week about the Netflix travesty. It's like these hosts and editors have no concept that all the information we give as historians is relevant and that they shouldn't mess it up for entertainment. We want to teach, not be a part of something that perpetuates BS that we then get our names attached to.
Yeah, fearsome. She'd throw you under the bus in a heartbeat and then pretend to be pregnant to save her own ass. As someone much vaunted for their ability to fight and kill men (however true that is) it's funny how she turned around and acted like it was all his fault for not fighting hard enough. Why didn't she keep fighting if she's so tough? And if she surrendered too, then she has no room to talk. Her grand total of 2 months as a pirate aren't exactly impressive enough to justify a "fearsome" reputation. Her fame is down to the novelty of a female pirate. She's just a gimmick. Lol, so fearsome
Yeah I agree, I have even done it myself when I get up in the middle of the night. I’ll close one eye so when I turn a light on and am finished what I was doing once the light goes off again I can walk back to bed in the dark. Not only that but if buried treasure wasn’t a thing why are people finding buried treasure? Not only that but it’s not like pirates could just walk into a bank and make a deposit… they would hide it somewhere if they had a large sum of valuables and just come back and dip into it when they needed.
Fun fact about the buccaneers! They originated as hunters and traders of mostly French origin in the Caribbean! They would hunt pigs, lizards and other animals on the islands, smoke the meat and sell it to passing ships to help them restock their provisions! This is where they’re earned the name “boucanier” or literally smoker in English! Anyways these men where crazy pirates! They formed communities on the small sloops and fishing boats they lived on and Often banded togeather to take our large full masted ships! The buccaneer belief was that 8 muskets equaled 1 cannon and they where AMAZING marksmen to boot! The average shot/min of even an experienced infantryman from a great European power was about 3 shots/min the buccaneers used to grease the inside of their barells, hold their balls in their mouth, spit a ball into the rifle and smack the butt on the ground to drive it home! They perfected this and it gave them a fire rate of 8-10 shots a minute! Although it ruined the guns very quickly
Given the harsh conditions of life for the vast majority of people back then, the only thing that surprises me is that not even more folks became pirates. Doesn't much matter if you run the risk of death or serious injury while serving on a RN vessel for little pay or as member of a pirate crew where you'd get a fixed share of the profits and had a say in who should captain the ship. And while I think I have little illusions about the whole idea of the "romantic" life of pirates, I've always found it fascinating that there were people living in deeply authoritarian and generally repressive times who didn't dream about some sort of more egalitarian utopia but who actually established a system aboard their ships that was, in many ways, well ahead of its time. Doesn't matter to me that they probably came up with these rules mostly out of necessity and not because of some lofty, philanthropic ideals they held - I think it's more important and interesting that such systems actually existed at the time.
I find it disappointingly ironic that a history channel talking about piracy proudly proclaims its use of AI generated art, which pirates art from real artists. I cannot understate how disappointed I am about this. Even if it's hard to find historical artwork, it's no excuse to not support other content creators through commissions and the like. I want to like this channel, I really do, but using AI art seriously undercuts the channel's credibility.
No mention of another illness that swept through the ranks of pirates and sailors alike: VD aka STD aka STI? It is thought that Blackbeard was suffering the effects of late stage syphilis near before he was captured.
Even if Treasure Island is historically incorrect, it’s still a great story. A bit like Ivanhoe. Every boy should have a chance to read them. Girls too, if they feel like it.
Love the channel but I’m super disappointed on you guys proudly using midjourney, which uses tons of artworks without authorisation from the artists to produce these images!
while undoubtedly financial rewards were better for crews on pirate vessels, it's not accurate to state that they received no share of the spoils serving in the navy. In the navy, all ships captured were considered as "prize" and either bought by the Royal Navy in the case of ships of war or sold in prize courts. All the proceeds would be divided among all crews who participated in their capture, with those of higher rank receiving a larger share
27:26 You're talking about the crew of "Revenge", but I believe that's an error...Rackham, Bonny, & Read were on the sloop "William", I think? "Revenge" was Stede Bonnet's ship.
Speaking as a humble pirate myself, being on the Account was an effectively a full commission pay job for the krewe! You had to go find our own "Sail" leads! 🤣 Of course there is always an exception such as Major Stede Bonnet who provided a base pay plus commission for his krewe! I enjoyed the video. Some of the information you provided in the video is based on conjecture rather anything that is definitive about Pirates of the Golden Age. The reality is the only real records regarding pirates themselves are from testimony in the trials and the naval military records. I personally think some of the "myths" about pirates have some basis in fact. Thankfully pirate shipwrecks that have been discovered recently such as the Whydah, Queen Anne's Revenge and the Golden Fleece help with learning what these Pirates were really like!
With all due respect THANK YOU!!!! For this video... Yet so many facts that are unknown... From my research most pirates were at war with the colonial forces/the state and slave owners. Black Bart was actually a Black free man/navigator from Europe. Most history about pirates excludes slave ship rebellions. Its not a mutiny these slave /pirates have stole a colonizer's ship and without question are some of the bravest of all pirates. The freedom fighter "Pro Se" lawyer Sengbe Pieh (Cinque) of The Amistad uprising(1839) Stole the ship went to the supreme court WON and returned to Africa. The little George uprising of (1730) was well documented by the captain who speaks about the pirates/slave ingenuity...
"Not much conclusive evidence for wearing an eyepatch helping with adjusting to changing light levels above and below deck" The Mythbusters would like a word with you. As they pretty conclusively found that an eyepatch does in fact do that. They ended up ruling the myth plausible because as you said, there was no evidence that pirates used them specifically for that purpose. But the science behind it is actually irrefutable.
Not only is there no evidence for pirates wearing eyepatches for that reason, there's no evidence of pirates per se wearing eyepatches. It's a movie trope. The fact that it somewhat works is irrelevant.
@@skepticalbadger Somebody didn't read to the end of what I said. I was not disagreeing with the assertion that there's no evidence that pirates wore eyepatches for that reason. As I said in my original comment, that was the reason why Mythbusters found the myth plausible but not confirmed. I was disagreeing with the initial statement the host said that there was inconclusive evidence that an eyepatch can even be used to improve eyesight in differing light conditions. That's the one thing an eyepatch absolutely can help with.
4:20 i don’t think it is unlikely that earrings were a thing, let’s not forget that even in the napoleonic period, gold earrings for soldier were somewhat common
Despite committing undeniably awful crimes (though hardly any worse than those of any major navy of the time) I still think many of these pirates were pretty cool. Fairer distribution of wealth, far better treatment of crew members, far less discrimination based on race, gender and even sexuality. If you were good at your job and didn't get killed, you'd probably do great! Compared to the cruel, underpaid and seemingly worthless life you'd endure in the Royal Navy, not to mention the appalling life you'd live as a slave, you can't blame them for turning to piracy! Better a dangerous, short, relatively free and well paid life, than one of servitude to a system dictated by class hierarchy /racism.
Re earrings. It's not quite true they were seen as effeminate, that's probably only the very shiny and ornate ones. In the Netherlands even to this day there is a tradition of fishermen wearing earrings. They serve as identification. Whatever markings or bangles on it are related to the place and the family they come from. They did this in case of death at sea, especially shipwrecks. Tattoos were used for the same purpose, but if a body is in the water for a longer time, tattoos are not a reliable identification any more. I know this was done along most of the North Sea coast, all the way up to Norway... so it would surprise me if this was not shared by a lot of others who also ended up in the Caribbean
Oh lord the inaccuracies in this... I'm sorry, it plays like someone who read a few articles and accepted it. Wooden legs were common. Losing a leg on a ship was easy, and men with one were still good sailors. They'd just rarely be used in boarding a target vessel. Buccaneers were primarily french and land based, named buccaneers (from bouquanier) after a type of barbecuing. Corsairs are very distinct from buccaneers, sailing completely different oceans... And it does go on from there. I love the style of video, the editing is great, the presentation is fun and awesome... It's just not particularly accurate 😅
Your Midjourney ad starting at 17:10 made me see red. "Why use this *shows a historical document* when you can have this *shows an AI generated image in an indefinite style, with plenty of details that can't be confirmed as accurate*". Well, because your channel is called "History Hit" and people will rely on your content as real history!? I'm all right with using AI to illustrate some things for which we don't have much documents, but you must mention it and indicate it clearly on EVERY image, and also make sure your audience looks at it with a critical eye, and NEVER denigrate the importance of the actual sources, even when they're a little less immediately pleasing to modern aesthetic standards. You have a huge role of educating the public on history. DO BETTER!
Who were the biggest pirates in history? For me; The English and their 'Great Heathen Armies'. They learned from the Scandinavian Vikingr: and took it to extremes of rule, under whip and steel.
I can help. Anne Bonny and Mary Read joined Jack Rackham pirate crew August 1720, and about 2 months later in October, they were arrested and pretended to be pregnant to avoid execution. Nothing much else is known about them after that. The End.
Loving the video, but I don't understand why "diversity aboard pirate ships" was a segment in this video. You concluded "we don't know how they were treated". Then, you aligned with the political message that black people automatically equals diversity (are two ethnicities really that diverse on a traveling vessel?). What even was your point? Are black and white people the only 2 ethnicities now? I'm still wondering if pirate crews were diverse or not.
So my thoughts as i have stated before is the best ships where the one's that worked together ! Being lazy is probably what got some of them caught ie jack rackum etc ! I feel some of them had it figured out pretty good and worked great just like any team should. Unfortunately the navy eventually came around and that was the end of it as well as hunting down the rest
If you actually listened to Rebecca Simon you would know half of what you claim of Anne and Mary is untrue. They were never more than friends confiding in one another because they were women. Their relationship and love for one another is not documented or even talked about until modern age made a myth of it. Another thing with eye patches and peg legs. Trying to keep balance or fight with a wood leg on a rolling ship or even just standing in rough seas would have been almost impossible. Eye patches although less of a drawback werent sought after because of lack of depth perception and peripheral vision. Unless a captain was insanely desperate for crew you would be a waste of space and supplies to them and a liability. They wanted able bodies
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One thing that I don't think a lot of people consider is that insurance existed back then, as now, as a protection against loss. So when pirates boarded a ship they wished to capture, the crew would sometimes surrender with little or no resistance because their cargo was insured. To resist risked injury or death. Of course that doesn't mean that every ship that fell prey to pirates was insured, nor that every ship gave up without a fight, but it does add an interesting historical wrinkle that things were not always as they show in the movies.
The choice was simple, really: fight, and even if you win you'll be short men and possibly horribly injured. If you lose, you die and they take your stuff anyway. If you surrender, they take your stuff and you don't get hurt.
Those ships that weren't formally insured were 'self-insured' - i.e. once an owner's fleet was large enough, the probability of total loss was diminished, and the ship-owner could reimburse traders for lost cargo. Insurance was more about customers' cargo than the vessels themselves.
They actually did have insurance back than and you should always fact check yourself now is it the same thing as today by no means but they did have it. insurance during this time. Although the concept of insurance as we know it today didn’t exist, there were some practices related to protecting sailors and their well-being:
Health ‘Insurance’ at Sea:
Sailors faced various challenges, including wounds from battles, shipboard accidents, and illnesses contracted from unfamiliar places, people, and foods.
The inhabitants of the Île d’Oléron, an island off the coast of France, created maritime laws in the 12th century. These laws influenced health care practices at sea during the golden age of piracy.
The British Royal Navy also developed plans to protect sailors, which expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries. Pirates, having often served on naval and merchant marine ships, adopted rudimentary health care plans and modified them to fit their situation3.
Cargo Insurance:
As piracy increased along the Middle Passage (the transatlantic slave trade route), merchant vessel owners needed to insure their cargo. Not only was there a threat of natural disasters, but also the risk of plundering pirates4.
Preserving a Race of Men:
Josiah Burchett, writing about the navy, emphasized the importance of caring for sailors when wounded or sick at sea. He believed that preserving these men was crucial for the good of the country.
Even merchant shipmasters aimed to maintain seamen’s health, recognizing that hungry, unhealthy sailors wouldn’t lead to successful voyages3.
In summary, while formal insurance policies didn’t exist, efforts
Pirates racked up so much on insurance most companies stop insurance on slave ships, to even the consideration of stopping trade through the middle passage.
In order to combat piracy Britan did pardons, then hangings, while allowing free trade between colonies, and even charters to other Nations.
It Flushed alot of Gold into Britain's economy, and also spread out trade forcing the Pirates to spread out and lose their numbers
@turtletube420 uhh, maybe re read the original comment? I think you're a bit confused
It seems like "Treasure Island" almost single-handedly created a very popular, very distorted idea of what pirates were like.
Yes, Robert Louis Stevenson, the illustrations by N.C. Wyeth, and Walt Disney's later adaptations, entrenched the stereotypical pirate image into everyone's minds.
Media always exaggerates.
No wasn't by any means a distorted picture it was a fictional book with real characters pirates of the Caribbean was a distorted picture everyone knows what a pirate was and is now some did it sanctioned and some not but during the golden age of pirating it was actual freedom and they all had a code some of them were actually honorable and some did it for adventure and to make a name I wish I could have been there in the golden age there's always something about saying FU and the middle finger to the British and Spanish empires
@@TeknoMediumsParanormal1111with what you should always point out and give details when making statements like that your not wrong though
@@turtletube420 Great book.
Highly recommend the tv series “Black Sails” to anyone interested in a more accurate (but still dramatic) look at the lives of many of these pirates. Incredibly well done show, with great acting and storylines
Yeah! Loved that show, amazing. Gritty realism as well.
Nah, looked like LARP people playing around on fake sets playing Pirates with their mates on the weekend. I managed 2-3 episodes.
great freaking show
@@Hesselgrenify aw did the big words confuse you :(
Capt Jake Steed -> Our Flag Means Death ☠️
Torrenting is the golden age of piracy
Arrrrrrr
Hah. Just a bit.
😅
*cough* Pirate Bay 😂
Sure not the controlling the seas and making gov’s sweat about their loot getting stolen
Eye patches were because of the eye damage from staring at the sun for daylight navigation. Ruby lenses would filter the sun so sextants with these ruby or emerald filters were highly prized because you wouldn’t go blind using them. You would rotate out of being the navigator when you lost your sight so the next able seaman would become the navigator and the old navigator would get compensation for the loss for as long as you sailed. Being a navigator was a pay raise and a mark of advancement. Sailing with a bunch of one eyed men ensures you are on a very skilled ship. This make more money.
I would love more on pirates and sailors! How about a special on the day-to-day life of sailors? What they ate, how they slept, what their daily routines and duties were, what they wore, how they behaved in port, how they were recruited and retired? I've done a lot of sailing myself and would love to know what life was really like for them!
I'm reading "the wager" at the moment, first book I've read that takes the glamour out of sailing at sea. Jesus christ the conditions described are dreadful. I've decided I'd have been like a short distance sailer/pirate! A weekend pirate if you will
@dcarson89 Absolutely agreed, our little 25-foot sailboat sounds luxurious by comparison! If you read "The Sea-Rover's Practice" by Benerson Little (non-fiction about pirates and privateers etc.), the state of the bilge sounds COMPLETELY HORRIFYING. People passed out if they were down there too long from the fumes and noxious smells from all the fetid water polluted with urine and feces and god knows what else, YUCK.
@@dcarson89this sounds really interesting, i’m gonna check it out !!
1650-1730 (or even earlier as the French Flibustiers had a stronghold on Tortuga in 1625) is more the 'Golden Age of Sea-Roving' rather than Piracy.
Sea-Roving is a broader term (used by a top, reliable author of piratical books, Benerson Little) to cover the fact that it's it covers a few eras different piracy - Golden Age of Buccaneering (with piracy focused at the Spanish, mostly on Commisions) followed by the Golden Age of Piracy (which mainly gets kickstarted by the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet wrecks and the pirates who get wind of it).
What's even more interesting is the periods inbetween the dying Buccaneering Age and the Golden Age of Piracy (and another instance when Nassau was reclaimed by the British), where basically Nations with overseas colonies wanted more order so came down hard on piracy. Piracy had dried up and unless you hired yourself out as Privateers for the upcoming wars, you were in a problematic career. The death nail on this was Port Royal and its pirate-friendly ways sinking into the sea during an earthquake that made many pirates say farewell and go on the Pirate Round - sailing from the Caribbean (and North America) to the Indian Ocean/Red Sea to prey on Arab and Mughal shipping, via West Africa and Madagascar.
This makes me want to rewatch Black Sails again 👏
Good show they should have done a better job with making it more factual especially with some of the death's
@@turtletube420Yea killing Charles Vane was unnecessary and very innacurate he was supposed to live the longest
Having women on board a ship would likely lead to many fights between men. Ruining crew moral and making the likelihood of mutiny much higher. This is the likely reason women on ships was considered bad luck.
Pirates didn't bury their treasure because they knew they probably weren't going to live long, so there was no point in having any kind of savings.
Some did. Rarely. Mostly because imperial gold was stamped. And took it back in a few months or when they thought it was safe.
But not really burying them, but hiding in different places, like caves.
If they would steal jewelry or similar other things, yes. Spent almost immediately on food and hoes.
Good evening from the beautiful SF Bay Area. What a hoot and a load of fun. I always enjoy a good pirate video. Thanks!
Great video! Crossing my fingers for a million views.
UK HERE, love this channel learn more than at school im 38
This guy is fine, pretty good actually. But seriously, where is Iszi Lawrence? She was amazing!! And this is her wheelhouse!
Great video!
Corsairs were pirates predominantly from Northern Africa that used to raid shipping on the Mediterranean. There were also Malay and Arab pirates in the South China and Sulu Sea regions of SE Asia who used a type of small sailing and rowing vessel, the prau, and raided coastal towns and villages, taking everything of value including women and children to sell as slaves, and killing and destroying absolutely everyone and everything else. This branch of piracy went on until the mid-to late-19th century. Regarding the Caribbean pirates in the video they also plundered Indian vessels so they weren't limited to the Atlantic coast and Caribbean in their range, they were global.: They even had a stronghold in Madagascar back in the day (18th century.)
also renegade Portuguese mariners during the 15th & 16th centuries terrorized the largest area of ocean up to that point in human history. orchestrating and executing pirating activities from North Africa to Japan and almost everything in between, as they were the 1st European pirates in the Indian ocean and far East at least a century before other European ships arrived on the scene.
Really good video. Cheers
Great video as always! Well done HH!
Piracy, Pirates, Wisdom and Love.
The gold earrings. Did they have them?
You answered...aagrrrhhhh!!!
Black Sails is an excellent TV production, a prequel to Treasure Island. It mixes historic characters in with the story.
Btw, I question whether the Spanish were mining gold and silver in the new world as much as "mining" the native peoples of those lands who'd been digging it out of the earth for centuries.
I was hoping someone had commented about Black Sails. It’s a fantastic show and really flew under the radar when it came out
Pretty sure all the mining phase was already done and _New Spain_ was entirely the pillaging phase.
Definitely should've talked about Zheng Yi Sao, the Chinese Pirate Queen who had one of the largest fleets ever known.
Zheng Yi Sao had no actual connection with the Golden Age of Piracy, so it would have been totally unrelated. Honestly lumping the two types of piracy together is super misleading anyways. Chinese Pirates functioned more like cartels and businesses, unlike the Caribbean more "rogue" type of pirates, who started off as government agents and then behaved like Guerrilla fighters who's main aim was to get rich and survive. They aren't really comparable
"The only rules that matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do." -- Jack Sparrow
Only 990000 more views for your million!
Love your work 👍
Imagine my shock to see zero sources posted, the pirate history side of RUclips continues to disappoint outside of maybe 2 channels
What channels? Didn't even see there were no sources. Disappointing
Didn't he name drop that original "Pyrates" book and say they got a lot of their material from that?
awesome, I learned alot, very interesting
no shanks ?
A young boy with a lisp dressed as a pirate captain for Halloween… someone asked where his buccaneers were…. He replied “ on my buccan head”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ok. Great. But WHY is the rum always gone?! 😕
"... the fate of Bonny remained unknown." Nonsense. Everyone knows she joined the Assassins!
1- Dutch sailors, who could also be pirates at the time, wore earrings as a fashion.
2- Corsair/Filibuster generally refers to the French. Zea Roover (sp?) refers to Dutch, that said both the French and Dutch would join English Buccaneers depending.
3- Kidd was not reknown, his crew mutineed against him during the 9 years war, he was considered to be an awful leader. He was good at talking to rich backers, that was about it....until he wasn't and then danced the Tiburne Jig.
4- Piracy was already considered a crime before Kidd. Henry Every was already being documented before Kidd. The manhunt was for him...
Actually this caused me to stop watching and do a rebuttal....
@TheOldBreed I was trying to watch some good quality stuff on pirates while cooking dinner and instead I found this.
It was my understanding they wore earrings believing it helped with seasickness. This was a very disappointing documentary. Cheers.
@@lindacarlton3154 the issue is there are soooooo many myths that it's tough to sift through them all. As far as I've found they just thought they looked cool. Dutch sailors tended to be extremely stylish with lots of crazy patterns and sashes. In many ways they fit our modern image of pirates.
@TheOldBreed I feel bad for Rebecca Simon, her and I were just talking the other week about the Netflix travesty. It's like these hosts and editors have no concept that all the information we give as historians is relevant and that they shouldn't mess it up for entertainment. We want to teach, not be a part of something that perpetuates BS that we then get our names attached to.
Thanks for saving me from wasting my time on another poor YT pirate documentary
"And if you'd fought like a man, you'd not be hung like a dog!" Anne Bonny's words at their trial to Jack Rackham. Fearsome woman!
Yeah, fearsome. She'd throw you under the bus in a heartbeat and then pretend to be pregnant to save her own ass.
As someone much vaunted for their ability to fight and kill men (however true that is) it's funny how she turned around and acted like it was all his fault for not fighting hard enough. Why didn't she keep fighting if she's so tough? And if she surrendered too, then she has no room to talk.
Her grand total of 2 months as a pirate aren't exactly impressive enough to justify a "fearsome" reputation.
Her fame is down to the novelty of a female pirate. She's just a gimmick. Lol, so fearsome
3:40 seemed quite conclusive when they did it on Myth Busters
Yeah I agree, I have even done it myself when I get up in the middle of the night. I’ll close one eye so when I turn a light on and am finished what I was doing once the light goes off again I can walk back to bed in the dark. Not only that but if buried treasure wasn’t a thing why are people finding buried treasure? Not only that but it’s not like pirates could just walk into a bank and make a deposit… they would hide it somewhere if they had a large sum of valuables and just come back and dip into it when they needed.
Luke has a voice for podcasts and a face for videos. So why not give him both? 😊🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
What a brilliant history video 👏👏👏
Fun fact about the buccaneers! They originated as hunters and traders of mostly French origin in the Caribbean! They would hunt pigs, lizards and other animals on the islands, smoke the meat and sell it to passing ships to help them restock their provisions! This is where they’re earned the name “boucanier” or literally smoker in English! Anyways these men where crazy pirates! They formed communities on the small sloops and fishing boats they lived on and
Often banded togeather to take our large full masted ships! The buccaneer belief was that 8 muskets equaled 1 cannon and they where AMAZING marksmen to boot! The average shot/min of even an experienced infantryman from a great European power was about 3 shots/min the buccaneers used to grease the inside of their barells, hold their balls in their mouth, spit a ball into the rifle and smack the butt on the ground to drive it home! They perfected this and it gave them a fire rate of 8-10 shots a minute! Although it ruined the guns very quickly
Love the history
Lmao I looked at the thumbnail and thought "Ryan Gosling talks about pirates?! Cool!" 😂
Given the harsh conditions of life for the vast majority of people back then, the only thing that surprises me is that not even more folks became pirates. Doesn't much matter if you run the risk of death or serious injury while serving on a RN vessel for little pay or as member of a pirate crew where you'd get a fixed share of the profits and had a say in who should captain the ship. And while I think I have little illusions about the whole idea of the "romantic" life of pirates, I've always found it fascinating that there were people living in deeply authoritarian and generally repressive times who didn't dream about some sort of more egalitarian utopia but who actually established a system aboard their ships that was, in many ways, well ahead of its time. Doesn't matter to me that they probably came up with these rules mostly out of necessity and not because of some lofty, philanthropic ideals they held - I think it's more important and interesting that such systems actually existed at the time.
You should specify that this is created for children. Contents and presentation is perfect for pre-teens.
Most people think that 'R' is a pirate's favorite letter, but it's actually the 'C'...
Thanks for posting
Please make more I'm writing a pirate fiction lol
Attractive work about pirates ☠️... Maybe they were Sea mercenaries of British against the Spanish Empire Fleet .
Missed a chance to take about Meave Reed as well
I find it disappointingly ironic that a history channel talking about piracy proudly proclaims its use of AI generated art, which pirates art from real artists. I cannot understate how disappointed I am about this. Even if it's hard to find historical artwork, it's no excuse to not support other content creators through commissions and the like. I want to like this channel, I really do, but using AI art seriously undercuts the channel's credibility.
No mention of another illness that swept through the ranks of pirates and sailors alike: VD aka STD aka STI? It is thought that Blackbeard was suffering the effects of late stage syphilis near before he was captured.
Even if Treasure Island is historically incorrect, it’s still a great story. A bit like Ivanhoe. Every boy should have a chance to read them. Girls too, if they feel like it.
"You shall be flogged.......WITH A GEODUCK!" 😁
For that clammy feeling
@@Styphon 😄
My favorite pirate is Yellowbeard.
Great video
One of the best HH videos, this format works very well.
Is this a One Piece reference?
The drake 👎's down part killed me
Love the channel but I’m super disappointed on you guys proudly using midjourney, which uses tons of artworks without authorisation from the artists to produce these images!
Even worse, the comment “why use (historical art) when you can use (shitty ai art)”
Exactly. I am choosing to block history hits now
Cool to see all of the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag characters in here as who they really were.
not just an investor but his biggest investor
while undoubtedly financial rewards were better for crews on pirate vessels, it's not accurate to state that they received no share of the spoils serving in the navy. In the navy, all ships captured were considered as "prize" and either bought by the Royal Navy in the case of ships of war or sold in prize courts. All the proceeds would be divided among all crews who participated in their capture, with those of higher rank receiving a larger share
I'm sold entirely! Let's put a crew together and head to sea! Anybody out there fancy becoming pirates along with me?
Which pirate should we start with
Seems fitting that on a video of pirates, you use midjourney and steal from the artists. Though maybe don't act like it's a good thing.
Not thievery
@@Totalnikkadeath Do some research then respond to that again.
@@Mitharan23 not thievery
27:26 You're talking about the crew of "Revenge", but I believe that's an error...Rackham, Bonny, & Read were on the sloop "William", I think? "Revenge" was Stede Bonnet's ship.
Speaking as a humble pirate myself, being on the Account was an effectively a full commission pay job for the krewe! You had to go find our own "Sail" leads! 🤣 Of course there is always an exception such as Major Stede Bonnet who provided a base pay plus commission for his krewe! I enjoyed the video. Some of the information you provided in the video is based on conjecture rather anything that is definitive about Pirates of the Golden Age. The reality is the only real records regarding pirates themselves are from testimony in the trials and the naval military records. I personally think some of the "myths" about pirates have some basis in fact. Thankfully pirate shipwrecks that have been discovered recently such as the Whydah, Queen Anne's Revenge and the Golden Fleece help with learning what these Pirates were really like!
Good video. ❤
Why only European pirates in this video?
What: no mention of Sam Bellamy and the _Whydah_ , one pirate ship that was actually excavated with treasure?
Still finding loads of gems and coins in 2023-2024
Interesting tho
With all due respect THANK YOU!!!! For this video... Yet so many facts that are unknown... From my research most pirates were at war with the colonial forces/the state and slave owners. Black Bart was actually a Black free man/navigator from Europe. Most history about pirates excludes slave ship rebellions. Its not a mutiny these slave /pirates have stole a colonizer's ship and without question are some of the bravest of all pirates. The freedom fighter "Pro Se" lawyer Sengbe Pieh (Cinque) of The Amistad uprising(1839) Stole the ship went to the supreme court WON and returned to Africa. The little George uprising of (1730) was well documented by the captain who speaks about the pirates/slave ingenuity...
This makes alot of sense! Thank you!
"Not much conclusive evidence for wearing an eyepatch helping with adjusting to changing light levels above and below deck"
The Mythbusters would like a word with you. As they pretty conclusively found that an eyepatch does in fact do that.
They ended up ruling the myth plausible because as you said, there was no evidence that pirates used them specifically for that purpose. But the science behind it is actually irrefutable.
Not only is there no evidence for pirates wearing eyepatches for that reason, there's no evidence of pirates per se wearing eyepatches. It's a movie trope. The fact that it somewhat works is irrelevant.
@@skepticalbadger Somebody didn't read to the end of what I said.
I was not disagreeing with the assertion that there's no evidence that pirates wore eyepatches for that reason. As I said in my original comment, that was the reason why Mythbusters found the myth plausible but not confirmed.
I was disagreeing with the initial statement the host said that there was inconclusive evidence that an eyepatch can even be used to improve eyesight in differing light conditions. That's the one thing an eyepatch absolutely can help with.
Billy bones the pirate: you weren’t about pirates right check this out, mate.
4:20 i don’t think it is unlikely that earrings were a thing, let’s not forget that even in the napoleonic period, gold earrings for soldier were somewhat common
Bro was ahead of his time with that drake joke
Despite committing undeniably awful crimes (though hardly any worse than those of any major navy of the time) I still think many of these pirates were pretty cool. Fairer distribution of wealth, far better treatment of crew members, far less discrimination based on race, gender and even sexuality. If you were good at your job and didn't get killed, you'd probably do great! Compared to the cruel, underpaid and seemingly worthless life you'd endure in the Royal Navy, not to mention the appalling life you'd live as a slave, you can't blame them for turning to piracy! Better a dangerous, short, relatively free and well paid life, than one of servitude to a system dictated by class hierarchy /racism.
should have used that react woman for this video
As a fine pirate expert of my time, this video has high inaccuracies. Where was Holly for this? Kinda left out the expert.
Re earrings. It's not quite true they were seen as effeminate, that's probably only the very shiny and ornate ones. In the Netherlands even to this day there is a tradition of fishermen wearing earrings. They serve as identification. Whatever markings or bangles on it are related to the place and the family they come from. They did this in case of death at sea, especially shipwrecks. Tattoos were used for the same purpose, but if a body is in the water for a longer time, tattoos are not a reliable identification any more.
I know this was done along most of the North Sea coast, all the way up to Norway... so it would surprise me if this was not shared by a lot of others who also ended up in the Caribbean
Oh lord the inaccuracies in this... I'm sorry, it plays like someone who read a few articles and accepted it.
Wooden legs were common. Losing a leg on a ship was easy, and men with one were still good sailors. They'd just rarely be used in boarding a target vessel. Buccaneers were primarily french and land based, named buccaneers (from bouquanier) after a type of barbecuing. Corsairs are very distinct from buccaneers, sailing completely different oceans... And it does go on from there.
I love the style of video, the editing is great, the presentation is fun and awesome... It's just not particularly accurate 😅
Your Midjourney ad starting at 17:10 made me see red. "Why use this *shows a historical document* when you can have this *shows an AI generated image in an indefinite style, with plenty of details that can't be confirmed as accurate*". Well, because your channel is called "History Hit" and people will rely on your content as real history!? I'm all right with using AI to illustrate some things for which we don't have much documents, but you must mention it and indicate it clearly on EVERY image, and also make sure your audience looks at it with a critical eye, and NEVER denigrate the importance of the actual sources, even when they're a little less immediately pleasing to modern aesthetic standards. You have a huge role of educating the public on history. DO BETTER!
Who were the biggest pirates in history? For me; The English and their 'Great Heathen Armies'. They learned from the Scandinavian Vikingr: and took it to extremes of rule, under whip and steel.
3:00 Turkish tourist boats :D
Dunno about Captain Kidd...the over-acting made feel like I was watching kids TV 🤨
Can't help feeling like at any moment this guy's gonna tell me that he does NOT look like Chicken Little
As a relative of Mary Read Thank you for this video :)
Wow!
I want a time machine
4:51 myth kind of see ot was original from Stede Bonnet
What was up with that random endorsement of Generative AI?
A bit distasteful to past and present creatives that tech relies on.
Would love a video on pirate women going into the full history.
The handful of women pirates looked and acted like men women wouldn’t even be allowed on board were considered unlucky
I can help.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read joined Jack Rackham pirate crew August 1720, and about 2 months later in October, they were arrested and pretended to be pregnant to avoid execution. Nothing much else is known about them after that.
The End.
as a 5th generation south florida native,I find pirates fascinating
Kinda ironic using Midjourney, which steals from artists, on a video about pirates.
Precisely.
"Why use pics like this..." Because they haven't harvested the work of artists to generate the image
There are fishing cultures in the netherlands that indeed wore earnings to pay for funerals
Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum😂😂😂
Loving the video, but I don't understand why "diversity aboard pirate ships" was a segment in this video. You concluded "we don't know how they were treated". Then, you aligned with the political message that black people automatically equals diversity (are two ethnicities really that diverse on a traveling vessel?). What even was your point? Are black and white people the only 2 ethnicities now? I'm still wondering if pirate crews were diverse or not.
Mandatory virtue signaling.
Well based on the views, it doesn’t look like more pirate episodes will be forth coming anytime soon.
Playing Plunder Pirates
We have like 800k more viewers for another pirate movie 🎉
🏴☠️ BUCCANEERS are pirates of the Caribbean sea while CORSAIRS are pirates of the Mediterranean sea.
Arrr, Arrgh, Yarr, Gar
So my thoughts as i have stated before is the best ships where the one's that worked together ! Being lazy is probably what got some of them caught ie jack rackum etc ! I feel some of them had it figured out pretty good and worked great just like any team should. Unfortunately the navy eventually came around and that was the end of it as well as hunting down the rest
You spelt colour wrong
Ah they did drink rum , always drunk I should imagine
If you actually listened to Rebecca Simon you would know half of what you claim of Anne and Mary is untrue. They were never more than friends confiding in one another because they were women. Their relationship and love for one another is not documented or even talked about until modern age made a myth of it. Another thing with eye patches and peg legs. Trying to keep balance or fight with a wood leg on a rolling ship or even just standing in rough seas would have been almost impossible. Eye patches although less of a drawback werent sought after because of lack of depth perception and peripheral vision. Unless a captain was insanely desperate for crew you would be a waste of space and supplies to them and a liability. They wanted able bodies
The eye patch was real