Pirate Glossary
Pirate Glossary
Arrr me hearties, shiver me timbers or I will keelhaul the lot of ye! Learn to speak like a pirate, using the Glossary below.
Bahamas – A group of islands in the west Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Florida and north of Cuba. The Bahamas was held as a British colony in the eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Booty – Money, jewels, silks and other valuable cargo that has been seized off a ship by raiding pirates.
Bribe – An offer of money or other valuable items made in order to make something do what you want them to. It was often given to government officials to stop them arresting a pirate. Still in use to this day.
Buccaneers – These were men who raided and captured ships belonging to nations that they were at war with. The main place that this happened whas off the Spanish coasts of American during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Caribbean = The islands and area of the Caribbean Sea – it covers the area between Florida and South and Central America.
Cutlass – a short, curved sword which has got a single sharp edge, and often used by pirates and sailors.
Dagger – a knife-like weapon with a handle and a pointed blade.
Dysentry – a disease of the stomach and intestines which is characterised by diarrhea and often caused by infection.
Flagship – The larges and most important ship in a fleet. The flagship is the ship that the commander of the fleet sails in.
Letter of Marque – An official document granting a ship captain permission to use his personal armed vessel for capturing and raiding ships of another country. A letter of marque is used by governments or kings to expand their naval forces at a time of war.
Navigator – The person in charge of plotting and directing the course of a ship.
Pirates – Rugged outlaw sailors who capture and raid ships at sea to seize their cargo and other valuables. They usually do so without a letter of marque from any country.
Privateers – Ship captains and crew members who operate under a letter of marque, attacking and raiding ships from countries that are at war with their own country. They are also known as “gentlemen pirates” and may be considered loosely to be buccaneers as well.
Schooner – A two-masted ship that is easy to maneuver and can be navigated in shallow waters.
Scurvy – A disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C in the body and is often due to insufficient amount of fruit and vegetables in the diet of the pirates. Symptoms of scurvy include general weakness and bleeding gums.
Sloop – A fast sailing vessel with a single mast that is outfitted for war. A sloop had a single gun deck with ten to eighteen cannons.
Queen Anne’s Revenge – the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. It may have been located in Beaufort Inlet North Carolina. Several artifacts such as bronze bells and cannons have led archaeologist to believe that it is indeed the ship of the infamous Edward Teach.
Blackbeards Skull – The skull of Blackbeard the pirate was acquired from a collector by the Mariners Museum in Newport News , Virginia. After Blackbeards gruesome death in 1718, his severed head was placed in the mouth of the Hampton River as a warning to other pirates.