"One-Eyed Pirates..."

I posted about my Aunt Winnie learning that we are direct descendants from Jean Lafitte, the Pirate of New Orleans... and in the comments section of that post, I said something about why so many pirates allegedly wore eye patches...


Evidence indicates that it may not have been due to being so many pirates roaming around with only one eye...

I wonder how many one-eyed pirates Jean Lafitte had running around that looked like THIS??  I would imagine that would have been good for crew morale... but not good for her...


This is the first time I've really ever seen a pirate that looked like this...


The story goes... that most pirate raids that were committed against targeted ships... about 1/2 of the battle would take place on the open deck of the vessel... and the other half would take place below deck... and that as the pirates went from bright daylight into the dark part of the ship... it could take as long as five minutes for their eyes to adapt to the lower light environment... a bunch of people could die in five minutes... and if the vessel being raided had a contingent of men below... waiting for the invading pirates... it wouldn't be much of a fight...


It's believed that pirates, for the most part, wore an eye patch over one eye... to acclimate that eye for fighting later below decks... and when the battle would transition to the lower decks, the pirate would grab the eye patch... move it from the covered eye to the eye that had been exposed to daylight... and he would be ready for battle in a darker environment...

MythBusters tested this on their 'Pirate' episode and ruled it 'plausible'...

Damn... this pirate has TOO many eyes... 

and I can't tell which ones to watch?!?!?!?!

Arrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!

~shoes~