How Did Pirates Survive Freezing Nights at Sea Without Heating?
Beneath the Black Flag
3,532 views
Around 1720, a pirate crew wrote a law about who got to take clothes from captured ships. On a freezing night at sea, a dry shirt was worth more than silver.
This isn't a pirate documentary about sunny beaches. It's about the version of you on deck at 2 a.m., soaked, in the wind, with the only fire on the ship put out hours ago.
Inside: the five thieves of heat that hunted every sailor, why pirates sailed into the freezing fishing grounds of Newfoundland, why fire was feared more than the cold, why rum made it worse, the wreck of the Wager, the buccaneers who went around Cape Horn, and the one source of heat nobody could steal.
Stay to the end. The warmest thing on a pirate ship wasn't fire, and it's the same thing that gets most of us through our coldest nights.
#Pirates #GoldenAgeOfPiracy #PirateHistory
SOURCES
Pirate articles on clothes from prizes, rations, lights and fire (Roberts and Phillips), Roberts at Trepassey (1720): Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)
Edward Low and John Phillips in northern waters; pirates' maritime backgrounds: Johnson (1724); Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations (2004)
The wreck of the Wager (1741): accounts by John Bulkeley (1743) and John Byron (1768); David Grann, The Wager (2023)
Cooking pots and cauldron from Blackbeard's flagship: Queen Anne's Revenge Project (NC)
Sailors' clothing, fearnought and wool caps: World History Encyclopedia; Monmouth cap history
The tarred-clothing myth: British Tars, 1740–1790 research blog
Heat loss in water, wet clothing and alcohol: Princeton University Outdoor Action Guide to Hypothermia
Bartholomew Sharp around Cape Horn and Christmas 1681: Basil Ringrose, Bucaniers of America vol. 2 (1685)
Woodes Rogers, blanket clothing, limes and Alexander Selkirk (1709): Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712)
Hammocks as cocoons and burial shrouds: The American Revolution Institute
Disclaimer
Beneath the Black Flag is made for educational purposes. Some topics are simplified or told in a storytelling format. Our sources, including sailors' journals, trial records, archaeology, and Johnson's 1724 history, can be incomplete or biased, and historians don't always agree. Explore the sources above for deeper study.
How this was made
Researched from primary sources, archaeological reports, and academic histories, then written and edited by our team. Illustrations and narration were produced with the help of AI tools, under human editorial direction.
1 Comments
How Did Pirates Survive Freezing Nights at Sea Without Heating?
Beneath the Black Flag
3,532 views
Around 1720, a pirate crew wrote a law about who got to take clothes from captured ships. On a freezing night at sea, a dry shirt was worth more than silver.
This isn't a pirate documentary about sunny beaches. It's about the version of you on deck at 2 a.m., soaked, in the wind, with the only fire on the ship put out hours ago.
Inside: the five thieves of heat that hunted every sailor, why pirates sailed into the freezing fishing grounds of Newfoundland, why fire was feared more than the cold, why rum made it worse, the wreck of the Wager, the buccaneers who went around Cape Horn, and the one source of heat nobody could steal.
Stay to the end. The warmest thing on a pirate ship wasn't fire, and it's the same thing that gets most of us through our coldest nights.
#Pirates #GoldenAgeOfPiracy #PirateHistory
SOURCES
Pirate articles on clothes from prizes, rations, lights and fire (Roberts and Phillips), Roberts at Trepassey (1720): Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)
Edward Low and John Phillips in northern waters; pirates' maritime backgrounds: Johnson (1724); Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations (2004)
The wreck of the Wager (1741): accounts by John Bulkeley (1743) and John Byron (1768); David Grann, The Wager (2023)
Cooking pots and cauldron from Blackbeard's flagship: Queen Anne's Revenge Project (NC)
Sailors' clothing, fearnought and wool caps: World History Encyclopedia; Monmouth cap history
The tarred-clothing myth: British Tars, 1740–1790 research blog
Heat loss in water, wet clothing and alcohol: Princeton University Outdoor Action Guide to Hypothermia
Bartholomew Sharp around Cape Horn and Christmas 1681: Basil Ringrose, Bucaniers of America vol. 2 (1685)
Woodes Rogers, blanket clothing, limes and Alexander Selkirk (1709): Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712)
Hammocks as cocoons and burial shrouds: The American Revolution Institute
Disclaimer
Beneath the Black Flag is made for educational purposes. Some topics are simplified or told in a storytelling format. Our sources, including sailors' journals, trial records, archaeology, and Johnson's 1724 history, can be incomplete or biased, and historians don't always agree. Explore the sources above for deeper study.
How this was made
Researched from primary sources, archaeological reports, and academic histories, then written and edited by our team. Illustrations and narration were produced with the help of AI tools, under human editorial direction.