Pirate Graves and Why Our Flag Means Death!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- Arr Jim lad! It's me... Jim lad.
Anyway. Gravestones! Pirates! Skulls! Death! Join me in finding out just why the Jolly Roger became associated with the golden age of pirates, why Blackbeard is no role model, why Captain Morgan was probably a horrible person, why our flag means death, and why you've probably never actually seen a pirate gravestone. No, not even the one with the skull and crossbones on it that everyone says is the grave of ye olde pirate captain.
Or that one. Stoppit.
Arrrrr! Polly would very much like a cracker! And by Polly I mean me, and by a cracker I mean a sandwich.
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Most of you would think pirates really loves the letter R but they actually loved the C
Yes, i would shamelessly like my own comment cause i do what i want cause a pirate is free 🎵🎶🎵
You. You have won the internet.
This is my favorite pirate joke! 💚
ohmygosh... X'D it took me longer than it should, but well done sir!!
I once heard that there are ten letters in the Pirate Alphabet: I, i, R, and the Seven C's
Can you imagine how upsetting it would be for these people to find out that people were still visiting their graves hundreds of years later but it's because everyone thinks they're a pirate?
I must live in a weird bubble of history nerds and goths. I genuinely had no idea that people thought Memento Mori symbols signified pirate graves. They're ridiculously common in some old graveyards, which would imply that every third person buried in them was somehow a pirate, perhaps through some sort of Princess Bride-style timeshare arrangement. Would love to know more about the 'Ghost Sperm'. Seriously, what's up with that that?
Same! I remember looking into Momento Mori after an episode of X-Files and never really made the connection to the pirate flag.
The ghost sperm look like Will-o-the-wisps, which are usually associated with the souls of the dead (or just a single dead soul, like the eponymous Will)
It’s the ghost seamen
@@galenmarek2765 😅
Same here, but I think we're just being reasonable rather than nerds (I'm kind of a nerd though).
Verse from an actual Fo'c'sle shanty about pirates:
"Quarter, oh quarter!" the pirates they did cry.
(Blow high! Blow low! and so sailed we!)
But the quarter that we gave them was to *sink to the bottom and die*
(Sailing down along the coast of High Barbary!)
So I bet a lot of pirates were never even memorialized as a hanging basket of rot. Just a note, though: if you were one of the native people on Île Sainte Marie, the difference between a pirate and a colonizer might look a *bit* like splitting hairs.
My ancestors included privateers & their graves are in Talland churchyard, nr. Polperro in Cornwall.
When privateering was no longer an option they switched to smuggling & were apparently very successful at it.
I can vouch for the fact that no one who didn't know their history would suspect a thing from looking at the gravestones.
my ancestor hunted and killed a rather famous pirate! - I bet my name gives away who that was!
My ancestor got sent to Australia for fencing very expensive stolen goods, and one of my cousins is still that guy you can rely on to get a very cheap, very new iPhone as long as you dont ask questions lmao
How odd that anyone would assume those are pirate graves! What do they think of poison bottles?
I absolutely LOVE Our Flag Means Death and have watched it 3 times already, it's hands down the best piece of queer media I've ever seen, but I don't extend any of that fondness to the actual historical figures. I'm really glad the wild historical inaccuracy and overall style of the show does a great job of separating it from the real world.
I love Our Flag Means Death, as well! It's one of the few shows where the historical inaccuracies don't bother me because it's supposed to be campy and silly.
I'm starting it tonight with a friend! It looks so cool from all of the posts I've seen about it.
@@snazzypazzy It's incredible, but also I will die if there's no season 2 to resolve things.
@@bridgetthewench there have been a few comedies lately that just revel in the sheer inaccuracy of their plot, and turn it into a joke, and I’m all in for it. The Great is another fantastic example.
Despite knowing exactly what a memento mori is, I somehow managed to be today years old before I made the connection between them and pirate flags. Thanks for the history lesson!
Skull and bones on a bottle? Death... Not tiny pirate inside
OK I love all the Viking content but if this turned into an 100% gravestone channel I would be OK with it.
Love this so much. As a costumer, I am continually annoyed by the whole notion that pirates dressed differently from any other seaman.
Right? You desert HMS Awful for the Black Beastie and suddenly their quartermaster gives you a frillier shirt, a bandana and an eyepatch!
I really, really, really enjoyed watching Our Flag Means Death and hadn't put much thought into the title, but this reminder of the connection between pirate flags and 'memento mori' made me realise that the title ties in really well with the message of the show: that we only have this one life, so shouldn't we try to spend it being happy and kind? Sort of a secular humanist take on 'memento mori'. I've got no idea if that was intentional on the part of the show writers, but it's at least a poetic coincidence.
P.S. I only subscribed to your channel recently and hadn't realised that your research focused on gravestones. I would be very interested in more videos on the topic!
Pauvre M. Lechartier, vilified as a pirate all over the internet long after his death when he could just have been vilified as a colonizer.
This is why I love you; you do shows about what I rant about. Pirates were as pirates are today. Tell me, do you think Somali pirates are glamorous? Sexy? Fun to drink with? Of course not. They are the worst sort of people. Just like you don't see any graves of Somali pirates, you don't see any graves of historical pirates. Fantastic subject, Jimmy! Thank you!
In defence of Somali pirates they're desperate people who's traditional fishing waters have been destroyed by illegal fishing & toxic waste dumping by people from wealthier parts of the world.
Same to those in the south China Sea, also not glamourous or sexy or fun to drink with.
GHOST SPERM!
Loved this, thank you. I've got to say my first guess was "because they didn't get marked graves". That's pretty normal for notorious criminals to this day, although maybe for slightly different reasons.
As a former festival Pirate Performer who actually tried to teach the real history, thank you! Unless you are in Rockfleet Castle visiting the grave of Grania OMaillie, you cannot be sure you have seen a pirates grave. Pirates were not lovable rogues but horrible thieves and murders. Because for every Jeanne De Clisdon, Eustace the Monk and Sayyida Al Hurra there are a ton more Calico Jack’s, Edward Teach, and Henry Avery’s. The funny thing is that Black Flags meant that quarter MIGHT be given but if a red flag was flown you knew you were dead.
As for Memento Mori’s there are some beautiful examples of alter clothes from Spain in the V&A museum. I used them as examples to get my personal device passed for the SCA. Which is a skeletal hand clutching a rose, nightshade and belladonna on a red background. So people remember I’m pretty but deadly.
Hermina, just curious how early is your persona and from what Kingdom do you hail?
@@catherineplunkett7241 my persona is mid 15th century Spanish/Polish sailor. I hail from the East Kingdom, yes THAT kingdom. I teach at Pennsic University and most people know me. Mostly because of my loud voice and purple hair.🥰
How about you?
15:20 "Do a bit of digging into the person actually buried there" is an... interesting way of phrasing it... :P
Seriously though, this was (yet another) excellent video! Thanks for shining a light on a fascinating topic and dispelling some myths I didn't even know people believed!
i love the romantic/fake version of pirates in fiction, but it's always good to learn about the actual history, great video!
I believe the weird sperm thingies could be will-o-wisps, symbolizing the souls of the dead.
Actually they are more likely to be representations of the tears/sweat and blood of Christ, so a reference to the passion. A Catholic home in England - Harvington Hall has wall painting which has that design but they are coloured blue and red, and a legacy as being an oratory or private chapel during the penal era.
Love the description of them being spermy things though 😂😂😂😂
@@SplatterInkerThat makes a lot of sense. I would think it means the dead person will be going to heaven.
The Spanish inscription on the Momento Mori on the piece from the Netherlands makes perfect sense. The Jewish Community there was started when they were kicked out of Sephard, i.e. Spain. They spoke Spanish and Ladino (Jewish Spanish, sometimes written in Hebrew Script). Ladino has also provided some beautiful piyutim (religious poems and songs).
The gravestone was excessively dull, at least the part I could read.
oh yes, definitely, Ladino and all of that is so fascinating!
in addition - I looked up the image of the Jewish gravestone, and it looks like maybe there's a Spanish inscription below the Hebrew one
Is ladino a dead language or are there still modern speakers? I wondered once why there's a well known german hebrew hybrid langauge like yiddish, but I'd never heard of any other hybrids with hebrew even though jewish populations existed in lots of countries. Did the others die out or am I just out of the loop?
@@sybariticcupboardrat3763 Ladino is still spoken! There are tons of Hebrew creoles. Check out the Jewish Language Project, they specialize in them!
i came bc the new our flag means death show has me by the balls and stayed for interesting pirate history!!! very good video 10/10
Coming from a fine lineage of horsethieves, robber princes, and all-around scoundrels, (Mostly in Cornwall) I heartily endorse this PSA! The Cornish had the same habits and were notorious smugglers. Cadivor, my purported ancestor, styled himself a prince, which basically meant he had a defensible hill and enough men to defend it. Lots of bad guys buried in an odor of sanctity, but probably not pirates, though....maybe?
As a descendant of Cornish smugglers I have to admit we were quite good at it. The revenue men only captured the men of Polperro once & that was because they had a local informant. He was banished from the village, his wife was allowed to stay. To this day people will deny that they are from his branch of the family.
Kent was the other large area of smuggling, scoundrels and the like as well. Not certain they count as pirates either (and many Cornish and Kentish smugglers brought back valuable information for the local authorities during the various wars so not all bad).
@@expatpiskie “Zephaniah Job, they said, he’s the man you need. You’ll find him in Polperro, and he’ll help you guaranteed…”
@@Ellebeeby I have a distant connection to Zephaniah.
Have you read The Smugglers' Banker?
Jeremy Rowett Johns who wrote it is also a relation.
@@expatpiskie Ah, that's amazing! I haven't read it, no - I came across his story through the works of the band The Changing Room, who you may well know.
12:50 a further indication the memento mori is addressing the people who will walk past the gravestone : "Passans, priez pour lui". "Passerbys, pray for him".
And distinctly Catholic, which is why I'm sure the spermy things are supposed to depict the body fluids of Christ during the passion. We see this iconography in other Catholic art in 16th/17th century England.
Momento mori may be intended as a message of humility, but all I hear is "we all get to be spooky skelly boiz"
Somebody putting down flowers on what is said to be the grave of a notorious pirate, is an odd little detail.
Thank you for the bodice ripper cover, I needed the laugh! Especially when we're hearing about slavers and awful people.
I associate the skull and crossbones with sprite bottles under the sink that my dad drew on with a sharpie and filled with cleaing chemicals ☠
This bottle means death!
On the Isle of Portland, where I live, there is a large tomb with a skull and crossbones in a ruined churchyard. The name ‘Pirates’ Graveyard’ even appears on the tourist literature and is visited by many with images of Johnny Depp in their heads. When I am feeling particularly mean, I disabuse them of this mistake and tell them of the real meaning - ‘memento mori’. Needless to say, they prefer the fantasy and go off in a huff…
Glad you did this, I saw a pop-history video on Jewish Pirates a while ago and while I thought the topic was utterly fascinating and deserving of attention, it lost me instantly by saying;
'There was a skull and crossbones on the grave so it was a pirate's grave.'
Couldn't take anything in the video at face value after that.
And, as I love pirate history and pirate pop culture, despite the murderous and often barbarous tortures they inflicted on people, I thought 'Our Flag Means Death' was a really cool title.
I would love to hear more about different types of gravestones and burial rituals. This was a really interesting take, and these sort of videos inspire me to go digging and learn something new.
Yeah same!
I worked on an excavation in the British Virgin Islands back in the 90s. Did I find anything connected to Pirates, Columbus or indigenous tribes....no...but I did dig through the unmarked grave of someone's grandmother..which was a bit embarassing when the grandson of said grandmother told me me watch out for his grandmother and I was desperately trying to cover up the exposed thigh bone I had just trimmed with my mattock. I've had better digs
The video crashed right after you said "you are going to die" and I went okie dokie then
Flee immediately
Brilliant video, needs to be seen by everyone. I feel the same about vikings, gangsters. It's fun to enjoy the fiction, but I think it's important to understand the fact.
10:44
My mum (native Hebrew reader and speaker) tried translating the Hebrew text but couldn't get further than the first line owing to the weathering, beyond that only a few words without proper context to interpret. I think the first line was something along the lines of "all the angels in heaven", I'll have to ask her again tomorrow. I've tried discerning a bit more of the text (I have considerably less fluency with Hebrew however) but I really had difficulty telling certain characters apart bc of the weathering, if there is a pic from another angle it might be easier but I couldn't find one unfortunately. The text is probably pretty standard gravestone stuff from the first line but for the moment I can't tell.
I actually saw it before in the context of the article you mentioned, and even though I was passingly familiar with the *memento mori* motif I never made the connection and just believed the pirate grave story. Thanks for this video clearing all of that up!
Yep, I'm a Hebrew professor, and I agree with you about the first line -- "All the angels of heaven" something something. I can't make heads or tails of the second line. I *think* the person buried there might be named Isaac, based on the third line, but if that's a yod at the end of the word rather than a serif on the kof, it's not a name, it's something like "my laughter." The last line says something about "in [or possibly like? can't tell if it's a bet or a kaf] righteous death." So yeah... that doesn't sound pirate-y.
The third row is something about them crying
I'm not certain about the name thing - I'm pretty sure it says there "[] יצעקו כמר כולם" they will yell as their voices are bitter
but yeah, I definitely agree that it doesn't sound pirate-y
@@yaelgoldfarb2447 Yes! Now that you propose it, I can see it!
@@theeldritchlibrarian Hi, Robin! Can I be really cheeky and ask how difficult it would be to learn Hebrew?
I’ve been fascinated by pirates (both real and fictional) for most of my life. In 4th grade in North Carolina we learned about the pirates who made the coast their “home base” and the effects that had on the communities there. We did get a “pirate day” at the end of the unit where we dressed up as pirates and went on treasure hunts and whatnot. But the teachers made it very clear that real pirates were horrible people. Then in my college career I had the opportunity to take a class on the Golden Age of Pirates (sadly I didn’t learn much new information due to my own research). Through all of this, not once has the connection between momento mori and Jolly Rogers ever been brought up! So yay for new information! Thanks for another video on one of my many favorite historic eras!
Debunking is vital. Thank you.
Arrrgggghhhh Pilate Jimmy where I live the legends of Jean Lafitte still lives on.
In fact, one of Lafitte’s known ships, the Brigantine schooner, La Diligent has reportedly been found deep in a Louisiana estuary in a dried up snake infested bayou.
A TV documentary is supposedly in production detailing the discovery and it’s almost in my own backyard.
Arrrrrrggggghhhh matey.
The village I grew up in, had a grave to a late eighteenth century murder victim with a depiction of the murder taking place on it!
This brought to mind how piracy's treatment as a universally recognized crime led to lots of foreign human rights violations cases being tried in US courts in the 1970s under the reasoning that certain crimes are considered crimes against humanity and can be tried regardless of jurisdiction.
Also, it is kinda surprising to me that people have been terming these pirate graves? But then again, I've spent some time in New England cemeteries with a whole lot of Puritan headstones, and the skull motif was really prominent...
There is a real cool Memento Mori in a church near my home town: It is a clock, telling the story of a human from birth to the grave. The scene actually changes over the hours of the day, in the sense that every hour another picture is in the focus, representing birth, childhood, adulthood, old age and finally death. I was told the clocks pictures are from the time of the great black death.
When I visited it the first time I was only a little boy of eight years and it was scary and strangely magnetic to me at the same time.
Where is that? It sounds brilliant!
I imagine anyone with any claim to education, at the time, were very familiar with the phrase "memento mori", as well as with all the symbolism associated with it. I was still surprised to see them in Jewish graves--which tells you a lot about unconscious prejudices, doesn't it.
Thank you, Jimmy!
Wow, never thought to find a "pirate symbol" in a Pompeii mosaic! Another myth busted, thank you Jimmy!
Not only that; but the mosaic appears to show a skull riding a unicycle (I presume it is the Wheel of Fortune).
I applaud your interest in gravestones. My mother went cemetery hopping years ago to track down relatives and it was fascinating to see how tenuous the lineage gets going back to the late 1700s here in the US, and the rest is all family tales with however much bollocks has been used to fill in the narrative, embroidered to be more interesting, or simply grown over time. I just embroidered a couple of holes in my pants to make them last longer, but I made a pretty pattern that I can probably make up a story about, tell people and who knows what it will become over time? "Oh yeah, these are totally a new line of embroidered jeans." Gravestones are markers to some assertion of historical truth, weathering over time.
I do sometimes wonder who was worse on the seas at the time; various navies, or bands of pirates (a lot of whom would've been former navy crew). They were all violent and murderous, but I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to put them in a balance to see who weighed most.
Yeah, I saw one of America's oldest graveyards in Boston, and every tombstone had a skull carved on it. Most with wings.
One archeology class I took back in the previous millennium included an illustration of how grave markers in colonial New England went from carvings of little angel faces with wings through skulls with wings to skulls with long bones over about a hundred year period.
I have also always loved gravestones; for their imagery and to imagine their ‘inhabitants’ lives so by all means please make more videos on them and nerd with us ☠️
Jimmy, you mentioned that the Church controlled the wording of Gravestones. I'm not sure if you could answer this, but would that be the reason why Jane Austen never had author on hers? It wasn't because her family didn't want it on there, but the Church thought it improper to include a profession for a woman, so they discouraged her family from including it?
It's possible, but equally it could have been the family's choice. Impossible to knkw for sure I guess
I also adore gravestones…so much history
I must say, while I was brought here a year or two ago by the Viking videos, I love this one. My Pappy is a history prof (retired) and I have recommended your channel to him because, while his expertise is American History, he still is fascinated by the medieval, which was more of my obsession. He would get such a kick out of this, as I blame him for my fascination with Golden Age pirates, with telling us kids stories of Blackbeard AND putting on all those old Hollywood swashbucklers when I was a kid.
I wonder if the Hebrew inscription (on the gravestone with the memento mori) was in Ladino from a Sefardim individual with the Spanish text? Following the expulsions of Jews from the peninsula, I wonder how prevalent that became.
Bang on video, love it, but I'm still putting on my best "Anne Bonny" at Sherwood Forest Faire in Bastrop, TX next weekend.
The memento mori gravestones had their heyday before the Victorian age. In the 19th century, the fashion was for something less stark: weeping willows, cherubs, doves..... There is a beautiful cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where some of the oldest early 18th century graves have the memento mori. I don't think any of them were pirates:)
My English/Scottish ancestors were cattle thieves. The rest were royals, which is not quite incompatible. Any how, Thank You so much Jimmy. Glad to see another video, even one that talks about bones, slavery, and other horrible violent thingamies.
That sounds similar to my one famous Romanian ancestor...Vlad III.
@@pamelatarajcak5634 Even Vlad the Impaler had his good points. Not many but there were a couple at least.
I've never been able to romanticise pirates because when I was about 11 or 12 I came across a book about the Barbary pirates, and oh my gosh... what they DID to people!! I've never understood their popularity... like, how can people not know that pirates were really bad people, and not like 'Robin Hood-But-On-A-Boat'...
Hey Jimmy, Super interesting vid! It's lovely to hear you refer to dutch source material. I'm from the netherlands myself, and the historical meaning of Memento Mori (and Carpe Diem) is actually taught in high school. Plus, the dutch paintings you refer to are called "Vanitas" or "Stilleven" (still life) and there are a lot more that imply death way more indirect (wilting flowers, lemons for some reason) Most of those paintings have a symbolic language of their own, and it can contain a full scholar education to actually understand the meaning of all of them. The term for it is currently lost to me, but it is a great subject. It's hilarious to see how many refer to Jesus Christ. Fish? that's Jesus. Dead Bird? also jesus. When in doubt? Probably means Jesus
I looked up the word: It was Iconography (translated by me from the dutch word Iconografie) 17th century painters also made similar paintings with hidden pious life lessons, or sayings of that time. Jan steen was a good one at that
Ah yes, those fabulous pirate mosaics and other works of pirate art from centuries ago. The pirates were so fashionable back then, obviously. xD Seriously though, thank you for another awesome lesson in history. Gravestones in general sounds like an interesting topic, too!
Watching Jimmy is the best sitting-at-home-with-Covid activity 😊❤
Oh no! Get well soon!
Thanks for the factually informative video. Never change.
Well, that's one brand of rum I'll never buy again.
Thanks for the history lesson and mythbusting... And all the gorgeous headstones!
I was fascinated by pirates when I was a child but I never thought of skulls and bones as pirate symbols, like... I always understood the causal order off things: first skulls, then pirates.
The causal order is quite clear from the Norwegian term for the symbol”dødningehode”, which means “dead person’s head”. Is there a similar connection in your language, perhaps?
If there is anyone here who, after watching this video, still believes that skulls or skull-and-bones always mean "pirate", I strongly urge you to go visit some of the churches in Tuscany. The first thing you will notice is, that somewhere on the church you will find black and white stripes (usually horizontal), the second thing you'll notice is, that depictions of skulls are everywhere. In the church Santa Croce in Florence I counted 52, almost all of them on gravestones in the floor. I mean, I'm not exactly an expert on history, but I'm pretty sure, that the italians from whenever that church was build would not have dedicated an entire church to just dignify criminals (like seriously, I'm not sure wether I found a single gravestone without at least one skull on it, some even had like five or six)
I'm going to have to look up the sperm symbol in my gravestone symbol book. Excellent video as usual, Jimmy! As a cemetery enthusiast and former funeral director, I really enjoyed this. I also never realized people confused momenti mori and the jolly roger. Two completely different sorts of things.
Its a representation of Christ's passion when Christ bled and cried/sweated etc something like that anyway.
In painting it's called Vanitas. Basically a still life to remind the viewer of their mortality & the uselessness of worldly goods/wealth. There's usually a skull, scales, fruit, flowers, velvet, a specific book on a table, an hour glass, etc. Anything that is ephemeral or indicates wealth/ sensuousness would be included. They were super popular genre paintings for a while & many are quite darkly beautiful.
Having been responsible for many gravestones (old and new) as a clergyman in charge of many church yards, all of them very in-land rather than coastal, I concur that the scull and bones is seen all over the place, and I’ve never been responsible for a pirate’s grave! Good video, as are all of yours I’ve watched. Thanks. Les
Gravestones are fascinating, so many symbols on them!
You made coffee come out my nose with the “ghost sp*rm” joke. I’ll never be able to watch the Soul Eater anime without thinking about that now. 😂
Oh yay this was EPIC! Loved the "lovely" needlework of Memento Mori. Thank you for this very interesting and informative video ♥
I would love more videos about grave history and burial customs! I’m also fascinated by grave carvings and symbolism! Thank you for this great video, you always produce wonderful content.
This was my entertainment after a long, hard day at work, labor in a pork processing plant. Educational and humorous, just the thing to go with tacos from the local taco truck, coffee and getting my work boots off! Thank You so very much.
I do find it interesting that the memento mori, such a lasting and effective symbol for such a long time, has sort of faded out of public consciousness? Like people do in fact associate it with fear and death, but because of... poison bottles (where the symbol was because it means death) and pirate flags (where the symbol was because it means death) and the idea itself has sort of been lost, at least in everyday awareness? But also: I'm glad they didn't choose to put the little ghost spermy things or the arrow through the heart on poison bottles. Probably for the best, that.
Thanks for the video as always! I'm a big fan of romanticised pirates, so it's fun to have a video on the non-romantic pirates too! Have a nice one, eat a... cracker... sandwich!
I've always been a bit of a fan of graveyards & the things found in them , mortsafes, lychgates, steps built into walls, coffin storage nooks for communal coffins & so on. A lot of history can be gleaned in them. One cemetery near me has a 6½ ft long linteled hole at ground level near the gate. Looks like you could slide a coffin through sideways, but never heard of that being done!?
On the pirate flag thing. Is it true that a black flag meant "Quarter" would be given but a red one meant "No Quarter"?
I still remember HMS Conqueror flying the Jolly Roger on its 1982 return from the Falklands Conflict. A tradition started by Lieutenant Commander Max Horton in WWI to show a successful patrol after comments by First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson, who complained that submarines were "...underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English" and that personnel should be hanged as pirates.
Very interesting and very educational. I was unaware people were seriously equating 'skull and crossbones' with 'pirate burial'. It's a ridiculous argument for a number of reasons.
Aha im sure I've seen the *pirate graveyard* in a documentary haha about pirates and templars and I never believed it then excellent work as always jimmy 👍 (now waits for the comments about vikings being slave traders)
Loved the original version of this, and here is more info! Even though I've known about momento mori for a long time, I never made the connection with pirate flags. Thanks for another good one!
Actually I just came to TH-cam because I finished watching Our Flag Means Death and was hoping to watch some interviews or something, but finding this video was a very pleasant surprise since I always like your videos! Thank you!
Ro(o)ver is a false friend between Dutch and English. Its English translation is someone who commits violent theft; a robber.
To this day, 'zeerover' is a stronger word than 'piraat'. The former is seen as tougher by children who think piracy is fascinating, and is more likely to be wielding at least two curved swords if illustrated. The latter is usually opted for by TV-producers when trying to launch a show where they want parents to believe the senseless violence will be kept to a minimum.
interesting video! the title got me bc i’m currently obsessed with our flag means death (i watched it 5 times in one week)
I was so surprised to hear that your focus is grave stones. I love going to old cemeteries and they’re like a history lesson. Cemeteries in the Boston/Salem, Massachusetts area are fantastic. The style, epitaphs, and the material used run the gambit. Military cemeteries are also interesting. They run through so many wars and conflicts and some include confederate graves. The ones in the South around plantations have an area for enslaved people. I’d love more videos on this topic.
As someone persuing mortuary school, I love this kind of video. While learning about modern burial techniques is more my speed, I'm still very interested in old graves and what they mean. Cool video!
Oh, I like this one. "You think you've found a pirate gravestone. Well you haven't." Nothing against fun fantasy stories, the first POTC movie is still a heck of a romp, but hey it also involves undead ghost pirates so we know there's no basis in reality there. Enjoy the stories, remember that the reality was... not great.
True... although the pirates in the first film really were horrible - Sparrow was the only 'nice' one and he wasn't really that nice. All the romanticism seemed to set in after that...
@@paulaunger3061 You are absolutely right!
Did you notice Sparrows teeth improved after the first movie?
@@jeannegreeneyes1319 LOL no, but I don't doubt it. I really hated the second film and didn't really bother with the rest after that :(
Kudos for using Blackadder
My mother loved old gravestones. Any cemetery we passed when out driving was fair game. At the time I found it so irritating but as an adult I love them. I find I can learn so much about a people through their grave rites and other practices. Some are deliberately quite funny and many are works of art. Pirates have been so mythologized/romanticized by popular culture throughout time it’s hard/impossible to figure what’s true or false. My view of pirates is that anyone who has engaged/engages in this kind of crime is not a nice person nor someone to take home to meet your mother.
Abraham Zacuto was an astronomer to King John II of Portugal as he fled from Spain. A lot of secretos became pirates and privateers during the Spanish Inquisition, and they found refuge in Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and the "New World". They were heavily involved in the silver trade in South America and unfortunately the slave trade in the Carribbean. I can read Hebrew. If I had a clearer/ larger image of the first grave stone, I could tell you the name. THANK YOU for mentioning the book, Jewish Pirates of the Carribbean. It is one of my favorites, and rekindled my interest in maritime history about 6 years ago. And thank you for your dedication to history, culture, language, and their preservations. Toda raba, muito obrigado, muchas gracias, chi miigwetch!
Another interesting video as always!
Pirate captain later reformed Jamiacan Lt.-Gov. Sir Henry Morgan's grave at Port Royal's Palisadoes cemetary,was lost during the famous 1692 earthquake which virtually destroyed Port Royal;however Morgan,most likely still has living collateral descendants via his Archbold and Byndloss(Bindlosse) godsons/cousins.
From what I've read, Stede Bonnet (and I thought Blackbeard too but apparently not) were captured at Cape Fear, North Carolina. Bonnet was pardoned once by the governor, and Blackbeard escaped with the treasure they looted together. I don't know whether or not he found Blackbeard again but Bonnet went back to pirating up and down the coast. He was caught again but escaped to an island and soon captured again (here is where I thouht Blackbeard was brought in too). In Dec.1718 they were hanged and their bodies put in a nearby swamp. Bonnet went to the gallows holding a bouquet, and did not look up, so the story goes. However.....another part of the story was that an officer who had been on a ship he raided with Blackbeard recognized Bonnet and turned him in. Of course I took this and ran with it, looking at local cemeteries. At a church nearby of the same era, the oldest four stones are small, black stones with no names, just the skull and crossbones. With his knowledge of farming and some investment money, Bonnet might have bought some land and hired three others to farm with him. If he changed how he looked (there weren't photographs obviously, or even good drawings really), and if he donated a lot to that church.... I know, but it makes a good story anyway. Just went though my mind when I saw the headstones, and knowing some local history! What's the most interesting headstone you've seen?
100% here for podcasts and merch! Yes please! ❤️ Wonderful, informative video as usual. Casual conversation that cites sources and includes occasional snark is the best way to learn lol
Always adore when Jimmy brings some fresh knowledge at us. Gravestones are always going to be fascinating. We will never know what's on our own, others will write it. Keep up the good work Jimmy!
I love the anthropology! Another brilliant topic!
Much love &respect from Arizona!
🖤🌻🌻🖤
Once again, you do not disappoint! Given how many graves have momenti mori on them, how can anyone think there were that many pirates!
Do you think on the historical "authenticity" in character and setting designs in the How to Train Your Dragon series would be interesting? I can't imagine they got too much right, but it could be a fun little break from Game of Thrones style of bad 'historical' shows.
This was super interesting!!! Thank you for making this video!
Even these day the parish priest has a lot of control over what goes on a gravestone. Spike Milligan was only allowed, "See, I told you I was ill" when it was rendered in Gaelic.
That was so controversial the diocese itself refused at first!
@@TheWelshViking I didn't know that!
Why do pirates say Arrrrrrrr??? Because double-you just isn't as scary. 😁 Another wonderfully informative and fun video, Jimmy. I find old gravestones fascinating. Can't wait to get somewhere that has some that are older than 100 years to take a look someday. Take care.
There are some beautiful old gravestones like this in a graveyard near the German coast town Sankt Peter-Ording. Maybe the fact that it's close to the sea makes people draw wrong conclusions about who is buried there.
It's in the wadden sea, there isn't even a port nearby, and the closest thing to piracy that might have happened there is the stealing of stranded cargo from sunken ships after a storm.
This reminds me of the opening sequence from the tv show Black Sails. Great music and amazing skulls &skeletons carvings.
Here in the US, New England specifically, one is more like to find winged skulls on 17th century grave markers.
I love your videos and would very much welcome more content from you :) please do keep up the great work
10:37 I can guess why a painting from the Netherlands had both Hebrew and Spanish on it-- a large number of Dutch Jews in the early modern period were Sephardim who fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal (or were expelled). The Netherlands offered relative religious tolerance, so it became a hub.
This is so interesting thank you! Great video :D
I miss seeing my name in your credits. I hope one day soon I can patronise you again....in the good way
So many comments on an excellent video that I haven't read them all (I confess!!) to see if anyone else shares my opinion that the only reason "Aaarrgghh" is considered pirate talk is that it was part of Robert Newton's accent playing Long John Silver in Disney's movie version of Robert Louis Stevenson's magnificent "Treasure Island". Stevenson's pirates were colorful, certainly, but they were all ruthless and deadly, including Long John.
Wait. You study gravestones???? That is AMAZING!! As if you weren’t already amazing enough!
Anyyywayyyy I really love your channel and I hope you’re doing well! 😁