Who really were Pirates ?

Pirates as we know them from the media are good , yet bad people who love adventures and getting into trouble. They are men who were tired of their boring lives and decided to give their lives to the sea for adventure. Will Turner is a great example of this ideal of a pirate in our minds. He was a simple blacksmith who because of Jack's meddling and his love for Elizabeth chose the pirate life.


I have heart breaking news that Will Turner was not the personification of a pirate he was just merely a character for a story. The real pirates started out as seaman 73 percent of the quote on quote pirates described themselves as mariners or sailors.

      The actual pirates would not look like Will Turner, but they would actually more likely resemble the sailors portrayed by Willem Defoe and Robert Patterson in the film the Lighthouse by Robert Eggers.

The amount of former seamen who became pirates grew in the the golden age of piracy the 1720s. The number jumped from 73% to 98% of pirates were former seamen in the merchant service or they served the royal navy as a privateer.The amount of merchants originated when they were captured by other pirates. They chose to live a life of Piracy instead of death from a pirate.

This job title of being professional seafarers would explain many gray areas that being a pirate brings up. For one it explains how pirates were able to survive and basically live on a ship when they made voyages from The Americas to the Coast of Africa. Pirates were also able to navigate the sea extremely well. They could navigate around reefs that could destroy their ship and shoals of the Caribbean.

One of the most puzzling facts of pirates is also explained by their past occupations.
Pirates were always able to flee the navy and evade them and for some reason no one questions why they can do that. They could give the navy the slip because they knew their techniques and tactics , and they also knew the sea more than any other breed of man since they were former sailors.

So why if pirates were originally sailors and men who were in the navy does Will Turner exist. It honestly comes down to simple film making and story telling. Will's character gives the audience something to relate to since no one is supposed to relate to Jack Sparrow. Will is the every man of that day in age who gets dragged into this world of Pirates and that is exciting. The audience and viewer can relate to Will's views and his motivation which is his passion to find his father and his love for Elizabeth. Will may not be an accurate adaptation as the type of man who became a pirate, but if Will was the man who pirates actually used to be then the film would not have connected to audiences as well.