Mawr Pirates!

Part 2 of my reviewing pirate movies for History HIt. Here we look at the The Sea Hawk, more Pirates of The Caribbean and The Black Swan. If you missed Part 1 you can find it here.

It was a fun shoot up near Regent’s Park in London. I went into way more detail about hanging than was necessary, and they thankfully edited out. The standard drop was only introduced towards the end of the 18th century and really took its time to spread around the British Empire. Most pirates in the golden age of piracy would have suffered the short drop, which is slowly choking for tens of minutes before dying. When you were hung from the yardarm that is hoisted up by your neck and would have taken a long time depending on your bodyweight. I read somewhere that negotiating with the hangman to free someone while they were being hanged was not uncommon in the day. People who were freed after being hanged would get pins and needles (tingling and prickling feeling) in their heads and scream to be killed. Not nice.

Also you can buy a signed copy of Blackbeard’s Treasure here.

Arrr!