
Originally Posted by
Invader
Those are modern day stereotypes. You'd be hard pressed to find an actual
pirate with a wooden leg or a hook for a hand, much less a parrot as a pet.
The other thing about pirates (back in the day) is that they typically
ran with abnormally large crews in order to guarantee superior, intimidating
numbers. Bear in mind that these were bands of criminals that were able to
live with and cooperate with each other for extended period of time. Pirate
captains were elected based on their ability to navigate and to successfully
score on other ships as often as possible. Sometimes, pirates would band
together to form fleets of ships in order to make assaults on rich coastal
town. I think Portobello is a good example. Plenty others, but I'll need to
refresh myself on the history.
The point is that these were killers that were able to coordinate with large
numbers on the fly. That in itself would make for an interesting psychology
paper, I think.
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