Ever want to be a Pirate as a Kid?

While searching for a particular shipwreck, I came across the following story. It was a must read as soon as I read the title.

Its about the youngest pirate ever recorded.

On that same ship traveling as passengers were a boy named John King and his mother. It is difficult to say how old John was, but probably no older than eleven and possibly as young as eight. Why he and his mother were traveling is not included in the record. What is clearly documented, however, is that John wanted to be a pirate. John demanded to be allowed to join the crew of the Marianne. In fact, if he wasn't allowed to, he threatened to hurt himself according to a deposition made from the captain of the Bonetta

What amazes me, as noted in the story, is he went on to sack a fair number of ships in the company of pirates. Not sure if he was involved in any of the fighting that may have ensued, but he was still present for the take over of the ships.

With the boyish dreams of being a pirate, who here, at the age of 11, would actually have the jumblies to join up with pirates?

As appealing as the lifestyle is portrayed sometimes, I don't think I could have made that decision at the ripe ol' age of 11.

Here's the story, enjoy.



www.unmuseum.org...

( based on fact, don't ya know)

Who says I ever wanted to stop fantasizing about "A Pirate's Life for me".

Truth be told, I would like to be one of those dashing gentleman pirates, the one's that make the ladies swoon, and the mean respect and fear him.

lol

-ADHD

P.S. I have the Jolly Roger, hanging up in my living room.

Really determined children all over the world make that type of decision around that age. My middle bro said (as soon as puberty even touched him) he'd be supporting himself before he turned 18, outside his parents home. He did. Started a family early, too. The only thing I remember about my childhood dreams is I wanted to live a quiet life. I still aim to live a fairly private life.

I'm 49 years old, and when I was a kid, me and my friends all wanted to be pirates (when we weren't wanting to be cowboys or secret agents). That is to say, we wanted to be the Errol Flynn type of pirate; good-guy pirates, not the psychopathic killing machines that the real ones were.

So much time has passed since then, and our popular culture has changed so much, that I'm amazed that that particular fantasy is still around. I guess we have the Walt Disney Company to thank for that, but whatever; I think it's cool.

Baack

yahhaaa ye scurvy dogs i'll keel haul ye and tie yer gizzards to me lizards
yer not more than a fine cut above poltroons ye wastrels
join me crew on the Saucy Sue or i'll make ye do the long walk off me short plank and ye can spend the rest of ye days down in davey jones locker beggin the day when the trumpet of the lord calls ye back to account
or my name aint Cap'n Finn Cannonballs
gangstaname.com...

It was pretty common back then to have young boys on naval vessels. I believe that an officer candidate would start out his training as young as 9 years old. They would usually work as a cabin boy until they learned the running of the ship. They would also engage in combat, which was more grizzly at sea then it ever was on land. The wood of the ships would become wooden shrapnel when cannon fire hit the ship, and the action was even worse during a boarding. Often Langrage was used; it was a type of buckshot fired from the cannons, also known as grapeshot. This was intended to sweep the decks of personnel prior to boarding a ship and it was pretty indiscriminate in who it killed and maimed.

Admiral Nelson for example started out at the age of 12.

You also had the non-officer young boy onboard that worked as the powder monkeys. Many of these children were “Sons of a Gun” that had been born on the ships to a prostitute and then were raised in a navel orphanage.




[edit on 8/31/2006 by defcon5]

Pirate was always kind of my "Plan B". My first choice was to be World Dictator. I decided that at the ripe old age of 5. Actually, it may have even been sooner than that, since my first word was "mine!" as I hugged the ground.

Sure. Pirate, astronaut, jet pilot, explorer, deep sea diver, soldier of fortune, etc. Never really was into the cowboy thing, though.

"If they ever come up with a swashbuckling school, I think one of the courses should be Laughing, Then Jumping Off Something."
~~Deep Thoughts from Jack Handy

Originally posted by thelibra
Pirate was always kind of my "Plan B". My first choice was to be World Dictator. I decided that at the ripe old age of 5. Actually, it may have even been sooner than that, since my first word was "mine!" as I hugged the ground.

That's jsut wonderful.

At least you didn't decide that you only want t hav dominion over half the earht, so that you'd be in a continual state of war with the other.

Originally posted by yeahright
"If they ever come up with a swashbuckling school, I think one of the courses should be Laughing, Then Jumping Off Something."
~~Deep Thoughts from Jack Handy

A Jack Handy, haven't heard one of those in a while.LOL

Great Thread!!! Who wouldn't want to be a pirate!!?? Sailing the high seas... a girl in every port.. manning the windlass.. hoisting the yardarm..

oh wait.. my swash is unbuckled. brb.

Ya I wanted to be a pirate too, but that's not why I replied....

would actually have the jumblies to join up with pirates?

Did you ever notice that you could substitute almost any word for "jumblies" and most people would still know exactly what you meant?

I think I would have used "kahunas", or maybe "coconuts". But then again "grapefruits" would even work....

want to be a pirate

consider the religion of the flying spaghetti monster, referred to as pastafarianism or monsterism

it advocates an increase in pirate population to counteract global warming

google/wiki it

Great thread, guys, and nice followups! I'd never thought about what age pirates might be, though I knew that young boys often served as servants on shipboard (cabin boys.)

Just for fun, here's a link to a famous logic puzzle called "The Pirate Loot Problem":
en.wikipedia.org...

Everyone has problems with the solution and lateral thinkers come up with all sorts of other answers (some amusing) to the logic problem;
discuss.techinterview.org...

Typical mom. The boys want to play "pirate" and she turns it into a homework math story problem.

Aargh...buckle the swash, me hearties, yo-ho.

OK. so I can't sing...

Who hasn't, or does still, not at least occasionally dream of being a buccaneer? I've lost count, not that I ever did count, of the fantasies I've had as a child, and the fewer ones that I've had as a so-called adult.

Baseball player. Astronaut. Pirate. God of Thunder. You name it, I've been it...
Some of my fondest memories from childhood are manning the mains'l (crabapple tree), boarding and looting the Spanish treasure ship (the back porch), slaying the evil Spanish lord (my little brother- maybe some issues there :lol).