|
|
Pirates had a profound relationship with tobacco, alcohol, and, oddly enough, fine porcelain dinnerware. I'm talking about the pirates of yore, shiver me timbers and arghhh, matey, not the modern pirates who attack container ships with speedboats. Those guys probably smoke cigarettes, since they often drive cigarette boats, but it's the old-time swashbucklers, the pirates of the Caribbean, that are today's subject.
In the 1700s, Caribbean pirates occupied a settlement in Belize called the Barcadares (derived from the word for "landing place" in Spanish), and recent archeological digs have produced revelations. For one thing, those pirates smoked like fiends. Compared to other sites dug from the same period, the Barcadares revealed an impressive bulk of tobacco use. Thirty-six percent of the artifacts found were clay pipes, compared to 22 percent and 16 percent at the other sites. Archeologically, 36 is a very high percentage.
There must have been a lot of free time for these men. The time necessary for burying chests of gold, keel-hauling prisoners, or practicing sword fighting technique, could not have taken the majority of their time. They couldn't pillage and drink continuously, though they seem to have tried, so smoking had to fill their time, and they evidently did it well.
Thirty-six percent of the artifacts found were clay pipes, compared to 22 percent and 16 percent at the other sites.
As for the fine dinnerware, there is little explanation. Probably booty, the pirates may have kept it around as a reminder of the finer things in life. They lived in fairly unsophisticated surroundings, with no houses, just platforms and canvas, so the highly fragile delftware found by archaeologists would have been impractical. The pirates must have simply liked having it around. And why not? Pirates deserve nice things too.
The settlement was on the Belize River, and the bend on which it was located became known centuries later for bottle diving. Very old glass bottles were easy to find by anyone diving in the area. However, bottles were valuable, not easily replaced in that Pirate era, so the bottles that ended up in the river were probably thrown there in drunkenness. Because they wouldn't have been discarded except accidentally, or in drunken exuberance, those thousands of bottles must represent a very small percentage of the alcohol that passed through the settlement.
However, the pipes are the main attraction. These outlaws smoked, and they evidently smoked all the time. So next time you think about pirates, with their cutlasses and bandanas, their eye patches and peg legs, don't forget to imagine them with their more historically correct clay pipes.
You may also enjoy:
Comments
As a history buff all these info clips are great Thanks
last week, i asked a question about how to get flying dutchman . any info?
@Dan Paradis Hi Dan! Yes, I responded to you on the Rope Tobacco blog with some information on Flying Dutchman. I am going to reach out to you via email to be sure you receive it this time!