Pirates knew their lives on the high seas were brief. On average, pirates lasted in their chosen career for only two years before they died by illness, injury or execution. Illness and injury were to be expected on the high seas.
The oldest active pirate during the Golden Age of piracy was Captain William Kidd (born c. 1645, d. 23 May 1701), who plied his trade until the age of 54; owing to the many occupational hazards, the majority of pirates only lived into their mid-30s.
However, swords, guns and cannonballs were not what sent most pirates to Davy Jones' locker (meaning, to their death). Instead, a pirate's greatest enemy was disease: food poisoning, malnutrition, infection.
However, it is worth noting that the average height of individuals in the past, including pirates, was generally shorter than it is today. Historical records suggest that the average height of men in the 17th and 18th centuries ranged from about 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) to 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm).
The period ended when the Royal Navy, the British East India Company, and colonial governors took a much more active and aggressive stance against piracy, resulting in the capture and public hanging of hundreds of pirates from London to the Carolinas.
The era of piracy in the Caribbean began in the 1500s and phased out in the 1830s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe and North America with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1660s to 1730s.
A Pirate's Life for Him -- at Age 9. Underwater archeologists have identified the partial remains of the youngest known pirate to ply U.S. waters, a 9-year-old boy who eagerly joined Capt. Black Sam Bellamy's crew on the infamous Whydah.
Blackbeard may have been the most notorious pirate of all. Fierce and ferocious-looking, he stood 6'4” tall and had wild eyes and an explosive temper. To add to the effect, he tucked slow-burning cannon fuses under his hat.
Play Board Games
While pirates didn't have our modern board game options, they had dice, coins, cards, chips, and a lot of imagination. As a result, pirates made up and modified a wide array of various board games to amuse themselves, playing with all kinds of complex rules and interesting ideas.
Many pirates were jobless sailors who were destitute between times of war. They were first and foremost seamen, so they wore clothing typical of all mariners in the 17th and 18th centuries. Typical clothing known as 'slops' included breeches, caps and linen shirts made up of an array of materials and colours.
Pirate ship life was full of avoidable health risks. There were quite a few nasty diseases that pirates would have to contend with including scurvy, which occurs due to a lack of vitamins in the diet, yellow fever, malaria, gangrene and even dysentery.
For particularly notorious pirates, usually the captains, they were hanged and then their body was hung to rot in an iron cage. The Scottish privateer turned pirate Captain Kidd (c. 1645-1701) was found guilty of piracy and murder at his trial in London in May 1701.
Edward Low. Edward Low started his piratical career in 1721 in the Caribbean. Over the next few years, Low blazed a path of destruction, becoming, according to one contemporary account, “the most noted pirate in America” – and certainly the most vicious. He seemed to relish torturing and killing his victims.
John Ward was the inspiration for the character of Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Ward's nickname was 'Sparrow' and he was known for his flamboyant style – much like the Hollywood icon. Ward so ingratiated himself with Uthman Dey that he was given a large plot of land in Tunis.
Bartholomew Roberts
He was the last great pirate of the golden age who plundered more than 400 ships.
Indonesia's 17,500 islands and their surrounding waters now take the title as the world's most heavily pirated.
If some pirates had goals beyond personal wealth, however, treasure was, at the very least, a means to an end, and their way of acquiring it had no limits in cruelty and violence. To persuade their victims to hand over all they owned, pirates made regular use of every form of torture.
Sleeping Quarters
Some of them slept on hammocks. Others slept on the floor. It was easier for them to sleep on hammocks because they swayed and rocked with the ship's movements. They also didn't have to worry about falling off beds during storms or high tides.
Rum, which was distilled from sugar, became a primary export. As a result, many of the ships on the waters that pirates attacked were filled with it. Crews tended to drink much of the liquid loot they found. However, rum was also used as a currency and often traded for goods.
Blackbeard had no grave at all. His body was thrown into Pamlico Sound, his head given as a trophy to Spotswood, who had it displayed on a tall pole in Hampton Roads, at a site now known as Blackbeard's Point.
Robert Maynard. Though many have tried, the lost treasure of Blackbeard remains unfound to this day. Legend has it that while his death occurred in North Carolina, his spirit has returned to protect that which he holds most dear.
In Dead Men Tell No Tales, Jack Sparrow is either 61 or 70 years old depending on whether you believe the information given by the production designer from On Stranger Tides or the co-director from Dead Men Tell No Tales.
In the book, The Price of Freedom, he is 25. By the second film, he should be ~38, because of his deal with Davvy Jones, he got 13 years to captian the Pearl, in the first movie it had been 12 years, 10 since the mutiny. 15 years later, on stranger tides, he would be 53+5 for the 5th film.