What a well dressed pirate should wear

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow
Pirates of the Caribbean

Anyone wanting to be recognised as a pirate today turns to 17th and 18th fashion to get the look. Even modern day, hi-tech pirates like Pirate Bay turn to history when it comes to promoting their activities.

The Pirate Bay logo shows a galleon sporting the Jolly Roger motif made up of two crossed bones and a tape cassette for the skull.

The first accounts of pirate flags like this date to the sixteenth century. The origin of the name 'Jolly Roger' is unclear but the use of a black flag with skull, crossbones, and hourglass is attributed to pirate captain Emanuel Wynn in 1700 based on an account by Captain John Cranby of HMS Poole now in the London Public Record Office.



The picture of John Sunde, one of Pirate Bay’s founders shows him as a smiling rogue wearing the type of hat Napoleon wore (a chapeau bras) adorned with the skull and cross-bones motif. He is wearing an eye patch and stripy t-shirt making him instantly recognisable as what he wants you to think he is, a lovable cheeky rogue (but he's not so lovable if he's messing with your copyright - he's a pirate alright!).

John Sunde, co-founder of Pirate Bay

So the typical pirate gear includes:

• Bright mis-matched colours and stripes
• Scarf/bandanna - to keep the sweat out of the pirate's eyes
• A cocked/tri-cornered hat - made of anything form silk to leather
• A frock coat or doublet - perhaps the most expensive item of clothing often decorated with gold embroidery and ornate braids
• Breeches - knee length trousers 
• Knitted caps called Monmouth caps
• Waistcoats - flamboyantly decorated like their coats
• Drawers - tight fitting to allow for the difficult tasks of a pirate
• Stockings - made from wool or silk for land use
• Shirts - with puffed sleeves, ruffles and lace

The origin of the look comes from the first major literary work to popularise the subject of pirates "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates" published in 1724 by Captain Charles Johnson.

The book contains the stories of Blackbeard and Calico Jack the two men who provide the backbone for the modern pirate stereotype. Since then the image of this 18th century seagoing villain has been enhanced and modified by 19th century creations such as J.M Barrie’s Captain Hook in Peter Pan and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Long John Silver.

Drawing for the Costume of Captain Hook
 for J.M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan

Captain Hook is shown dressed as a 17th century gentleman with a long decorated frock coat, a billowing ruffled shirt, stockings and buckled shoes almost like a cavalier.

Hook is battle scarred like Silver, a key feature of any man who wishes to be feared. Hook lost his hand to Peter Pan in a battle long ago when Peter cut it off and threw it overboard for the Tick-Tock crocodile to eat; an act that Hook will never forgive.

Illustration from 1911 edition
Treasure Island

Stevenson's Long John Silver is shown in a battered naval uniform in the 1911 edition of the book. He is shown wearing the frock coat and cocked hat of a lieutenant dating to about 1750 in keeping with Silver's claims to have served in the Royal Navy and to have lost his leg under "the immortal Hawke". His parrot, Captain Flint can be seen sitting on his shoulder as he moves around on his wooden leg using crutches.

The other vital piece of pirate clothing is the eye patch. Although there are no first-hand accounts stating that pirates wore eye patches there is no question that wearing a patch to keep one eye dark-adapted to nip from the top deck to below deck prevents the wearer from being temporally blinded by the change of light. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was the first movie in the series to portray a pirate with an eye patch.

Mackenzie Crook as Ragetti in
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

The TV show Myth Busters tested the dark adaption hypothesis in their pirate special in 2007 and determined that it was a plausible explanation for the idea that pirates wore eye patches and pointed to at least one military manual for pilots that supported the idea saying that,  "Even though a bright light may shine in one eye, the other will retain its dark adaptation, if it is protected from the light. This is a useful bit of information, because a flyer can preserve dark adaptation in one eye by simply closing it." Even the FAA recommends that "a pilot should close one eye when using a light to preserve some degree of night vision."

The pirate's reputation for ostentatiousness when it came to clothing comes from the sixteenth century when these sea-born outlaws took the opportunity to flout the Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws which were designed to reduce the importation of foreign luxuries and support the English cloth industry. Their effect was to enforce class and income divisions by dictating what the common man could wear. To show their contempt for this imposition on their personal freedom pirates chose cloth of crimson, violet, purple and deep blue all colours reserved for royalty and the upper echelons of society.

Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook
in crimson velvet

This trailer for the film Captain Sabertooth employs the full set of pirate stereotypes but then it is for children.