During the Richmond Lending Library talk I asked Justin Somper about Bartholomew (Bart) Pearce and apparently he is based on Bartholomew (Bart) Roberts was a Welsh pirate who raided shipping off the Americas and West Africa. He was the most successful pirate of the golden age of piracy, capturing far more ships than some of the best-known pirates of this era.

To work out speed, sailors could throw a piece of wood with knotted piece of rope attached overboard. Then time how many knots passed by in a set amount to time, and therefore work out how many knots and hour they were going.

Privateers were employed by governments and merchants to plunder the opponents treasure. They owned a document called a Letter of Marque to prove it.

Beer is good for your health, when drinking water may not be as safe as it could be. In the days of the cholera and plague epidemics, it was noted that beer-drinkers did not fall ill. Monasteries through out the ages have been recorded producing beer for the local townspeople. They were urged to drink beer instead of water owing to the poor water quality and this gave rise to a thriving brewing industry. Brewing of beer involves boiling the water first, which kills the germs and if the equipment is not sterilised, it is obvious as, the fermenting beer goes off.

Even children drank beer out of fear of contracting cholera and typhus and sailors drank strong beer as it could be kept for months on the sea. But as safe supplies of water developed, so did a taste for higher-alcohol beers, rather than the thirst-quenching, low-alcohol variety. Traditionally the third mash or small beer was served to servants, field workers, the poor, even the young. The first runnings from a brewer's mash (xxx) would go to a stronger beer, the second (xx) for ordinary beer. A small beer (x), taken from a third running, was probably about 2.5% alcohol by volume. Monasteries, in particular, produced large quantities of small beer in the Middle Ages.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Mythbusters on the Discovery channel, but they collect myths and then work out how accurate they are. I saw part of the Pirate Special where they tested:
"Pirates wore eyepatches to preserve night vision in one eye.
PLAUSIBLE
This myth works under the assumption that the eye covered with the eyepatch is already accustomed to low light conditions, while the other eye must take time to accustom. The Mythbusters were sent into a dark room with light-accustomed eyes and were told to complete certain objectives. Their movements were hampered by the darkness and it took them five minutes to finish. When they went into a rearranged but equally dark room with an eye that was covered for thirty minutes, the Mythbusters were able to complete the test in a fraction of the time. As a control test, the Mythbusters then went back into the same exact room with light-accustomed eyes and ran into the same difficulty as the first test. The myth was deemed plausible because there is no recorded historical precedent for this myth."

Pirate Captains had a strict code of conduct called articles.
Below is a list of articles I have found.

• Penalty for desertion
• Fair share of the treasure and punishments for pirates that cheated
• Gambling was banned
• No lights at night
• No boys or women allowed on board - Shall we ignore this one
• Each pirate takes responsibility for maintaining his weapons
• Equal voting rights
• No fighting between pirates on board the ship
• Compensation according to the severity of wounds
• Shares of the treasure
• Musicians available to play when required