Talk like a pirate day – an essential guide!

Avast ye landlubbers, it’s Talk like a pirate day today, so get savvy with our hornswaggling guide brought to you by Space Jackers author Huw Powell

 Captain Edward Teach (1680 - 1718), better known as Blackbeard, a pirate who plundered the coasts of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. His hair is woven with flaming fuses to increase his fearsome appearance. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

All hands on deck, batten down the hatches and roll-out the big guns for International Talk Like a Pirate Day today. This light-hearted holiday started 20 years ago in the US state of Oregon to mark the Golden Age of Piracy. It’s now held worldwide and even Barack Obama has tweeted about it!

I know what you’re thinking; why would sensible people around the world want to talk like scurvy-skinned sea dogs and sing old shanties? There’s definitely something appealing about these cutthroat criminals with their eye-catching outfits and fearsome flags. It could be that they were rule-breaking rebels or we get excited by the idea of finding buried treasure.

Most people have a favourite pirate from history, whether it’s Blackbeard (aka Edward Teach), Henry Morgan, Anne Bonny or Mary Read. It’s the same for fictional characters from film and television, such as Jack Sparrow, Morgan Adams, Captain Harlock or Marika Kato.

Personally, while I would never condone piracy, I think the day is a perfect excuse for everyone to act daft once a year.

In order to help you survive this swashbuckling day, here’s your essential guide to looking and talking like a pirate:

Wardrobe: If you really want to make the most of the day, why not dress up like a bloodthirsty buccaneer? Here’s what you will need:

• Traditional sea pirates are usually depicted as wearing long coats and tricorn hats, with parrots on their shoulder. In books, the men tended to have long beards and eyepatches, while the women wore hooped earrings and colourful bandanas. You could add a wooden crutch like Long John Silver fromTreasure Island, or a metal hook like Captain Hook from Peter Pan. If all else fails, wear a huge pair of spotty bloomers, like in Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman.
• If the Golden Age is not for you, modern day pirates wear t-shirts, combat trousers and keffiyeh headscarves, as well as a couple of bullet belts slung over their shoulders.
• Fake fangs are a must for any vampire pirate crews, such as those in the Vampiratesseries by Justin Somper.
• Space pirates need to wear survival suits, gravity boots and space helmets (which are skull-shaped in my Space Jackers series).
• Weaponry: What weapons would a pirate have?
  • Traditional sea pirates used mostly flintlock pistols and cutlass swords. A few of them carried bucklers (small round shields) and smokepots (early versions of grenades). If you really want to impress people, why not build yourself a papier-mâché cannon?
  • Modern day pirates wield AK47 assault rifles and machetes to terrorise their victims.
  • Space pirates can carry laser pistols, plasma rifles and palm grenades. In Philip Reeve’s Larklight, there are Victorian space pirates with blunderbusses!
  Language: Many famous pirates were from Devon and Cornwall, meaning that they would have had rural West Country accents. Blackbeard himself was from Bristol, which is also the setting for much of Treasure Island. Traditional pirates used lots of nautical terms, which can be found using online pirate dictionaries and translators, such as www.speakpirate.com. Here are some of the key words and phrases:

  

   Photograph: PR

  • Accord = agreement
  • Ahoy = hello
  • All hands on deck = emergency
  • Arrr = agreed
  • Avast = stop
  • Aye = yes
  • Batten down the hatches = prepare for a storm
  • Bilge rat = the lowest form of life
  • Blaggard = a person who cannot be trusted
  • Booty = stolen goods
  • Brig = ship prison
  • Buccaneer = pirate
  • Cat’o’nine tails = a whip made of knotted rope
  • Cutlass = a curved sword
  • Cutthroat = pirate
  • Davy Jones’ Locker = the bottom of the sea
  • Deep = ocean
  • Hearties = friends
  • Hornswaggle = cheat
  • Jolly Roger = pirate flag (skull and crossbones)
  • Land ahoy = land spotted
  • Landlubber = a land dweller
  • Marooned = left alone on a deserted island
  • Matey = buddy
  • Me = my
  • Mutiny = when the crew rebels
  • Pieces of eight = old silver coins from Spain
  • Pirate = robber of the sea
  • Plunder = to steal
  • Salt = a seasoned sailor
  • Savvy = understand
  • Scourge = troublemaker
  • Scurvy = a disease from lack of vitamin C
  • Scuttle = sink the ship
  • Sea dog = experienced sailor
  • Sea legs = sailing without being seasick
  • Set sail = head out to sea
  • Shanty = sea songs
  • Shark bait = a dying sailor
  • Shipmate = fellow sailor
  • Shipshape = good condition
  • Shiver me timbers = crikey
  • Swab = clean
  • Swashbuckler = pirate
  • Walk the plank = a way to dispose of enemies
  • Weigh anchor = raise the anchor
  • Ye = you

  

  For example, you might wish to tell your parents: “Avast, ye landlubbers, I be weighing anchor and setting sail to see me hearties” when you’re going out with friends.
  Whatever you do, have a jolly (roger) International Talk Like a Pirate Day!