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What did pirates do with their dead?

Pirates lived a dangerous life on the high seas, and death was a constant possibility. But what happened when a pirate died at sea, far away from land? Pirates developed various rituals and procedures for dealing with their dead comrades that reflected their transient lifestyle.

Burial at Sea

The most common practice for handling pirate corpses was to commit them to the ocean. Burial at sea was the norm for sailors in general, as storing a decaying body on a ship was impractical and could spread disease.

Pirates would typically sew the deceased pirate into his hammock, with a cannonball or two at his feet to weigh him down. The body would be brought up to the main deck, and the captain or quartermaster would say a few words about the departed. The crew gathered around for this makeshift funeral service.

The corpse would then be tipped over the side of the ship, slipping out of the hammock into the sea. The cannonballs ensured the body sunk below the waves instead of floating. A volley of gunshots would be fired in salute as the departed pirate began his final journey to Davy Jones’ Locker.

Burial at sea provided a seafaring funeral appropriate for a freebooter, especially if the victim died in combat or a shipwreck far from land. However, some pirates disliked the idea of their remains being left to the fate of the oceans. So other procedures developed for dealing with pirate corpses.

Preservation for Burial on Land

If a pirate died while the ship was near land, or if the deceased had expressed a wish to be buried on soil, steps might be taken to preserve the body until it could be interred on land.

One technique was to place the corpse in a cask, barrel, or makeshift coffin and pack it with salt or alcohol to create a briny bath of preservatives. This pickle process could keep the remains intact for weeks or months until the ship made port. The barrel containing the body would be stored down in the hold until it could be buried.

Another approach was to mummify or smoke the body. Pirates might dry and cure the corpse by exposing it to smoke and fire for a period of days or weeks. This produced a form of mummy that retained some of the physical features of the deceased.

Both brining and smoking helped protect the body from rapid decay and made it stable for transportation back to shore for proper burial. It allowed pirates who had a sentimental attachment to their fallen mates to accord them a resting place on land.

Shared Grave Sites on Remote Islands

When pirate ships anchored off small remote islands to restock supplies and make repairs, they might bury multiple dead crewmen on the beach or in makeshift graves on the island. This was a way to dispose of any bodies that had accumulated during voyages.

Some of these obscure islands became impromptu pirate graveyards, dotted with the unmarked graves of pirates from multiple ships and crews. For example, Dead Chest Island in the British Virgin Islands is said to contain the skeletons of numerous executed and deceased pirates buried on its shores.

Having shared grave sites allowed sailing crews to give their mates a proper burial and funeral service even if they were far from official cemeteries in port cities. It created a form of sacred ground for disposing of pirate remains until the ship could return to civilization.

Crewmen Preserved in Alcohol

While burial was most common, some pirate captains and crews transported and stored their deceased mates in alcohol rather than bury them right away.

The corpse would be placed in a cask, barrel, or container and covered with alcohol to preserve it. Usually rum or brandy was used, providing a literal “pirate’s drink” as embalming fluid. The alcohol both pickled the body and contained the stench.

Keeping deceased pirates above deck in alcohol became a way for crews to, in a sense, keep their comrades with them a bit longer instead of instantly consigning them to the deep. It allowed them time to cope with the loss. The preserved bodies would eventually be buried at sea or on land.

Famous pirate Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy reportedly packed the bodies of his crewmen killed in a 1717 shipwreck in rum casks lashed to his ship’s mast. And when Blackbeard’s ship was captured in 1718, five preserved corpses were found in alcohol in the hold. So some pirates clearly chose to defer burial to temporarily embalm comrades in spirits.

Burning on Pyres

Though rare, there were occasional reports of pirates cremating their dead by placing corpses on pyres or burning wrecked ships. Perhaps this was inspired by Viking funeral customs.

For example, 17th century buccaneer Roche Brasiliano allegedly burned and roasted Spanish prisoners alive onpyres on deserted islands. And pirates might torch a wrecked vessel as a symbolic cremation of those who died in the bombardment, rather than leave bodies to wash ashore.

These fiery funerals reflected a more violent and dramatic end for pirate remains when crews felt bitter hatred toward their enemies. But they were risky at sea, so water burials were more common.

Stripped of Valuables before Disposal

Pirates lived by plunder, so it comes as little surprise that some pirate crews stripped corpses of jewelry, weapons, clothes or other valuables before disposing of them. Their philosophy was “waste not,” and they saw no point in burying lucrative loot with the dead. After taking what they wanted, they would commit the body to the sea or a grave.

However, this practice was not ubiquitous. In cases where the deceased was a respected captain or comrade, pirates sometimes buried crewmen in their finest clothes, with weapons and trinkets as grave offerings for the afterlife. So pirate funeral customs toward property varied between purely practical and more sentimental.

Superstitious Precautions

The age of piracy was a very superstitious time, with beliefs in ghosts, omens, curses and rituals. Pirates engaged in various precautions surrounding death due to supernatural fears and folklore.

Some ships quickly buried any pirates who died from disease, for fear the “plague” might infect the whole crew. They dared not keep diseased bodies on board.

Conversely, accident victims were sometimes kept aboard for longer periods before burial so their ghosts would not haunt the ship searching for their bodies. Hammocks and personal effects of the dead might be stored below decks rather than disposed of, to appease spirits.

And before abandoning a doomed leaking ship, its pirates might make sure to bore holes in the hull to release the ghosts of drowned comrades trapped in the wreckage, allowing their spirits to escape.

So pirate funeral practices were shaped not just by practicality and sentiment, but by sailor superstition. They did not want to provoke ghosts or bad fortune.

Pirates as Pallbearers

While burials at sea required little ritual, pirate funerals on land called for pallbearers to transport the body, walk in procession, and lower the coffin into the grave. Pirates often served as pallbearers for their fallen mates.

Being asked to help carry a pirate to his final resting place was considered a great honor among the crew. A pirate’s pallbearers were typically men who were close comrades of the deceased, knew him best in life, and could ensure he was buried well.

Serving as a pallbearer allowed pirates to pay their last respects to lost friends. And it gave them closure to see the burial through to the end, instead of simply tipping a body overboard.

Mourning and Memorials

Pirates mourned dead crewmen in their own way. There might be a somber funeral feast or a round of drinks in the departed’s honor. Or a buried pirate might receive a memorial, such as a wooden marker or cross, planted on an island grave site. This depended on the religious views of the crew.

Some pirate captains with a dramatic bent delivered speeches over their men’s graves, praising their bravery and promising to avenge their deaths. Others Marcus-Aurelius lamented the loss more stoically in their captain’s logs and personal journals.

But most pirate mourning was private and personal for regular crewmen. The bereaved were given space and rum rations to grapple with their grief. But the transient nature of piracy did not allow much time for mourning before crews sailed again.

Buried Treasure and Grave Goods

The romanticized idea of pirates burying treasure with their dead or marking graves with treasure maps is largely a myth. Most pirate graves contained no riches.

However, in some rare cases, a high-ranking officer might be buried with symbols of status, such as a sword, pistol, or compass. Personal effects like pipes, jewelry or trinkets were also occasionally placed in graves.

And pirates who died after burying treasure on islands were sometimes interred near the site, creating accidental “grave goods.” But, in most cases, pirates were buried very simply, with few provisions for an afterlife. Their treasure was reserved for the living.

Shipwreck Victims

Many pirates died not from combat or execution, but from ships sinking in storms or striking reefs. For obvious reasons, drowned victims lost at sea usually went unburied, though sailors tried to recover corpses if conditions allowed.

In some wrecks, bodies did wash up onto shores and were buried on islands and coastlines. For example, after Blackbeard’s flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge sank in 1718, more than 30 skeletons later washed up and were interred in a mass grave near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina.

Shipwrecks also created some unique pirate funeral monuments. If crews escaped a wreck on boats, they might erect a marker on a nearby beach memorializing those claimed by the sea. And wrecked ships that became impromptu tombs for the drowned had their own ghostly Romantic aura.

Pirates’ Execution and Burial

Executed pirates were often buried apart from common crews. Many faced mass executions by hanging onshore, ordered by colonial authorities or the Royal Navy determined to make gruesome examples of them.

Pirates hanged on harbor gibbets were often left hanging for months as warnings, then cut down and buried without ceremony in graveyards for criminals and paupers. For example, the corpses of Calico Jack Rackham’s crew hanged in 1720 were finally buried at low tide in the harbor mud flats after rotting for days.

Their ignominious burials were designed to strip pirates of dignity or honor in death, treating them as convicted thieves and thugs rather than lost sailors. But some towns showed slight mercy by allowing the pirates’ victims to rest in hallowed ground.

Burials on Private Islands

Legendary pirates like Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch and Edward “Black Bart” Roberts were said to bury their most trusted crewmen on distant deserted islands under their control.

Blackbeard reportedly built elaborate stone crypts with tropical woods and ornamentation on Ocracoke Island to hold the remains of favorite officers. And Roberts supposedly had loyal mates buried in island caves lined with bouquets of flowers.

These stories suggest that top captains rewarded elite crewmen with carefully planned interments in pirate “secret gardens,” playing feudal lord over islands that served as their fiefdoms. They could bury men there safely, away from navy interference. Of course, many such exotic burial tales may be more piracy folklore than fact.

Booty and Spoils for Funeral Expenses

Burials could be costly, especially if preservative transport of remains back to home ports was required. Pirates needed money to pay for funerals.

Therefore, it was common practice among pirate ships to allocate shares of plundered booty and spoils specifically for funeral expenses and support of the injured. This funeral treasure fund ensured deceased pirates received proper send-offs paid for by their own marauding.

Designating treasure shares for burials allowed crews to cover funeral costs of lost mates, so the dead would receive offerings befitting a pirate’s life. Even raiders who lived large in life thus paid for lavish burials.

Casual Burial at Sea

While captains and ranking pirates might receive elaborate burials, the deaths of low-ranking crewmen were often dealt with more casually and conveniently. The bodies of common pirates lacking friends among the crew simply got tossed overboard with minimal ceremony.

Their mates considered a quick sea burial sufficient, and felt no need to go out of their way for an elaborate sendoff. After stripping the corpse of valuables, they would slide it into the waves, mutter a quick prayer, then head back to work. Their tough pirate lifestyle did not sentimentalize death.

So burial practices depended greatly on the deceased’s rank and relationships among the crew. For most ordinary pirates, a sea burial that was speedy rather than ceremonious was the norm when they died.

Conclusion

Pirate funeral rites adapted maritime burial traditions to the unique needs of transient raiders. While pirates are portrayed as savage cutthroats, they often developed practices that allowed them to mourn lost mates. Burial locations and methods varied among captains and crews. But most pirates shared a pragmatic respect for the dead, along with colorful supernatural beliefs about corpses. Though their profession was outside the law, pirates upheld their own codes for handling those who died among the fraternity of the coasts.