Other tidbits from that article

[jmtorres]

Pirate captains were elected and could be de-elected at any time for abuse of their authority. The captain enjoyed no special privileges: He "or any other Officer is allowed no more [food] than another man, nay, the Captain cannot keep his Cabbin to himself." Captains were deposed for cowardice, cruelty and revealingly, for refusing "to take and plunder English Vessels" - the pirates had turned their backs on the state and its laws and no lingering feelings of patriotism were to be allowed. The captain only had right of command in the heat of battle, otherwise all decisions were made by the whole ship's company.

This makes me question the circumstances of the "mutiny" of the Black Pearl. However, none of the Black Pearl's crew deny Jack's accusation of mutiny, which may mean (a. the movie's not historically accurate, or b.) that Jack was not, in fact, abusing his position as Captain, and the crew had no grounds for removing him from his position--but Barbossa was an ambitious man and convinced them to elect him anyway. And when Jack protested, they marooned him.

This may explain how Jack could be the captain of the Black Pearl when (he must have been) so damn young--his charisma and confidence got him into office.

It begs the question of how Jack called himself Captain all the time--whether he had a ship or no, whether a crew had voted him captain or not, and how he had the right to give orders in non-battle situations. Theoretically, upon gaining a crew at Tortuga, the crew could have voted Anamaria captain and they all went somewhere else with the Interceptor, cursed zombies be damned. Unless the Articles Jack had them sign included something about "and this be your ship after we take the Black Pearl."

The harshness of life at sea made mutual aid into a simple survival tactic. The natural solidarity of fellow tars was carried over into pirate organisation. Pirates often went into 'consortship' with one another, where if one died the other got his property. Pirate articles also commonly included a form of mutual aid where injured shipmates unable to participate in the fighting would receive their share as a pension. Pirates took this sort of solidarity very seriously - at least one pirate crew compensated their wounded only to discover they had nothing left. From the articles of Bartholomew Roberts' crew: "If... any Man should lose a Limb, or become a Cripple in their Service, he was to have 800 Dollars, out of the publick Stock, and for lesser Hurts, proportionably." And from those of George Lowther's crew: "He that shall have the Misfortune to lose a Limb, in Time of Engagement, shall have the Sum of one hundred and fiftyPounds Sterling, and remain with the Company as long as he shall think fit."

The official site for the movie (pirates.movies.com) mentions the prices for cut off arms and legs and eyes and things, if you care to play their game with the finding the medallions on their little flash thing. (Everyone should play WARRRRR! with Bootstrap Bill. The deck of cards (you get to see the face cards for each suit at intervals) is hilarious. Will (King of Hearts) kept taking Jack (Jack of Hearts), which amused me endlessly, and the queen of whichever suit Pearl's crew is? Mr. One-Eye in a dress. *giggle*) I wonder if they knew the rest of this information--that pirates were supportive of each other in general, not just about the loss of limbs. (Mind, they couldn't mention the consortship. That ties straight into the matelotage.) If so, where the heck did they get the "any man that falls behind, gets left behind" rule? It smacks of plot device, to allow Will to whack Jack over the head and leave him without consequences with the crew of the Interceptor, because there doesn't seem to be an rationale for that particular rule in this information.

One particularly important part of what we might call the 'pirate consciousness' was revenge upon the captains and masters who had previously exploited them.

While this section is talking specifically about the crews of merchant or navy vessels becoming pirates and taking revenge on the merchant or navy captains, I shouldn't wonder if the mindset meant every pirate who ever heard about Jack shooting Barbossa thought it was well-deserved.

Merchant Captain Thomas Checkley got it just right when he described the pirates who captured his ship as pretending "to be Robbin Hoods Men." There is further evidence for this in the name of another ship - the Little John belonging to pirate John Ward. Peter Lamborn Wilson says: "[this] offers us a precious insight into his ideas and his image of himself: clearly he considered himself a kind of Robin Hood of the seas. We have some evidence he gave to the poor, and he was clearly determined to steal from the rich."

Somehow, I don't think this applies to Jack. I know it doesn't apply to his mutinous crew; they kept all their swag on the Isla De Muerta, hoarding it 'til when they could spend it on themselves. I wonder how common this attitude was among pirates, and how often it was sincere as opposed to mere rationalization of a life of crime?

Eventually the French Governor of Tortuga imported hundreds of prostitutes, hoping thereby to wean the buccaneers away from this practice [matelotage].

*cracking up* I would love to see Jack explaining that to Will, or possibly Elizabeth.

"You know why there are so many whores in Tortuga?"

"Er, no. Why?"

"Governor had them brought in to try to distract the men from bedding each other."

"Er... did it work?"

"Where the men were inclined to bed women in the first place, anyway."

The pirate captain Robert Culliford, had a "great consort," John Swann, who lived with him.

Culliford sailed as a pirate in the 1690s; was offered pardon and returned to London... pardon ruled invalid... disppeared from record, rumored to have sailed on a naval ship after that.

But, yeah. Elizabeth is descended from a gay pirate! She has to be. Or else he's a great-uncle or something. This would so explain her obsession with pirates.