1. The date of September 19 for Talk Like A Pirate Day was chosen by co-founder Mark Summers as it was his ex-wife’s birthday.
2. The first documented pirates were a group called the Sea Peoples who attacked seafarers in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions.
3. Julius Caesar was once captured by pirates but was insulted by the low ransom they demanded.
4. Perhaps the most successful pirate was Cheng Yi, known as Madame Cheng, who commanded 300 ships and a tens of thousands of pirates in the China Sea in the 18th and 19th centuries…
5. …she died of old age in 1844 aged 69.
6. Although pirate ships are often portrayed as flying the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger, most of them just had plain black flags.
7. The pirate Blackbeard weaved hemp in his hair and beard and set fire to it to frighten enemies.
8. Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, was found off the coast of North Carolina in 1996.
9. It was Robert Newton’s portrayal of Long John Silver in 1950 that created pirate-speak and Arrr! 10. The word “piracy” has been used for copyright breaking since 1700. “Video piracy” dates from 1975.