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Hook

Many sailors and pirates were injured in sea battles and sailing accidents. Cannonballs whizzing across from the enemy ship did a lot of damage. Flying ropes and pullies from broken rigging whipping around could easily shatter someone's bones. Surgeons were still learning a lot about dealing with injuries and infections. Back then, usually the best they could do was to hack off the injured limb. Despite all those amputations, no real pirates are known to have worn hooks. Although it would help explain a lot of the missing eyes . . .

Pirate captain William Condon had a shooting battle with a mutineer. Condon killed the mutineer, but not before the mutineer shot Condon in the arm and shattered the bones. The arm had to be amputated. The Barbary pirate Aruj Barbarossa lost an arm in battle with a Spanish enemy. Both Admiral Horatio Nelson and Admiral Don Blas de Lezo, whom we met above, were each missing an arm. There is no record of any of these men having hooks.

The idea of a pirate with a hook seems to have started with Captain Hook in Peter Pan, though there were plenty of sailors who had hooks.