“Pirate Dreaming of Home” by Norman Rockwell, Saturday Evening Post cover, June 14, 1924. Although the painting evokes the popular caricature of the pirate (the “pirate boot” is the most egregious cliché), it does contain a few elements of truth, as much in attitude as in the wooden leg, although the latter would be career-ending for most sea rovers. The painting is also clearly based on Howard Pyle’s famous painting, “The Buccaneer Was a Picturesque Fellow,” and may be intended to represent the same buccaneer later in life, or perhaps is simply an homage to Pyle. (Norman Rockwell Museum.)

“[B]y which Means we were in hopes to have out-sailed the Privateers, but one them still came up with us; which we were preparing to engage, when the Seamen came to me in a Body, and told me they would not fight, by Reason they said they did not understand there was any Provision made for them, in case they were wounded; that if they lost a Leg or an Arm, they must be Beggars all their Life after.”

So wrote Capt. Nathaniel Uring, commanding the “Packet-Boat” Prince George (a swift frigate used for mail, passengers, and light cargo), of his crew’s response when called upon to prepare to defend against two French privateers near Scilly in December 1707. Without disability compensation, the great danger of losing a limb in battle was not worth the risk to them, even though while in the Caribbean they had fought against a single, smaller privateer at long range. From A History of the Voyages and Travels of Capt. Nathaniel Uring, 2nd ed. (London: John Clarke, 1727).

So associated with sea battles were timber legs, that even song lyrics mentioned them:

Now, Boys, who wins a Golden Chain?
Ne’er fear a Wooden Leg.
–Anon., “The Sea-Fight, A Song,” 17th century

And indeed, between round shot, large splinters (size-wise, think various lengths of 2x4s, see damage images below), and small shot, it was not uncommon for more than one crewman to lose a leg, arm, or digits after a protracted combat, either immediately due to bone and tissue damage, or later due to gangrene:

“When [wee] came to see what damage [wee] had sustained found our Cheife Mate, Mr Smith, wounded in the legg, close by the knee, with a splinter or piece of chaine, which cannot well be told, our Barber had two of his fingers shott off as was spunging one of our gunns, the Gunner’s boy had his legg shott off in the waste[,] John Amos, Quartermaster, had his leg shott off at the helme[,] the Boatswaine’s boy (a lad of 13 years old) was shott in the thigh, which went through and splintered his bone, the Armorer Jos Osbourne in the round house wounded by a splinter just in the temple[,] the Captain’s boy on the Quarter Deck a small shott raised his scull through his cap and was the first person wounded and att the first onsett. Wm Reynold’s boy had the brim of his hatt 1/2 shott off and his forefinger splintered very sorely. John Blake turner, the flesh of his legg and calfe a great part shott away.” From the letter by eyewitnesses Solomon Lloyd and William Reynolds to Sir John Gayer describing the battle between the ship Dorrill and the pirate ship Mocha in 1697.

The most famous English surgeon of the 17th century, Richard Wiseman, wrote in his famous text on surgery that “In our Sea-fights oftentimes a Buttock, the Brawn of the Thigh, the Calf of the Leg, are torn off by Chain-shot and Splinters.”

Worse, some surgeons were too quick to amputate. Again, Richard Wiseman: “Amongst the Cruisers in private Fregats from Dunkerk, it was complained, that their Chirurgeons were too active in amputating those fractured Members [arms and legs]. As in truth there are such silly Brothers, who will brag of the many they have dismembered, and think that way to lie themselves into credit. But they that truly understand Amputation and their Trade, well know how villanous a thing it is to glory in such a work.”

Photographs I took two or three years ago at the Erie Maritime Museum (Erie, Pennsylvania), home base of the Flagship Niagara, on board which was one of my daughters as crew. The damage was caused by test shots against an authentically constructed section of a British man-of-war. Not only could various shot and falling spars cause the loss of limbs, so could large splinters, either via immediate damage or via gangrene. For those of you who may be confused by a Mythbusters episode suggesting that splinters caused little damage, remember that the show is entertainment, not legitimate research and evaluation. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of documented cases of the great damage to crew done by splinters, from death to maiming, including loss of limbs. Further, it was common practice in men-of-war with large guns (cannon) to decrease the amount of powder in order to increase the smashing and splinter-producing effect of round shot (cannonball). A seaman was more likely to be injured or killed from peripheral damage caused by a round shot–splinters, especially–than by the shot itself.

Much of the origin of the idea that wooden legs were common among pirates may be due to buccaneer articles of the second half of the seventeenth century:

“Lastly, they stipulate in writing what recompense or reward each one ought to have that is either wounded or maimed or maimed in his body, suffering the loss of any limb, by that voyage. thus they order for the loss of a right arm 600 pieces-of-eight, or 6 slaves; for the loss of a left arm 500 pieces-of-eight, or 5 slaves; for the right leg 500 pieces-of-eight, or 5 slaves; for the left leg 400 pieces-of-eight, or 4 slaves; for an eye 100 pieces-of-eight, or one slave; for a finger of hand the same reward as for the eye.” (Alexandre Exquemelin [John Esquemeling], The Buccaneers of America. London: Crooke, 1684.)

A copy of flibustier articles dating to 1688–“Copie de la charte-partie faite entre M. Charpin, commandant la Sainte-Rose“–includes the following article: “Item. Tout homme estropié au service du bâtiment aura 600 pièces de 8 ou 6 nègres a choix s’il s’en prend.” The injured, whether he lost an arm or leg, had the choice of six hundred pieces-of-eight or six slaves.

Eyewitness image of a French flibustier of the 1680s. For information on this and similar images, see The Authentic Image of the Real Buccaneers of Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini.

Similarly, writing of the year 1694, Caribbean chronicler Father Jean-Baptiste Labat noted that among French flibustiers, “Ceux qui sont estropiez du’un bras ou d’une jambe emporteé, ou rendu inútiles, ont six cens écus pour chaque membre…”  That is, six hundred pieces-of-eight for the physical loss of an arm or leg, or of the use of it. The original buccaneer and flibustier articles were still in use even though true English buccaneering had disappeared and French buccaneering–la flibuste–would not last much longer. (Jean-Baptiste Labat, Voyage aux Isles, 1722, vol. 1:22.)

It is important to point out that buccaneers were not the originators of this compensation. It was often part of merchant seamen agreements, and usual among navies as well. For example, in 1685 in the English navy, the “Chatham Chest” for pensioners would pay an annual stipend of 6 pounds, 13 shillings, and 4 pence for the loss of an arm or leg, and twice that for the loss of two legs. For the loss of two arms, 15 pounds per annum, for the loss of the use of an arm (but not the loss of the arm itself), 5 pounds, and for the loss of an eye, four pounds. (From A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval Manuscripts in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, vol. 1.)

But back to pirates! William Dampier, during his voyage with buccaneers across the Pacific from the Spanish Main under Captain Swan, mentions buccaneer William Williams “that had a wooden Leg.” Charles Johnson (a pseudonym), famous chronicler of pirates in the early eighteenth century, describes one of the pirates of Captain Edward England: “a Fellow with a terrible pair of Whiskers, and a wooden Leg, being stuck round with Pistols, like the Man in the Almanack with Darts, comes swearing and vapouring upon the Quarter-Deck, and asks, in a damning Manner, which was Captain Mackra…” From A General History of the Pyrates (London: T. Warner, 1724).

So here are at least two “Golden Age” pirates with a wooden leg. Doubtless there were at least a few common seamen and mates, perhaps some of them pirates as well, who remained at sea in spite of disability. Naturally, such service was easier for officers, the most famous one being Cornelis Corneliszoon Jol, aka “Pie de Palo.” A privateer captain, later admiral, in the service of the Dutch West India Company in the first half of the seventeenth century, one of his subordinate captains was the famous Diego the Mulatto. Another famous wooden-legged admiral was Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta who successfully defended Cartagena de Indias from English attack in 1741. Early in his sea-going career he lost an eye, a leg, and the use of an arm from wounds received in battle.

Bronze sculpture of Blas de Lezo in the Museo Naval de Madrid. Author’s photo.

The reality, though, is that the loss of a leg ended the career of most common seamen, including sea rovers. In most cases a common seaman who had lost a lower limb or was otherwise lamed could no longer climb aloft, and if he could it was only with great difficulty. A seaman needed to be able to move quickly on deck and aloft aboard a platform that was constantly pitching, sending, rolling, and yawing. Boarding actions would be precluded, as would a number of other combat actions, although certainly there were some that a wooden leg would not entirely restrict.

The naval, or more generally, maritime profession most suited to disabled seaman was doubtless the ship’s cook, and there are a number of period illustrations showing sea cooks with one legs, although “greasy” is probably the most commonly applied adjective.

Ship’s cook aboard an English man-of-war. Thomas Rowlandson, 1799. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.)

However, the most famous of these one-legged sea cooks never existed. Created by Robert Louis Stevenson for Treasure Island, Long John Silver, also known as Barbecue, epitomizes the modern idea of the iconic one-legged–but not wooden-legged–pirate, although he was probably inspired by Captain England’s wooden-legged pirate crewman described above. In fact, Stevenson’s original title was “The Sea Cook”–a subtly accurate title but one entirely lacking in romance and adventure.

Early in the book Billy Bones, the old rum-soaked pirate inspired, according to Stevenson himself, by the old buccaneer in “Tales from a Traveller” by Washington Irving, asks Jim Hawkins to keep his “weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg.”

An N. C. Wyeth illustration from the 1911 Scribner’s edition of Treasure island.

Stevenson imagines accurately how he might move about at sea. “Aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck, to have both hands as free as possible. It was something to see him wedge the foot of the crutch against a bulkhead, and propped against it, yielding to every movement of the ship, get on with his cooking like someone safe ashore. Still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather cross the deck. He had a line or two rigged up to help him across the widest spaces—Long John’s earrings, they were called; and he would hand himself from one place to another, now using the crutch, now trailing it alongside by the lanyard, as quickly as another man could walk. Yet some of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see him so reduced.”

But Long John Silver is not the only iconic fictional seafarer. There’s an unfortunate natural inclination to believe that anything maritime must therefore be pirate, and worse, must be predominately pirate. Ahab’s “wooden” leg–actually whale bone–at least subconsciously reinforces the notion that pirates often had wooden legs. Ahab, of course, was the ship’s captain, and therefore special arrangements could be made for his disability, unlike in the case of common seamen.

Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (Warner Bros. Pictures, 1956).

And what did prosthetics and crutches look like in this era? The following images show the variety, based on the extent of permanent injury. The fact that the majority of wooden legs in period images begin just below the knee is due to surgical practice at the time. As “Serjeant-Chirurgeon” Richard Wiseman explains it in Several Chirurgicall Treatises (London: E. Flesher and J. Macock, 1676):

Detail from an illustration of surgical instruments in a sea chyrurgeon’s chest, including “dismembering saws” (7), “dismembering knives” (2),  and an “incision knife” (1). From The Surgeons Mate by John Woodall (London: Edward Griffin, 1617).

Probably the most iconic image of a beggar of the seventeenth century. Jacques Callot, 1622 – 1623. (Rijksmuseum.)

Beggar with child by Pieter Jansz Quast, 1634 – 1638. The man is using a common form of wooden leg when the lower leg was intact or was longer than a few inches below the knee. (Rijksmuseum.)

Beggar with a cripple leg, using a wooden leg and two crutches. Jan Georg van Vliet, 1632. (Rijksmuseum.)

A disabled man begging. He has a wooden right leg and a crippled left leg. Pieter Langendijk, after Pieter Barbiers (I), 1727 – 1756. (Rijksmuseum.)

Late eighteenth century beggar, clearly a former soldier, with two wooden legs. A. Smit after Pieter Barbiers. (Rijksmusuem.)

“A Sketch of a beggar from the life, 1770” by Mrs. Mary Hartley. Note the use of a single walking stick, rather than a crutch or two. (British Museum.)

Le Vendeur de Souliers. Not all those who lost a leg could afford a wooden one. This street shoe seller has improvised a means to support his handicapped leg. Jacob Gole, circa 1670 to 1724. Rijksmuseum.

“The Greenwich Pensioner” by Charles Dibdin, late 18th century. Many of our modern ideas of wooden legs on mariners descend from a series of images, many of them caricatures, of this era. (National Maritime Museum.)

Caricature of two pensioners, one a former seaman (Greenwich pensioner), the other a former soldier (Chelsea pensioner). Land service was probably as likely to result in limb loss as naval service. Robert Dighton, 1801. (National Maritime Museum.)

Caricature of two Greenwich pensioners. Note the prosthesis on the left individual. John Thurston circa 1800. (National Maritime Museum.)

I’ll close with a few images of Hollywood wooden-leg or one-leg pirates, thanks (Thanks, Antón!) to a suggestion by Antón Viejo.

Robert Newton in Disney’s Treasure Island (1950). Newton is perhaps the most iconic Hollywood pirate with one leg, not to the classic modern caricature of the pirate, accent included.

Walter Matthau as Captain Red in Pirates! (Cannon Film Distributing, 1986). A film and performance often disliked by film critics (Roger Ebert gave it one star), but I find both oddly endearing, perhaps due to the excellent film sets, and because I know a couple of men exactly like Captain Red, one of whom is my brother (who actually hates Matthau’s performance, probably because it’s too close to home). (Thanks for the image, Antón!)

Charlton Heston in Treasure Island (Turner Pictures, 1990). The film is arguably the best of all the various versions.

Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), with crutch.

Barbossa’s peg leg, including hollowed wooden leg for use as a flask. Image from The Prop Store’s auction (sale price £4000 as I recall).

Luke Arnold as Long John Silver in Black Sails (STARZ). His “peg leg” is iron. Although I was the show’s historical consultant, I had virtually no input into costumes and accessories.

Copyright Benerson Little 2017-2019. Created 4 December 2017. Last updated January 25, 2023.