A horrific, but morbidly fun, practice shown in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean<\/em> franchise involves unfortunate victims being forced to walk along a plank of wood positioned over the edge of a ship, usually leading to them falling overboard and drowning. Real-life pirates did not use this as a method of punishment, however.<\/p>\n

Instead, many pirates\u2019 victims \u2013 including people forced into piracy to replace deceased crew, or hostages taken during battle \u2013 were tied up and kept below deck, where they were subject to beatings and (in extreme cases) disfigurement.<\/p>\n

On the podcast: Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy. Plus, how accurate are pop culture portrayals of pirates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div> <hr\/>Marooning was also a form of punishment, reserved for victims whom the pirates deemed to be little threat on land. If a person refused to join the pirate crew but swore to stay quiet, they would be left stranded on an island with a bottle of water, a bottle of gunpowder, a pistol and a single bullet.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> This content is part of our series of pirate myths \u2013 read the rest in the series:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/peg-leg-pirates-real-eyepatches"\">Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/x-marks-spot-did-pirates-bury-treasure"\">X marks the spot: did pirates bury their treasure?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/jolly-roger-skull-crossbones-pirate-flags"\">Did real pirates fly the Jolly Roger?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/victorian\/what-is-the-origin-and-meaning-of-the-pirate-expression-shiver-me-timbers\/"\">What is the origin and meaning of the pirate expression \u2018shiver me timbers\u2019?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/english-pirates-accent-west-country-blackbeard\/"\">Did most English pirates really talk with a West Country accent?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/p><\/div> <\/section>This content first appeared in the December 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dr Rebecca Simon Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 at 12:00 am A horrific, but morbidly fun, practice shown in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise involves unfortunate victims being forced to walk along a plank of wood positioned over the edge of a ship, usually leading to them falling overboard and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8819,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/01\/was-walking-the-plank-a-real-pirate-punishment.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Dr Rebecca Simon Published: Monday, 17 January 2022 at 12:00 am A horrific, but morbidly fun, practice shown in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise involves unfortunate victims being forced to walk along a plank of wood positioned over the edge of a ship, usually leading to them falling overboard and…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/8818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}