‘Ahoy me hearties!’ September 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day

Avast, belay the corporate speak at your business meetings on the 19^th of September and talk like a pirate for the day, Savvy?

Well this is bit of pure fun. How it came about is outlined in the article below…

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is arguably one of the Internet’s favorite holidays. It may be a surprise to some, though, that this parody celebration is older than social media.

In June 1995 friends Mark Summers and John Baur were playing a game of racquetball when they randomly started chiding each other in “pirate slang” (the romanticized version of pirate speech that has grown from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and on-screen portrayals of pirates by actor Robert Newton, among other influences). The pair decided they would spend an entire day talking “like pirates” for fun.

The date of the annual celebration – September 19 – is fairly arbitrary. It is the date of Summers’s ex-wife’s birthday, selected because it didn’t coincide with any other observances and because it would be easy for him to remember. The holiday was mostly celebrated among friends for several years, until it was popularized by syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002.

(From an article by Alison Eldridge, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, accessed 13^th September, 2023 – https://www.britannica.com/story/ahoy-its-talk-like-a-pirate-day )

To get you in the mood and into character, here are some great images from our archives which includes pirates in history from all over the world not just the Caribbean and you can use this link to view a selection of pirate phrases and their meaning –

http://www.famous-pirates.com/pirates-facts/pirate-phrases/

Long John Silver. From the book Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson. Thomas Nelson & Sons edition c.1930. Photo: Universal History Archive/UIG
Captain Kidd in New York Harbour by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Captain William Kidd welcoming a young woman on board his ship; other men and women crowd the deck as another woman steps aboard. Photo: Universal History Archive/UIG
99 Steps at Blackbeard’s Hill. Photo: Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG
Barbary Pirate with a Bow, Mola, Pier Francesco, 1650. Photo: PicturesNow/UIG
School of William Van der Velde 1663-1707. Pirates attack an English Warship. Oil on Canvas. Photo: Universal History Archive/UIG
Cincinnati Federal Theatre [presents] ‘Pirates of Penzance’ [a] Gilbert & Sullivan operetta circa 1937. Photo: HUM Images/UIG
China: ‘Pacifying the South China Sea’, section of an 18m long scroll documenting the suppression of piracy in the South China Sea in the mid-Jiaqing period (1796–1820), Hong Kong Maritime Museum. anon., early 19th century. Photo: Pictures From History/UIG
China/Taiwan: Detail of a battle between wokou pirates and Ming Dynasty forces from the scroll painting ‘Ming Qiu Shizhou Taiwan zoukai tu’ (Victory in Taiwan by Qiu Shizhou of the Ming), Qiu Ying (1494-c.1559). Photo: pIctures From History/UIG
Figurehead of a pirates galleon. Genoa, Liguria, Italy. Photo: Vittorio Sciosia/REDA&CO/UIG
Jolly Roger statue, Ocean City, Maryland; ca. 1985. Photo: HUM Images/UIG
Crowds of people at the Brixham Pirate Festival 2022. Photo: Nik Taylor/UCG/UIG
Cannon being fired at the Brixham Pirate Festival 2022, Devon, UK. Photo: Nik Taylor/UCG/UIG
Three pirate, Brixham Pirate Festival 2022, Devon, UK. Photo: Nik Taylor/UCG/UIG
Pop up stall selling Mead, Brixham Pirate Festival 2022, Devon, UK. Photo: Nik Taylor/UCG/UIG