Pirate Word Search

Did you know?

captain

On many pirate ships the crew elected their captain and could vote him out, granting full power only during a battle.

treasure

Buried pirate treasure is mostly a myth; pirates spent loot fast in port, and only Captain Kidd is known to bury any.

cannon

Pirates rarely sank their prey; a sunk ship meant lost loot, so they aimed to frighten crews into surrender instead.

compass

Early magnetic compasses used a lodestone, a naturally magnetic rock, letting sailors hold a course even on cloudy, starless nights.

cutlass

The cutlass, a short curved sword, stayed a standard naval boarding weapon well into the nineteenth century.

galleon

The Spanish galleon was a large sailing ship that carried gold and silver across the Atlantic in guarded treasure fleets.

doubloon

The doubloon was a gold coin used across the Spanish empire, its name rooted in a word meaning double.

spyglass

A spyglass is a small collapsible telescope that a lookout slid open to scan the horizon for distant sails.

buccaneer

Buccaneers began as hunters on Caribbean islands, cooking meat on wooden frames called boucans before turning to raiding Spanish ships.

telescope

Sailors called the telescope a spyglass; a lookout in the crow's nest used one to spot a target before being seen.

mermaid

Christopher Columbus logged seeing three mermaids in 1493, then wrote that they were not as pretty as painted; he likely saw manatees.

anchor

Many pirates anchored in shallow, hidden coves that big navy warships could not enter, using geography as their best defense.

scallywag

Scallywag is an old word for a rascal or scamp, later adopted as playful slang for a mischievous pirate.

marooned

A marooned pirate was abandoned alone on a deserted island, sometimes left with only a pistol and a little water.

eyepatch

One theory says pirates wore an eyepatch to keep one eye adjusted to darkness for fighting below deck.

In their words