Pirates wore eye patches to help their eyes adjust to light and dark when moving quickly between ship decks. They didn’t always bury treasure, but spent their loot on women and alcohol. Pirate Henry Morgan even served as governor of Jamaica.
It is thought that the reason pirates wore an eye patch even though they didn’t have an eye injury was to help their eyes adjust to going back and forth between light and dark. It typically takes 25 minutes for the eyes to adjust to seeing in the dark because they have to regenerate photopigments, which send visual signals to the brain. Pirates would often have to go quickly from being in the dark under the decks of their ships to being on the sunlit decks of the ships. Wearing an eyepatch would allow a pirate to move the eyepatch to the other side when moving between locations and bypass the 25 minute adjustment period.
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The early 18th century pirate Black Bart is thought to have captured more than 18 ships, the most of any pirate.
Although legend has it that pirates often buried treasure, historians say pirates typically used most of their stolen possessions to buy women and alcohol. Indeed, entrepreneurs in popular ports were known to set up shops that catered to pirates.
In the 1670s, pirate Henry Morgan served as governor of Jamaica and even helped prosecute other pirates during his administration.
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