Pirate ships were run by written agreement
Before a voyage the CREW signed articles — a short written contract setting out the rules. They survive for several real crews, and they are surprisingly orderly: how the plunder would be split, what counted as theft from a shipmate, lights out at eight, no gambling for money on board, and what happened to anyone who deserted.
The CAPTAIN was usually elected and could be voted out. He commanded absolutely during a chase or a fight and otherwise had little more authority than anyone else; a quartermaster, also elected, handled discipline and the division of goods. A MUTINY was often simply the crew exercising a vote. Compared with the merchant and naval ships most pirates had come from, where captains could flog a SAILOR nearly to death, this was a remarkably democratic arrangement.
There was an injury payout
Many articles included compensation for wounds, paid out of the common stock before anything was shared. One set, from Bartholomew Roberts's crew, is typical of the scale: a fixed sum for losing a right arm, less for a left, more for both legs. A man who lost an eye or a finger got a smaller amount.
Shares were set in advance too. The captain might take two shares and officers one and a half, with every ordinary sailor getting one. In a world where a merchant seaman's wages could be withheld or cut at the owner's whim, the promise of a fair share and a payout for injury is a large part of why sailors joined.
Mostly it was boredom and disease
The Golden Age of Piracy lasted only around forty years, roughly 1690 to 1730. Most of that time was spent at sea looking for a target, and most targets were ordinary merchant ships carrying sugar, cloth, timber, rope or slaves rather than chests of gold. A DOUBLOON was a Spanish gold coin, and crews that took any usually spent them quickly in port.
Life expectancy was short. Scurvy, typhus, dysentery and tropical fevers killed far more pirates than combat, and a pirate career often lasted two or three years before it ended in illness, capture or the gallows. RUM was drunk partly because water kept badly in casks.
Blackbeard ran on reputation
Edward Teach, known as BLACKBEARD, is said to have tucked slow-burning fuses under his hat so smoke curled around his face before a boarding. The point was that ships surrendered without a fight, which was cheaper for everyone. There is no reliable record of him killing anyone before the battle in which he died.
That came at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, in November 1718, against a naval force sent from Virginia. He is reported to have taken five gunshot wounds and around twenty sword cuts before he fell. His career as a captain had lasted about two years.
Planks, parrots and the rest
Walking the PLANK is almost entirely a later invention; historians have found only a handful of possible cases, and throwing someone overboard needed no plank. A PARROT was a real trade item brought back from the tropics and sold in port, which is how the image started.
The rest of the grid is working equipment: the CUTLASS, short enough to swing between decks, the CANNON, COMPASS, ANCHOR and SAIL, the SHIP itself, the Spanish GALLEON that was the prize everyone wanted and rarely got, the ISLAND bases, the SKULL flag, the BOOTY and the VOYAGE. For how the buried-TREASURE version got invented, see our Treasure Island page.