Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today is September 19, International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2014

It is a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy) of Albany, Oregon, US, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.

Pirate Myths Debunked - The rumor that pirates commonly made people walk the plank is not true. Only five documented instances were recorded. Peg legs were not common, because amputated legs usually meant a quick death. Buried treasure was usually found very quickly and no one needed a map. There have only been three well documented instances throughout pirating history where a pirate admitted to burying treasure. The earliest use of “shiver me timbers” came from Captain Frederick Marryat’s 1835 book Jacob Faithful, about hundred years after the age of piracy.

For the intellectuals in the crowd

Shiver Me Timbers

A shiver is a wood splinter from a broken mast on a ship, sometimes caused by cannon fire from another ship. As the mast shattered, splinters broke off and sometimes flew into an unfortunate sailor caught too close to the action.

Knives with no handles are shaped like those broken shards and are hence called shivs. Arrgh, that's the truth, matey.