Dancing

English and Anglo-American sailors enjoyed dancing something like modern “square dances.” Some continued to dance with each other after they turned pirate. In his General History, Daniel Defoe reports that – while holed up on a Caribbean island in about 1721 – Thomas Anstis’ crew “pass’d their time in Dancing and other Diversions.” [sic] (Rogozinski, Dancing)

If a ship was lucky enough to have musicians aboard, there would be music. Musicians were constantly directed to play jigs. The jig was a lively country dance known to the lower classes – with slight step variations – in all European countries. If a man didn’t know the dance steps, he simply made them up.

To fight boredom or when extremely drunk, any one pirate could command one or all the musicians to play at any given moment, even waking them up at night to strike up a tune. (Selinger 169)

The most popular ship’s specialists were the members of the pirate orchestra. These were seamen who had been impressed from captured ships because of their ability as musicians. A pirate ship with a band was doubly blessed. The bandsmen were constantly on call to play a jig or a hornpipe at a pirate dance or to serenade the pirates as they took their communal meals. The bandsmen also served a more practical function – during a battle they were ordered to play nautical tunes and aggressive war notes on drums and trumpets to demoralize the enemy and encourage their own men. Captain Samuel Hyde, master of the East Indiaman Dorrill, reported that on July 7, 1697, he was attacked by a pirate ship that bore down on him and came under his stern after making a great cacophony “with the music of Hautboys and Drums.” (Botting 50-1)