The Pirate's Eye Patch?

[Mission]

Swashbuckler 1700 was sharing some images of Blas de Lezo with me. Señor de Lezo was a Spanish Commander active during the Golden Age of Piracy. (Wiki notes that he defended the city of Cartagena de Indias against the British Admiral Vernon (of grog invention fame) in a 1741 battle which was a turning point in the War of Jenkin's ear. I mention this only to bring up the War of Jenkin's Ear again, a war which continues to fascinate me. But I digress...)

Although he was not a pirate, Blas appears to have lost one of each of the standard pirate-associated missing body parts: an arm, a leg and an eye. This led me to wonder...

Where the heck did the eye patch-pirate association come from? Even Blas is never shown with one in the images Swashbuckler shared with me.

I can readily see how seamen and pirates lost eyes, what with all the splinters flying about during naval battles. Yet not one surgical author mentions this or the emblematic eye patch according to my notes. I can cite you all sorts of references to cataract-removal operations (done via a procedure then called 'couching'), but that procedure was designed to save vision, not cover it over with a black swatch.

So... pirate or even period sailor eye patches. Stories? References? Images? Anyone?

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Note that Lezo lost those in naval battles.

BTW in that the same Gartagena attack there was C. Ogle (who killed Black Bart) and the brother of G.Washington...

not sailor or even gaop but 16th C lady

http://es.wikipedia....oza_de_la_Cerda

Edited May 15, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I think That the eye patches were used only for some time to keep the eye area free of dirt and bacteria.

This is from wiki but... I cannot say how accurate it is.

" (Captain) Levasseur proved himself a good leader and shipmate, although he already had a scar across one eye limiting his sight.

After a year of successful looting, the Hornigold party split, with Levasseur deciding to try his luck on the West African coast. In 1719 he operated together with Howell Davis and Thomas Cocklyn for a time. In 1720, they attacked the slaver port of Ouidah, on the coast of Benin, reducing the local fortress to ruins. Later that year, he was shipwrecked in theMozambique Channel and stranded on the island of Anjouan, one of the Comores. His bad eye had become completely blind by now so he started wearing an eyepatch."

Edited May 16, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

Interesting that all the Wiki references are modern. Where is the period source of all information La Buse? It appears as if it may well be written in French...

[Edit]

Well, this page contains quite a bit of info as well as musings on why La Buse/La Bouche/Levasseur may not be as widely covered by the popular media as many of the other GAoP pirates. He also fails to mention his sources (bad form), but I suspect it's mostly culled from the General History.

Curious that this page, which appears to have done at least some actual period research, only describes him as "slight of build and as having had a limp." No eye patch or scar noted. I'm sure someone out there has better period info than that, though.

__

I did find a reference to a pirate captain without an eye, although an eye patch isn't mentioned. This is from the Captain Burgess account in The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History):

"Burgess being of great use to them [an unnamed Dutch ship], they took him on board, and steered for a port, where some Dutch, taken in another ship, were marooned; but they were wrecked at Youngoul, where Burgess continued 18 months. After this time was expired, he was desirous of leaving the place, and addressed himself to the king.

__

who was uncle to the king of Methelage, he requested his black majesty to send him back to that port which he readily complied with, where Burgess continued almost five years, afflicted with sickness, in which he lost one eye." (Johnson, p. 183)

This was near the end of the chapter on Burgess and it is indicated that he committed no more pyracy during that time.

[Mission]

Bumping this up to see if anyone has knowledge of any period references to La Buse/La Bouche/Levasseur outside of the General History...

[Fox]

Lots, but none that refer to him having only one eye.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I think that the eye pach is no a thing that would need really much evidence...

De lezo apparently had no patch but he had eye that did not look so bad.... imagine ugglier looking eye wound that migth be thing covered by an eyepatch....

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Hey this 17th C beggar has charf around his (perhaps) wounded eye

Rembrandt Harmensz.(1606 Leiden - 1669 Amsterdam)

[Mission]

Somehow eye patches got linked to the popular image of pirates and I'm trying to figure out how. Being a good researcher, I am trying to find some evidence...any evidence... of Golden Age of Piracy era eye patches on pirates. So far, nada. "Might be" and "no a thing that would need really much evidence" are a part of the reason crap like this is the modern conception of a pirate:

Say, where did the eye patch first enter the popular main stream?

[Edit]

This article by Johnathan Clayborn has some interesting features. He actually does find an historical pirate with an eye patch:

"The only pirate being recorded as having worn an eye patch is Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah, an Arab pirate who sailed in the 1800's. He mostly sailed in the Persian Gulf and was described by an English author as "the most successful and the most generally tolerated pirate, perhaps, that ever infest any sea."

So, way past period. And, as he notes, not a popular mainstream persona, either. He makes a further interesting point.

"In examining the lives of over 400 notable naval officers of America, England, France & Spain I could not find any evidence that supports the notion that injuries to the eye were commonplace. And yes, there is a mountain of evidence to suggest that splinters were indeed very lethal aboard ships during combat, but usually the most common splinter injuries were to the torso, legs and arms. Most people use their hands and arms to shield their face in the case of flying debris, so injuries to the eye would have been somewhat mitigated by that action."

[Silver]

just a thought that came to mind, wearing an eye patch over a blind eye would be advertising your weak side to your enemies, i knew a girl with one good eye, it would annoy her if i stood to her blind side. no she didn't wear a patch.

[Grymm]

Oooooh a project ... Interesting

Start now and work back,

TV and film, what's the earliest Pirate Movie are they

and all those naff Victorian prints of pirates

Popular or even crap novels, does treasure Island contain any descriptions of patched pirates or one eyed pirates

off to the bookshelf

[Grymm]

Seems Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda http://www.sightseeing-madrid.com/princess-of-eboli.php

'rocked' an eyepatch big time.

[Mission]

Yeah, that's the portrait that Swashbuckler posted above. She's not a pirate, though.

Was there a pirate with an eye patch in the book Treasure Island? (Someone's gotta' help me here; I've never read it and Google isn't telling.)

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Lord Nelson was one eyed but he did not used an eye pacth http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/mythbusters/356/lord_nelsons_eyepatch.html

[Swashbuckler 1700]

From buccaneer artickles

"Thus they order for the loss of a right arm six hundred pieces of eight, or six slaves ; for the loss of a left arm five hundred pieces of eight, or five slaves ; for a right leg five hundred pieces of eight, or five slaves ; for the left leg four hundred pieces of eight, or four slaves ; for an eye one hundred pieces of eight, or one slave ; for a finger of the hand the same reward as for the eye."

So eyes were still in danger

Not only in battles but also in navigation as well:

When navigator was using a cross staff (used from 1400s till mid/ late 1700s) he needed always look directly to sun. Years of doing that would hurt your eyes quite a bit

I think that there is no question were eyes losed or blinded but did those who lost or hurted them it use an pact? That is more hard question...

pictures of 1500s men

http://jcb.lunaimagi...2&mi=31&trs=112

http://jcb.lunaimagi...~2&mi=13&trs=20

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Wiki says that this man was a eye patch user http://en.wikipedia....-Jacques_Conté and him http://en.wikipedia....r_Francis_Bryan

they are in list of yey patch users

same with this man http://en.wikipedia....sco_de_Orellana look also this http://www.thepirate...rancisco_de.htm

It seems tha loosing limbs was more common than losing an eye

Robert's artickles

" X.

No Man to talk of breaking up their Way of Living, till each had shared a 1000 l. If in order to this, any Man should lose a Limb, or become a Cripple in their Service, he was to have 800 Dollars, out of the publick Stock, and for lesser Hurts, proportionably.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Yeah, that's the portrait that Swashbuckler posted above. She's not a pirate, though.

Was there a pirate with an eye patch in the book Treasure Island? (Someone's gotta' help me here; I've never read it and Google isn't telling.)

Pirate Pew is fully blind pirate

That was Treasure Island

now to history

I found this that seems to be an eye pacth

Greenwich hospital patients late 18th C

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

Wow, good stuff there! I particularly like the point about the articles. It doesn't really help with the eye patch point, but it does highlight the the idea that the danger of losing an eye was important enough to include in at least one set of articles. Thanks!

[Swashbuckler 1700]

BTW

those patients were in sailor hospital I forgot to told that but it is only one eye pacth and it is few decades later than gaop but they are sailors.....

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I think that there is no question were eyes losed or blinded but did those who lost or hurted them it use an pact? That is more hard question...

sorry for that

I mean that did those who lost an eye used eye patches or not? that is the more harder question not that were eyes lost or not since eyes were lost definately.

I also like to remind about hand grenades so often used. They could harm eyes quite a bit and you would not have much time to put your hands to cover your head or eyes before it explode.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

one more way to lose an eye or eyes was pirate torture

this is quite good site . read the secion about "woolding” http://www.cindyvallar.com/torture.html

[Mission]

I mean that did those who lost an eye used eye patches or not? that is the more harder question not that were eyes lost or not since eyes were lost definately.

Curiously, I have found very few accounts of this in the period medical literature. It was very common at this time for surgical writers to stuff case studies into the middle of their medical literature to illustrate the cures they had seen and performed. I now have six period or near-period books specific to sea surgery (two of which - Hugh Ryder's New practical observations in surgery containing divers remarkable cases and cures and John Moyle's Chyrurgic memoirs : being an account of many extraordinary cures which occurred in the series of the author's practice are devoted exclusively to case studies) and have not seen a complete account of a cure of someone having lost an eye. (So far. I haven't finished Ryder's book yet.) I have read LOTS of accounts of splinter-removals, amputations, open wounds, broken bones, abdominal damage and head wounds.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

But of course eyes were lost they are lost today as well ( I now it is not good looking history and compare it with modern people but...)... oh even now at least here people lost eyes in the new year when they were firing rockets think a world with real explosives, cannons, swords, bombs, and wood sticks.....

Here is pictures of old eye operation but most of them are cataract treatment

from 1500s of eye operation

Here 18th C stuff

see here http://www.bridgeman...aving-b?lang=fr

late medieval

http://www.bridgeman...tem_index":110}

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

I mean that did those who lost an eye used eye patches or not? that is the more harder question not that were eyes lost or not since eyes were lost definately.

Curiously, I have found very few accounts of this in the period medical literature. It was very common at this time for surgical writers to stuff case studies into the middle of their medical literature to illustrate the cures they had seen and performed. I now have six period or near-period books specific to sea surgery (two of which - Hugh Ryder's New practical observations in surgery containing divers remarkable cases and cures and John Moyle's Chyrurgic memoirs : being an account of many extraordinary cures which occurred in the series of the author's practice are devoted exclusively to case studies) and have not seen a complete account of a cure of someone having lost an eye. (So far. I haven't finished Ryder's book yet.) I have read LOTS of accounts of splinter-removals, amputations, open wounds, broken bones, abdominal damage and head wounds.

Interesting but eyes were lost still but it seems less constantly than many other things like legs. I trust your research since you have done lots of it and done it well and done it so long but perhaps you have missed some cases with eyes. It is also possible that eye wounds were so hard to deal with that some doctors not even dare to try.

But men like De Lezo or later Nelson are exsamples of one eyed naval persons.

OK from wiki but it seems to be accurate

" Nelson was struck by debris in his right eye and was forced to retire from the position, although his wound was soon bandaged and he returned to action"

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Swashbuckler 1700]

The Nelson ideed lost his eye in battle but had no eye pacth http://www.telegraph...-historian.html

Eye patces are perhaps came from "Pirate's Own Book" which is not too good early 19th C book about pirates and especially the gaop ones

picture from there

Edited June 2, 2012 by Swashbuckler 1700