# Aarrgh, Matey! Pirates & eye patches **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163 "2004-01-01T20:58:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![truthbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/1 "2004-01-01T20:58:30Z")
I was describing to a friend the film “Pirates of the Caribbean” and we ended up having a discussion about sea-sickness and eye-patches. To be more exact, my friend posited that pirates/sailors wore eye-patches to abate sea-sickness. He couldn’t remember if the patch was to be worn on the dominant eye, or the submissive eye. But he most distinctly recalled that ‘pirates’ and sailors wore eye-patches to cope with sea-sickness. Any truth to this maritime rumour? Thanks in advance, truthbot. ---
**Author:** ![Danton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/47e85d/32.png) [@Danton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danton)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/2 "2004-01-01T21:17:27Z")
Having been a pirate for many years, I feel qualified to answer. My eyepatch-wearing pirate buddies generally wear them for two reasons: 1. Lazy eye. 2. Loss of an eye through one of our frequent battles with ninjas, monkeys, or robots. On the high seas, medical treatment is difficult to obtain. It seems to me that it would be a poor solution for sea sick pirates, as it creates additional problems of depth perception, making it difficult to do piratey things like running, jumping, and walking the plank. Your pirates may vary, of course. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/3 "2004-01-01T22:29:31Z")
Basicly, they used a secant, which required the user to put a stick-type thing to their eye to see which way to go with relation to sun. Back then they did not know to not look into the light… thus they would completly ruin their eye and thus the patch. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/4 "2004-01-01T22:30:41Z")
sextant… secant is a term in euclidian geometry… ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/5 "2004-01-01T22:33:06Z")
Then there’s this reason 😉 : An able-bodied seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns recounting their adventures at sea. Noting the pirate’s peg-leg, hook, and eye patch the seaman asks, “So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?” The pirate replies, “We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin’ me out, a school of sharks appeared and one of 'em bit me leg off.” “Blimey!” said the seaman. “What about the hook?” “Ahhhh…,” mused the pirate, “we were boardin’ a trader ship, pistols blastin’ and swords swingin’ this way and that. In the fracas me hand got chopped off.” “Zounds!” remarked the seaman. “And how came ye by the eye patch?” “A seagull droppin’ fell into me eye,” answered the pirate. “You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?” the sailor asked incredulously. “Well,” said the pirate, “it was me first day with the hook.” ---
**Author:** ![truthbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/6 "2004-01-02T02:30:33Z")
Good Lord, Sweet Joseph _and_ Mary! I shoulda’ known better than to ask _this_ board full of miscreants for an answer to such a question. You should be ashamed of yourselves!🙂 While I laugh at the humour, I shall have nothing to rebut my pirate/eye-patch/sea-sickness friend with naught but _jokes_. I always thought that pirates that wore eye-patches were of a dyslexsic sort that were trying to teach themselves how to eat with forks. That’ll teach me. You learn something new every day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![truthbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/7 "2004-01-02T02:37:08Z")
BTW, **Danton** ; welcome to the boards! Just don’t walk the plank, or drink The Koolaid; and you’ll be fine. Pirates are welcome as long as they can provide cites… ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-matey-pirates-eye-patches/222163/8 "2004-01-02T06:19:01Z")
And then, there was the priate, complete with peg leg, hook, eye patch and parrot who walks into a bar, bangs his hook on the bar and orders whisky. The bartender brings the whisky, and sees a steering wheel attached to the front of the pirate’s pants, and asks him what’s up with that. “Arrr! It’s drivin’ me nuts!”