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Why do pirates have wooden legs? |
Wonders
In many stories and in many pictures, we see pirates with one leg made of wood. They are worn because for one reason or another, a pirate lost of one his real legs. On pirate ships, doctors were hard to find. Most doctors stayed on land instead of sailing around on ships. Because there few doctors and not a lot of medicine, if a pirate hurt his or her leg, the only way to stop infection from spreading may have been to actually cut the leg off!
A pirate who can't walk isn't very much help on the ship, so he or she may have been given a new leg made of wood! It wouldn't have worked as well as a real leg, but it was better than nothing!
We know that at least a couple real life pirates actually wore peg legs, but most likely if a pirate lost a leg, he or she would just use crutches.
A pirate who can't walk isn't very much help on the ship, so he or she may have been given a new leg made of wood! It wouldn't have worked as well as a real leg, but it was better than nothing!
We know that at least a couple real life pirates actually wore peg legs, but most likely if a pirate lost a leg, he or she would just use crutches.
Pirate Picture
Grab some crayons or markers and draw a picture of a pirate. What pirate things make this person a pirate? Does the pirate have an earring? A parrot? A peg leg? What else?
Why do you think we think of these things when we draw pirates?
