Where did pirates sleep?

One of the benefits of working on two seemingly unrelated projects at the same time is the discovery of unintended questions that get to the core of each topic. This past week I started writing my children's booklet on the "Golden Age of Pirates" pirates based on historian Marcus Rediker's ​Villains of All Nations​ and anthropologist David Graeber's ​Pirate Enlightenment​.

I've also been preparing for this Sunday's discussion "Sleep, Circadian Alignment, and Society" with polysomnographer, advanced clinical sleep educator, and researcher Ruhi Snyder. Our discussion will begin with an overview of her decade of research on shift work and then open into a broader group discussion on wellness and sleep in our society.

Before I answer where pirates sleep though, here's how you join our conversation this Sunday on Zoom:

Sunday, Aug 20 
Mexico City: 10:30 am / New York 12:30 pm / 
London: 5:30pm / Mumbai 10:00pmJoin Zoom Meeting 

​https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88974639424?pwd=TnBvQUhnZ2FtMk5TSTU2NldoKzkrQT09​ 

Meeting ID: 889 7463 9424 
Passcode: 318022

Now where did pirates sleep? Answering that question actually helps us frame my discussion with Ruhi. This excerpt from Villains of All Nations about pirate leadership structures gives us the answer:

They wanted leadership by example, not leadership by ascribed status and hierarchy. They therefore gave the captain few privileges; he “or any other Officer is allowed no more [food] than another man, nay, the Captain cannot keep his Cabbin to himself.” Some pirates “messed with the Captain, but withal no Body look’d on it, as a Mark of Favour, or Distinction, for every one came and eat and drank with him at their Humour.” A merchant captain held captive by pirates noted with displeasure that crew members slept on the ship wherever they pleased, “the Captain himself not being allowed a Bed.” Pirates took “the liberty of ranging all over the ship,” a practice called “laying rough.” The determined reorganization of space and privilege aboard the ship was crucial to the remaking of maritime social relations.

So the short answer is "where ever they wanted!" but that's important because that was unique for sailors of the Atlantic at the time. Normally the captain had his own relatively comfortable bed while the rest of the crew was forced into much more confined and often unhealthy spaces. As the quotation noted, this was a shocking sight for a merchant captain accustom to his privileges (and it was always a him at the time). Conversely, pirates were organized democratically through the common council. The pirate captains were elected and changed at-will by the council and were not treated any more special than the rest of the crew.

This is what MidJourney generative image AI thinks "pirates sleeping anywhere they want on a sailing ship in the 18th century" looks like. I'm not sure where all those legs are coming from... I don't plan to use generative AI in the booklets but it can be funny to play with.

So imagine you were trying to advise a sailor who had difficulty sleeping on an early 18th century merchant ship, would you recommend them to compensate for the lack of quality sleep by improving their diet and exercise? Meanwhile, others might say, "Well that's too bad but that is the way it is! That's the life of a sailor!" But did it have to be that way? Pirates clearly found better ways for everyone to sleep (and eat) on the exact same ships.

That brings us to my conversation with Ruhi next Sunday. We will be asking similar questions but about our contemporary society focused on Ruhi's decade long study of shift work and the Pillars of Wellbeing (sleep, diet, and exercise). We would love for you to join the discussion.

p.s. More to come in the future about pirates! It's already shaping up to be a fun children's booklet!