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Pirate Special
OAD: January 19, 2007 Episode #71
Pirate Myths
Myth: Cannonball vs. Shrapnel
When a pirate ship was in battle, the splinters caused by cannonballs hitting the wooden hull were more dangerous than the cannonballs themselves.
The Experts:
Master Shipwright John Phillips gives Adam the dimensions of a pirate ship’s timbers.
Harry Webb loans Adam and Jamie “Old Moses”, his replica 1841 cannon.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: That’s one of the most wrongedy-wrong things we’ve ever done.
Adam: I am satisfied, and filthy. Two of my favorite states.
The entire infomercial for the “Blowhard 3000”.
The Action/Results:
This myth really calls for a genuine cannon firing a genuine cannonball, so the researchers start looking. Meanwhile, Jamie and Adam set up a small-scale test using an air cannon, to see how much splintering would occur. They test pine, white oak, and red oak – three woods commonly used in ships of the period. All produce impressive splintering, but the white oak splinters not only penetrate the foam target, but the plywood holding up the foam. White oak will be their primary target wood.
The researchers haven’t found a cannon yet, and the small air cannon can’t come close to the muzzle velocity of a real one. So, enter the “Blowhard 3000”, a mammoth air cannon that can fire a 6 1⁄2 pound cannonball at 500 feet per second (340 MPH or 544 KPH). It’s still slower than a real cannon, but it’s an improvement. Meanwhile, Adam has built a section of “pirate ship hull”. A gap in the planking will hold period-appropriate thicknesses of white oak (for the outer hull) and pine (for the inner hull), which can easily be replaced if a reset is needed.
As a control test, the Blowhard 3000 is fired at a line of 4 pigs, to see how lethal a cannonball would be. The cannonball slams through all 4, and takes out the sandbags behind them. Then, the hull section is moved into place and the pigs repositioned. This time, they’ll be parallel to the hull to catch the most splinters possible. The cannonball easily pierces the hull, splinters go all over ... but none stick in the pigs.
Adam is ready to call “busted”, but when Jamie tells him that a real cannon has been found he eagerly agrees to another test. After some glitches, the cannon’s muzzle velocity is confirmed at 1430 feet per second (975 MPH or 1560 KPH). The hull section and pigs are positioned, and “Old Moses” fires. This time, one splinter pierces a pig’s skin, but it only goes 1⁄2” into the pig. The rest of the splinters fail to penetrate. While splinters might cause wounds that develop lethal infections, Jamie and Adam agree this myth is BUSTED.
Myth: Eye Patch
Pirates wore eye patches so one eye would always be dark-adapted if they needed to work below decks or got into a night battle.
The Expert: Jacque Duncan, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at UCSF, explains how low-light vision works.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Rob Lee: While Tory and Grant begin building an obstacle course uniquely designed to test a pirate’s night vision, Kari is off to see an opthoz, an optho, an eye doctor.
Adam (in pirate accent): Let’s pillage!
Tory: I don’t know if that’s legal in California.
The Action/Results:
There are two different types of cells in the retina: cones, which detect detail and color in bright light, and rods, which are very sensitive to low amounts of light. However, the rods need time to adjust if they’ve been in bright light. This myth claims that by keeping one eye covered, pirates kept those rods ready to sense low amounts of light.
Dr. Duncan demonstrates the principle by covering one of Kari’s eyes, then exposing Kari to very bright light. When the bright light is turned off, it takes Kari’s light-exposed eye 25 minutes to detect the minimum amount of light the human eye can detect, but the eye that was covered can sense that same amount as soon as the patch is removed.
Kari, Grant, and Tory build a pirate ship obstacle course, complete with IR cameras for filming, that Adam and Jamie will have to run in the dark, wearing eye patches (and safety gear). For the first run, both have been in the bright sun long enough to “bleach” the rods in their retinas, and they are to run the course using only their sun-exposed eye. By the end of the course, both are getting some night vision back, but barely enough to help. Adam took over five minutes to stumble his way through, and Jamie didn’t do any better.
The course is reset, with some obstacles moved so Jamie and Adam won’t be able to use their memories of the course as a guide. Immediately before each enters for the second run, their eye patches are switched to cover the light-adapted eye. With their dark-adapted eyes in use, the course is no obstacle at all.
Finally, as a control, Adam and Jamie run the course a third time. The obstacle arrangement is the same as for the second run, but they are doing the run with light-adapted eyes. Even knowing the layout, their results on this run are as bad as those from the first. This myth is ruled PLAUSIBLE.
Myth: Rum: Stain Remover?
Pirates didn’t just drink rum, they used it to remove stubborn stains from their clothes.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam’s “French Cooking Show” routine.
Kari’s reaction to learning just what was in the “special” stain remover.
The Action/Results:
The plan is to stain several pieces of cloth with three typical pirate stains: blood, pitch, and sweat. Then, the stains will be treated with four different cleaning agents – modern detergent (the control), a period-appropriate soap, rum, and a special laundry agent Adam heard about. Sticking to their specialties, Adam will provide the stains and Jamie will try to clean them up.
The pig blood and pitch are smeared on four pieces of cloth each. When it’s time for the sweat stains, Adam borrows Jamie’s treadmill and the fire suit to make sure he’s producing enough. Unfortunately, the sweat dries invisibly and without detectable (by Adam) odor, meaning there is no way to see if it was removed. Citrus fruit was used on sailing ships to prevent scurvy, so Adam decides to substitute orange stains.
The stains are left to set while Adam assembles the spotting agents. He reveals that the special technique he heard of is stale urine. According to a Web search, sailors would save urine in casks, and as the water evaporated it would concentrate the ammonia. Adam speeds matters up with a hot plate, and passes the myth off to Jamie.
Jamie uses a different stain remover on each set of stain swatches, rinses them out and lets them dry. The labels identifying which stain remover was used on each set are hidden, and Kari comes in to rate the results. While none of the laundry treatments got everything out, she picks the urine (ick!) for best removal of the blood and the modern detergent for best removal of the pitch. Rum was judged the worst at removing all three stains. There was no question that this myth is BUSTED.
Myth: Knife Sail
A pirate in the crow’s nest could safely get back to the deck by sticking his knife in the sail and sliding down (ripping the sail in the process).
The Experts:
Chris Jannini, Historic Ship Preservation Specialist, shows the team how a sail would be constructed.
Eric Braun, Trapeze Arts Instructor, supervises the final test.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: So no matter what, we’re gonna be safe?
Eric Braun: No matter what, you won’t hit the ground.
Tory: No, no, I said “No matter what, we’re gonna be safe”.
The Action/Results:
A discussion with Chris Jannini reveals a major problem with this myth: sails weren’t a single piece of fabric. There would be up to four “reef bands” running the full width of the sail. These reinforced seams can get as thick as lightweight plywood, and a pirate gliding down the sail on his knife blade would need to cut through them.
For the initial tests, Tory, Grant, and Kari use a plain length of sailcloth. A main-gauche is stuck through the cloth and clamped in place. A counterweight on a quick-release pulls the cloth along the blade. This reveals that even the dulled main-gauche will cut the sailcloth, and the sharper the knife, the faster the simulated fall. Then, to see if a person could hold on to a knife in this situation, the clamp is replaced by Tory. This test is also positive, Tory has no problem holding on to the knife.
For actual falling tests, Buster gets knife-holding hands. A sail with two reef bands is marked for the high-speed camera, and Buster is dropped from a quick-release. On the first test, Buster’s landing speed is over the injury threshold of 25 feet per second. Since the myth claims this is a safe way to get to the deck, the team decides to see if dulling the blade a bit will slow Buster down. Instead, the knife snags, is jolted out of the sail, and Buster falls even faster.
Since Buster can’t compensate for variations in sail thickness, the team decides they need a safe way to do this test with a person (namely Tory) holding the knife. They head out to a circus training facility, where their sail is hung next to a trapeze and over the trapeze net. Tory, wearing a safety harness, climbs to the trapeze, sets the knife in place, and drops. While he can hold on to the knife, he cannot keep it in the sail when it hits the reef band. The test is run twice, and even knowing how much shock to expect Tory cannot keep the knife from flipping out of the sail at the reef band. This myth is ruled BUSTED.
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Episode Descriptions 
