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Pirates often spent months and even years at sea with only occasional stops at ports that offered entertainment. But the sailors still needed to keep themselves occupied on their ships, which is why they often had bands onboard to play shanties and perform theater

Merchant sailors were treated and paid poorly—and sometimes the pirate's life proved to be the fairer deal. "Sailors were so badly treated in many of these merchant vessels by the captains and owners," Woodard told CNN. "They were given lousy rations, cheated out of their pay at the end of journeys, often fed spoiled food and placed on vessels that intentionally didn't have enough provisions on board." So, in some ways, becoming a pirate was a way to stick it to the man.

While pirates are known for being a raucous bunch, they did follow a strict set of rules—namely, the pirate code. While the exact details of the pirate code varied from ship to ship, most included an outline for disciplinary practices and how they would divide their stolen goods.

According to the Smithsonian Institute, "Captains were elected by popular vote and could be removed if their performances fell short."

Pirates didn't have refrigerators on their ships, and so they needed a special menu suitable for life at sea. That means that they brought food onboard that wouldn't rot right away and relied on cured meats and fermented vegetables. They might have also kept animals that could provide the crew with milk, eggs, and, ultimately, fresh meat.

According to National Geographic, some members of pirate crews were literate and were essential for reading navigational charts. Books were even sometimes part of the b***y taken from ships that the pirates pilfered.

Pirates may have been searching for gold, silver, jewels, and rum while plundering ships, but they were also on the lookout for something that was just as valuable: maps. For instance, National Geographic describes one particular stolen Spanish atlas from 1680 as "extremely valuable pirate b***y" that "overjoyed" pirates when they seized it, according to their detailed journals

While men have definitely dominated the world of piracy, there have been several notorious women pirates, including France's Jeanne de Clisson, England's Mary Read, and Ireland's Grace O'Malley and Anne Bonny (that's an illustration of her, above).

For as long as there have been ships, there have been criminals who have taken to the sea. For example, historians have found evidence of pirates in the Mediterranean as far back as 1353 B.C. During that time, the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten complained of pirates who had raided his coastal cities and ports. The tyrants also threatened the trading routes of ancient Greece and looted cargoes of grain and olive oil from Roman ships, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

"Pirates had extensive networks on land that kept them in touch with the outside world," Geanacopoulos told Georgetown. "They had a mail system of sorts (ships ferrying letters back and forth) that enabled them to communicate with relatives, and even a commuter service to take 'retiring' pirates from their famous haunts in Madagascar to more mundane lives in America."

When pirates accessorized with earrings, they weren't just trying to be fashionable. According to National Geographic, sailors believed that applying pressure to the earlobe would ward off seasickness. In many cases, the pirates would accomplish this by popping on an earring

There are a few other fictitious-sounding details about pirates that are accurate. For example, battling pirates surely lost limbs from time to time and some of them would have replaced their absent appendages with a hook or a wooden peg, according to National Geographic.