These trivia questions about pirates keep to the record: the golden age, ships and sea words, flags and articles, and pirates far from the Caribbean. One round sets the legend against what the sources say.
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Five rounds for a pirate party or a class
The golden age follows Blackbeard from Bristol to the blockade of Charleston. Flags, articles and shares reads the rules a crew signed: lights out at eight, two shares for the captain, rest for the musicians on the Sabbath. The legend against the record asks what the plank, the eye patch and the buried chest look like in the sources.
Play it or read it out
Tap a choice and the card shows the answer with its reason. See all 80 with answers opens the full list under the card. Scored round asks 20 and marks them at the end.
Tips
Ships, sails and sea words suits a birthday table: the crow's nest, hardtack, careening and pieces of eight.
Questions and answers
Did pirates really bury treasure?
Very rarely. Royal Museums Greenwich calls it very likely a myth: most loot was trade goods such as spices and silks. William Kidd, accused of hiding wealth on Gardiners Island, is the best-known case.
Did pirates make people walk the plank?
Hardly ever, by the record. Few cases are documented, and all of them come well after the golden age. The scene has been a fixture of pirate stories since the 19th century.
When was the golden age of piracy?
Royal Museums Greenwich gives the 1680s to the 1720s, less than 50 years. Other histories set it wider, from the 1650s to the 1730s, so the question here names the museum.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 2, 2026 on the page linked under it: three Royal Museums Greenwich pages for 33 questions, Wikipedia for 47. Executions, cruelty and anything from a film are left out.
About how long did Blackbeard's career as a pirate last?Answer: Two years. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
In which English port city is Blackbeard thought to have been born, around 1680?Answer: Bristol. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
In which year did England capture Jamaica from Spain?Answer: 1655. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Mary Read and Anne Bonny sailed in the crew of which pirate captain?Answer: 'Calico' Jack Rackham. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Famous pirates
Royal Museums Greenwich dates the golden age of piracy from the 1680s to which decade?Answer: The 1720s. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Under which captain did Edward Teach reportedly turn from privateering to piracy?Answer: Benjamin Hornigold. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What did Blackbeard demand as ransom when he blockaded Charleston?Answer: A chest of medicines. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What did the British government offer to pirates who agreed to give up piracy?Answer: A pardon. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What was Blackbeard's flagship called before he captured and renamed her in 1717?Answer: La Concorde. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What was the name of Blackbeard's flagship?Answer: Queen Anne's Revenge. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What was the real name of the pirate Blackbeard?Answer: Edward Teach. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
Which Englishman, twice governor of the Bahamas, rid that colony of pirates?Answer: Woodes Rogers. Source: Wikipedia: Woodes Rogers
Which Jamaican port does Royal Museums Greenwich call a notorious pirate haunt of the early 1700s?Answer: Port Royal. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Which pirate was known as the 'gentleman pirate'?Answer: Stede Bonnet. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
Which port did Blackbeard blockade in May 1718?Answer: Charleston. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
Which Welsh sea captain became Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica?Answer: Henry Morgan. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Famous pirates
Ships, sails and sea words 16
A doubloon was a gold coin worth how many escudos?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Doubloon
Blackbeard ran his flagship aground at Topsail Inlet in North Carolina. What is the inlet called now?Answer: Beaufort Inlet. Source: Wikipedia: Queen Anne's Revenge
Captains of which navy designed the definitive long, narrow galleon in the 1550s?Answer: The Spanish navy. Source: Wikipedia: Galleon
In modern usage, how many masts does a sloop have?Answer: One. Source: Wikipedia: Sloop
Into how many reales was the Spanish dollar divided?Answer: Eight. Source: Wikipedia: Spanish dollar
On a pirate ship, which officer was often given a veto to balance the power of the captain?Answer: The quartermaster. Source: Wikipedia: Quartermaster
The pirate ship Whydah Gally was wrecked in a storm in 1717 off which coast?Answer: Cape Cod. Source: Wikipedia: Whydah Gally
The Spanish treasure fleet was also called the plate fleet. What does plata mean in Spanish?Answer: Silver. Source: Wikipedia: Spanish treasure fleet
What defines a schooner?Answer: A fore-and-aft rig on two or more masts. Source: Wikipedia: Schooner
What does the knot measure at sea?Answer: Speed. Source: Wikipedia: Knot (unit)
What is a crow's nest on a sailing ship?Answer: A lookout point high on the mast. Source: Wikipedia: Crow's nest
What kind of food was hardtack?Answer: A dense cracker. Source: Wikipedia: Hardtack
What was careening?Answer: Heaving a ship onto its side to work on the hull. Source: Wikipedia: Careening
What was the Spanish Main?Answer: The mainland coast of Spanish America around the Caribbean. Source: Wikipedia: Spanish Main
Which officer of a ship supervises the deck crew?Answer: The boatswain. Source: Wikipedia: Boatswain
Which word did port replace as the name for the left side of a ship?Answer: Larboard. Source: Wikipedia: Port and starboard
Flags, articles and shares 16
A book of 1724 says two pirates named their flag Jolly Roger. One was Francis Spriggs. Who was the other?Answer: Bartholomew Roberts. Source: Wikipedia: Jolly Roger
How did a new man usually join a pirate crew under its articles?Answer: He signed or made his mark and swore an oath. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
How were the spoils shared out on Blackbeard's ships, by the museum's account?Answer: Divided them among himself and his crew by an agreed code. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
On Blackbeard's flag as Royal Museums Greenwich describes it, what does the skeleton hold besides a spear?Answer: An hourglass. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
One claimed origin of the name Jolly Roger is a red flag flown by French privateers. What is the French phrase?Answer: Joli Rouge. Source: Wikipedia: Jolly Roger
Roberts's articles promised 800 pieces of eight from the common fund to a man who lost what?Answer: A limb. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
Under Roberts's articles, at what hour were lights and candles to be put out?Answer: Eight at night. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
Under Roberts's articles, how many shares of a prize went to the captain?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
Under Roberts's articles, who had rest on the Sabbath?Answer: The musicians. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
Under the articles of Bartholomew Roberts, what did every man have in matters of importance?Answer: A vote. Source: Wikipedia: Pirate code
What did an hourglass on a pirate flag stand for?Answer: Time running out for those attacked. Source: Wikipedia: Jolly Roger
What is marooning?Answer: Leaving someone on a deserted island. Source: Wikipedia: Marooning
What is the traditional name for a pirate flag?Answer: The Jolly Roger. Source: Wikipedia: Jolly Roger
What was a letter of marque?Answer: A commission that let a captain attack enemy ships in wartime. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Which court was responsible for the trial of pirates in England?Answer: The Court of Admiralty. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
The word buccaneer comes from boucan. What was a boucan?Answer: A frame or hut for smoking meat. Source: Wikipedia: Buccaneer
The legend against the record 16
According to Royal Museums Greenwich, what was most pirate booty?Answer: Trade goods such as spices and silks. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
As a young woman, how did Mary Read join the army in Flanders?Answer: Disguised as a boy soldier. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Famous pirates
Bartholomew Roberts is widely called Black Bart. What does his Wikipedia article say about that name?Answer: It was not used in his lifetime. Source: Wikipedia: Bartholomew Roberts
Does Royal Museums Greenwich say piracy ended with the golden age?Answer: No, pirates still operate today. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
How did Henry Morgan see himself, according to Royal Museums Greenwich?Answer: As a privateer, not a pirate. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Famous pirates
How long did most people who turned pirate stay in the trade, according to Royal Museums Greenwich?Answer: Only a short period. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
How many vessels does Royal Museums Greenwich say Bartholomew Roberts took in his career?Answer: Well over 400. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Pirates in stories speak with the accent of which part of England?Answer: The West Country. Source: Wikipedia: Pirates in the arts and popular culture
Walking the plank is a favorite scene in pirate stories. What does the record show?Answer: Few cases are documented, all after the golden age. Source: Wikipedia: Walking the plank
What did Blackbeard reportedly put in his beard before an attack?Answer: Slow-burning fuses. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What does Royal Museums Greenwich say about pirates burying their treasure?Answer: It is very likely a myth. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
What does Royal Museums Greenwich say the newspapers of the time did with pirate stories?Answer: Exaggerated them. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
What does the record say about pirates wearing eye patches?Answer: No evidence of it before 19th-century novels. Source: Wikipedia: Eyepatch
What was Blackbeard's frightening appearance probably meant to achieve?Answer: Surrender without a fight. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Blackbeard
Which captain is named on the title page of the 1724 book that is the source for much of what is told about Blackbeard?Answer: Captain Charles Johnson. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Which pirate is the best known of the few said to have buried treasure, on Gardiners Island?Answer: William Kidd. Source: Wikipedia: Buried treasure
Pirates far from the Caribbean 16
After the death of her husband in 1807, who took control of a great pirate confederation off southern China?Answer: Zheng Yi Sao. Source: Wikipedia: Zheng Yi Sao
The Barbary corsairs raided coastal villages as far north as which island?Answer: Iceland. Source: Wikipedia: Barbary corsairs
Besides the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, off which coast does Royal Museums Greenwich say golden-age pirates worked?Answer: West Africa. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
By 1641 the buccaneers of Tortuga called themselves by which name?Answer: The Brethren of the Coast. Source: Wikipedia: Tortuga
From which coast did the Barbary corsairs operate?Answer: North Africa. Source: Wikipedia: Barbary corsairs
Golden-age pirates working east of Africa made a key base on which island?Answer: Madagascar. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
In which present-day country were the crew of Bartholomew Roberts put on trial?Answer: Ghana. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: History of pirates, the 'Golden Age of Piracy'
Jean Lafitte and his brother ran their operations from an island in which Louisiana bay?Answer: Barataria Bay. Source: Wikipedia: Jean Lafitte
Klaus Störtebeker was reputed to lead which band of Baltic sea raiders?Answer: The Victual Brothers. Source: Wikipedia: Klaus Störtebeker
The nickname Barbarossa, borne by an Ottoman admiral and his brother, means what in Italian?Answer: Redbeard. Source: Wikipedia: Hayreddin Barbarossa
What did the Spanish call the English privateer Francis Drake?Answer: El Draque. Source: Wikipedia: Francis Drake
What was the nationality of the privateer William Kidd, who took a prize in the Indian Ocean in 1698?Answer: Scottish. Source: Wikipedia: William Kidd
Which Irish sea captain put her case in person to Queen Elizabeth I?Answer: Grace O'Malley. Source: Wikipedia: Grace O'Malley
Which Roman general cleared the Cilician pirates from the Mediterranean?Answer: Pompey. Source: Wikipedia: Cilician pirates
Who was dubbed the King of Pirates after raiding a convoy of Mughal ships?Answer: Henry Every. Source: Wikipedia: Henry Every
The wokou raided the coasts of which two countries from the 13th to the 17th century?Answer: China and Korea. Source: Wikipedia: Wokou
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, facts from the page named and linked beside it. Each answer was checked on 2026-10-02 against that page, fetched that day: three pages of Royal Museums Greenwich (https://www.rmg.co.uk: the golden age of piracy, Blackbeard and famous pirates) for 33 of the 80 questions; the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) for the rest. This is the history of piracy, not of pirate films: no film, ride or game is asked. Where the record and the legend part, the question says which is which: buried treasure, the plank, the eye patch, the nickname Black Bart and the origin of the name Jolly Roger. The dates of the golden age are asked as the museum gives them, because histories differ. Left out on purpose: executions and cruelty, weapons as subjects, drink, and living people. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits readers of sea stories, hard will stump most tables. Each round is stored easiest first, and each question carries the date its page was read. Licence: own work