How to Dress Like a Pirate

Bellamy assessed the situation. He felt confident he and Williams could take the larger ship, but a prolonged battle would cause extensive damage to all three vessels, damage the priates might not be able to easily repair. They would first try psychological warfare instead. He and Williams and all their men put on a wild display with their muskets, cutlasses, and long-handled pikes. A few held up hand-made grenades: hollow iron spheres filled with gunpowder and plugged with a fuse. Many of them wore fine clothing stolen from the wealthy captains and passengers they had plundered—gentlemen's waistcoats, cuff links and collars, elaborate hats of silk and felt, perhaps even a wig or two. On these rough, wild-looking men, these could only be seen as trophies of war…

– Colin Woodward, The Republic of Pirates, Harcourt Inc. 2007, p. 158