Fun fact regarding pirates and their eye patch

[mysteryowl]

It has nothing to do with missing an eye.

They used the patch to help the eye adapt to light/dark when they went between the darkness of below deck and the light above deck. It takes up to 25 minutes for eyesight to adapt to darkness through the regeneration of photo pigments.

[TomSlick]

1. So, why didn't Royal Navy officers wear eye patches?

[mysteryowl]

3. Hmmmm.....

[Flaleftist]

8. Refusal to accept the science, vanity?

Regardless of how beneficial it could have been, eyepatches could have been discouraged/banned simply because the look didn't appear appropriate.

[Generic Brad]

13. Not smart?

!!!!!

[Dream Girl]

2. I love that will be sharing with everyone I know

Really

[mysteryowl]

4. Fun

[rurallib]

5. arrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh

[smirkymonkey]

14. Shiver me timbers!

Give me rum!

[PJMcK]

6. Plausible

It always helps to add some reference with historical stuff.

This is from Wikipedia:

More recent medical texts have often referred to the eye patch as a "pirate's patch" and writing in the Minnesota Academy of Sciences Journal in 1934, Charles Sheard of the Mayo foundation, pointed out that by "wearing a patch (The pirate's patch) over one eye, it will keep the covered eye in a state of readiness and adaptation for night vision". This technique was explored during WWII by institutes such as the United States Navy.

The proposal that pirates may have worn an eyepatch so that one eye would be pre-adjusted to below-deck darkness was tested in an episode of Mythbusters in 2007 and found to be plausible, but without any recorded historical precedent.

Here's the rest:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyepatch

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. This is what really happens:

Last edited Mon Sep 24, 2018, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)

The typical pirate with a peg leg, a hook and an eye patch walked into a bar and ordered a pint. The bartender asked him how he'd lost his leg. He said, "Arrgh, matey, I lost me leg when a cannonball shot it off."

"Sorry about that," the barkeep said. "What about the hook?"

"Well, matey," the pilot answered, "That happened when a crocodile bit off me hand."

The bartender replied, "Tough luck, pal! Have another pint on the house. And the eye patch? What happened there?"

"Oh, that was on account o' when a sea gull crapped in me eye."

The bartender was puzzled. "How could sea gull crap cause you to lose your eye?"

"Well, matey, that happened right after I got me hook..."

[TomSlick]

9. Cute.

That was worth a smile.

[TomSlick]

10. I don't know why this post continues to bug me but....

It seems to me that the loss of depth perception from being monocular would more than overcome any advantage to having an eye protected from the light when going below decks. The area below decks would not have been completely dark after all.

Having thought of that, I searched the Google-machine for portraits of real pirates. Eye patches don't really seem to have been that prevalent.

[link:https://www.google.com/search?q=portraits+of+historical+pirates&rlz=1C1ILPI_enUS736US736&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Bzd-MhohR_8l2M%253A%252CzhA-qIoCUMQrfM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQpmwio_QT7E-igiDVUcGd9Su8_nA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3l8aeitXdAhVPLKwKHcV6C4oQ9QEwAHoECAQQBA#imgrc=ca5giTRPUVx1NM:|

I may be blinded by doubt (pun intended) but am skeptical.

[mysteryowl]

11. Glad the fun (plausible) fact stimulates you

There were some wild pirate pics.

[genxlib]

12. Mythbusters took this one on.

They couldn't prove anything but they did a very compelling test that it was very effective. The two eyed person stumbled around in dim light like he was effectively blind. The patched eye guy waltzed through like the lights were on.