Comments on: Episode 71: Pirate Special

By: El verdadero motivo por el que los piratas llevaban parche | strambotic

El verdadero motivo por el que los piratas llevaban parche | strambotic — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:00:48 +0000

[...] durante media hora, logró reducir sensiblemente el tiempo requerido para resolver la prueba. “El mito es plausible“, determinó el [...]

By: mike

mike — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:47:19 +0000

I’ve worn and eye patch for two days before for medical reasons and i took it off in the dark after my eye had healed and i had better vision in the light than in the dark.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:51:52 +0000

Hi Adam & Jamie (alphabetical order) – I am a real fan of Mythbusters and I attempt to watch every episode. However, having missed the first run of this in NZ I just watched a repeat of the “Pirate Special”. I have to agree with those who have pointed out a number of errors in your test on the splinters.
1) There is more than enough emperical evidence (for example from ship’s logs of the period) that wood (oak) splinters were a major cause of injury and sometimes death in battle.

2) Pine is classed as a soft wood as opposed to oak which is a hard wood; as a consequence woodworkers could tell you pine resists or absorbs shock better than weathered oak. Pine splinters are lighter and softer than oak splinters – oak splinters have sharp, often barbed, points which can penetrate human flesh and lodge in place; sometimes the operation needed to remove the “splinter” – which could be over a foot long and a couple of inches wide – entailed pulling it right through whatever part of the body it penetrated because, like an arrowhead, it could not be pulled out the same way it went in. Sometimes a limb would need to be amputated. This could lead to secondary shock or infection.

3)The inner bulwarks of your “ship” were lined with pine. As your cannon ball penetrated the oak I would suggest that the majority of the oak splinters were stopped by the inner layer of pine; your pirate pigs were saved from getting a skin-full of oak splinters. In addition, splinters were often gouged from the ship’s deck as a cannon ball skipped across it.

4) Ships of the 18-19 C were usually constructed using trenails or treenails; these were wooden (often oak) pegs which were used to secure the planking to the frames http://www.hmssurprise.org/Resources/SteelSWVMLex.html

Like others I’m hoping you will seriously consider retesting this myth. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy Mythbusters.

By: chris

chris — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:35:05 +0000

i LOVE the show!!!!!! these might be a small experiment you could preform. the myth is that cold water boils faster than hot water.

By: Delaney

Delaney — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:18:05 +0000

Can a gitar string snap and slice your head off. good luck.

By: hr

hr — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:56:03 +0000

i tried the eye patch thing and it really works ty guys
love the show :P

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:24:03 +0000

I was always a bit skeptical about the cannon/splinter testing. There have been a few posts here about the size and velocity of cannonballs and their relationship to splintering. Here is a good article just published with some actual scientific data on it – and it looks like regardless of the thickness/solidity of the wooden walls, splinters are a major result:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090715101505.htm

I would love to see this myth revisited!

Jim

By: kbear

kbear — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:01:01 +0000

Knife/ Sail

I Hope you revisit this myth with the seggustions above bellowed sails and knife twisting as well as tied down sails it seems to me that all these factors should have been considered in the first place i know the movie scene that “we” see in this episode was added post preduction but it would stand to reason that if thats the myth you test you examine that scene completely not just glance at it to get the general idea which is what seems to have happened here… that being said. I love the show and generally agree with your findings hope you keep up the good work.

By: AndyB

AndyB — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:45:43 +0000

Sail & knife… sliding down a sail hich is kept inflated and bowed by the wind… the knife trick would also help keep the sailor in CONTACT wi the sail increasing his frictionn. But more importantly ever seen the ripple effect pushed below the moving sailor/object… adding to the resistance… in a sail that is inflated, but not blown to full taughtness…
As for not wanting to do damage to ones own sails… ahem… if i thought slicing a sail might save my skin in a fall I know what I’d do!!
Also the twisted knife theory mentioned in passing has legs… I wonder what the effects are if a ‘too shapr knife that cuts seams well but slips through sail… I imagine turning it would help… increasing friction cutting the sail yet still slicing a seam when it stuck on it…

By: Castilloranger

Castilloranger — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:15:06 +0000

On the cannon shot penetration and resulting generation of splinters. I have to say that the folks have missed the mark. I worked with one of the folks that participated in the Brig Niagra live fire before he retired, and use a copy of the event to illustrate to the cannon crews I train for our park what a successful weapons system these guns were. The hull section used in the test is all wrong, as it was not put together anything like the hulls of the ships serving at that time. The wrong type of gun was used for the test, but the greatest problem was the distance from the gun to the target. At such short ranges, the shot’s velocity is too great to replicate in anyway the circumstances of a naval battle. If you really want proof of the devastation that splinters created, just look at the medical retirement petitions by survivors of this type of warfare, they are fill of accounts ofmen dealing with splinters working out of their bodies years after the battles they served in.