A lot of seafaring Brits came from the west of England. One of the main ports there is Bristol, where I lived for several years. I was waiting in the usual rain one day for a bus, and the man behind me peered down the road and asked,"Is that a number 43?" The bowlegged, weathered little guy behind him also peered through the rain and answered, "Arrr, that be ee." I heard "Oh, arrr" all the time. It's just West Country dialect, and a lot of sailors, pirates or not, would have talked that way.

And most of the curse words used back then would be unrecognizable or meaningless now. Pardon my spelling, but terms like "blood and ouns" or "odd zookers" would have been some of the saltier expressions. There was much to curse in the seafaring life in the days of sail.

I grew up in Key West during the 1960's and the museums were full of old records about Spanish records of ships, manifest, and words that do not transulate into any common word we use today. I also remember reading about Walking The Plank was used in relationship to Keel Hauling. Keel Hauling was a form of punishment administered by the crew. If a ship mate was accused of some wrong doing and could not prove that they were not guilty of this, they they would be sentenced to Hauling the Keel. What the crew would do is secure a rope that was known as the "keel rope" around their hands and the other end of the rope around their ankles, this rope went around the girth of the ship. They would be lowered into the water head first and slowly pulled under the keel and back to the surface on the other side of the ship. This could take several minutes to do and if you survived you were found not guilty. The majority of the time the sailor would drown.

Also,the bottoms of most ships were covered in barnicles that would cut you to pieces during the hauling. The blood attracted sharks, who would chew on the unfortunate sailor.

I agree totally with GLM, but might I also point out that the Cotswolds are not near Dorset as you have to go through at least 2 counties to get there. The south west of England, primarily Devon and Cornwall still use the aaarrrrrs and another expressions which were also used by the 2nd founding fathers of the USA when they settled in Plymouth Mass, other areas such as Norfolk also use the arrrs even to this day. Another point that should be understood is, that at the time of pirates the English were also an oppressed people

All good points. Actually Bristol is famous for pirates, most notoriously Blackbeard:

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And going further west, you reminded me of the Pirates of Penzance.

But any pirates that came from Bristol, or Penzance, or anywhere in Devon or Cornwall, and that would have been quite a lot of pirates, would definitely have said "arrr," contrary to what the writer of the article believes.

As has been said, many "pirates" have come from the west of the English Isles, translated, Wales. During that time when the English were trying to eradicate the Welsh society through banning of the language Cymraeg. When most Welsh speaking people of old spoke English the sentences seemed backwards as in English "She is a beautiful ship", a literal Welsh translation would be "A ship beautiful she is". This syntax has been seen and heard in almost any "pirate" speak. This also applies to Spanish pirates speaking English. Not knowing Gaelic or other British Isle native languages I can't speak for those areas, but I'm sure the rules are the same. As for Arrrr, I admit I say it quite often, much to the dismay of my girlfriend. Walking the plank would have to be done to get anyone being dropped overboard past the gunwales since they protruded further than the railings of the ships. That was the issue of keel hauling, to run them up against the barnacles and cut. Not all seas have sharks swarming at the mere drop of blood.

I have read several histories where "walking the plank" was a method used to create a drop when someone was hanged for some wrong doing or another. The noose could be secured to a lower part of the rigging or "pins" that were located around the railing that were used to tie off the rigging, (I know there is name for these, I just can't remember it right now), and the poor unfortunate was forced to walk the plank, (which was usually used to access a ship that the pirates or other sailors were boarding), and the drop facilitated breaking the wretch's neck...

Your ARRight

There are a lot of misconceptions about Welsh. Take the Lord of the Rings character Eowyn. Actually the -wyn ending is a masculine form as in Meirwyn.

The ending means something different in Elvish apparently.LOL