ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley - Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Fact of the Day (of the Week!) - Pirate Week!

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

On This FOTD(OTW); Booty ahoy! It's Pirate Week!It's Time For....See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ZM Podcast Network. Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. On today's Fact of the Day of the Week, Vaughn plunders the seven C's for Pirate Week. It's time for... Fact of the Day, Day, Day, Day, Day. Yeah. Today's Fact of the Day. And this week, it's pirate themed.

Okay. So if you know any cool facts about pirates, share them with me. No, don't do it. Make my job easier for me. Put in some effort. Put in some effort, yeah. Yeah, listener. No, no, no. It's about time they did put in some effort into the show. Vaughn, you do theughn's work. No, don't do Vaughn's. Make my job easier for me. Put in some effort. Put in some effort, yeah. Yeah, listener.

No, no, no. It's about time they did put in some effort into the show. Vaughn, you do the work. I will. I'll collate all the facts that the listeners send me. Okay. Don't do Vaughn's job for me. That will be my work.

No, but it's a very interesting one. Pirates. Okay. I thought, why are they called pirates? What's the origin of the term pirates? Because they're irate. They're putting their irate into pirate. No.

They're irate that their pies are cold. No. Pirates. No. Well, they used to have to pay extra rates for pies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Pie shops had high rates.

In Greek, the word came from pirates, which means one who attacks. Is that also the Spanish word? Because I've done, you know, I've done Duolingo Spanish. Well, then you should know. Why are you asking Vaughan who hasn't done Duolingo Spanish? No, I would say the Spanish is more likely. I need proof that this has been worth your time. The Spanish is more likely drawn from the Latin, pirata,

which meant sea robber. So in Greek, pirates came from one who attacks and also people that would take and make an attempt. So pirates would make an attempt to board. They were someone who was attempting to steal something from you. And do you know in Old English, there was one word that covered pirates and Vikings? Oh, yeah.

I suppose similar sort of. They kind of had the. I'm going to enter in here. I'm going to take your stuff. Yeah. The native Old English, wincing, which was the word for both pirates and Vikings.

So it comes to us from Greek, the word, because you know, Socrates. So it would have been said, pirates. Yeah, it would have been. Because of the...

Pirates. It makes them seem less sort of dangerous. Pirates. Oh no. Here come the wee pirates. They're going to make an attempt. They're going to try their darn best to get aboard our ship

and steal our goods. And do they all have the flag? I feel like you should do the pirate flag to be a fact. I've got a fact for tomorrow about the flag. And the different pirate flags.

Okay. There are different ones? Are there? No, there's the black one with the white skull and crossbones. That's the flag of Edward of England. That's a pirate flag.

Yeah. We'll delve more into that tomorrow. Oh, good. Long tease. Long tease from you. Flags tomorrow. But today's fact of the day is the word pirate comes from an old Greek word, pirates, meaning one who attacks.

Play ZM's Fletchford and Ailey. Play ZM's. Pirates, meaning one who attacks. It's Pirate Week here at Fact of the Day. And we're covering flags today. The pirate flag. Probably the most famous aspect of the pirate. Other than the pig leg and the eye patch. The pig leg. Well, the eye patch we know. Remember I covered the

eye patch. If you missed it sub fact because I feel it's such a well known fact. Yeah. It doesn't make the high bar set for fact of the day. Facts is that the pirates wore eye patches not because they had no eye underneath. It was because they were drooping Botox. Yeah.

Not because of that. Not because of a bad tox. They would wear it so when they went under deck, where... Below deck, I think they call it now. Below deck. The TV show.

When they went with Aisha and the crew on below deck, they'd flick up the eye patch because it was so dark down there and their eye was already accustomed to the dark so they could shut the eye

that they'd been using upstairs and they could see in the dark for the cannonballs and such. A dark eye and a light eye. A sword fighting people down there. They should bring that back on below deck. It's a great idea.

Bring it back. Because they've got lights inside the ships now. Too much drama at the moment. They've got fluorescent bulbs. Need more eye patches. So that's the eye patch situation. Bonus fact.

About the flags, the Jolly Roger, the most well-known flag, that's a skull and crossbones situation. Honest fact. About the flags, the Jolly Roger, the most well-known flag, that's a skull and crossbones situation. Now that is with the bones underneath the skull. And across. The Jolly Roger. And across. If the skull's on top of the bones,

that's famous pirate Emmanuel Wynne's flag. And there was not just the one pirate flag for all pirates. Different pirate gangs had different flags. Right. Well, it's a bit like the mob and the killer bees don't have the same flag, do they? They don't.

They're all gang members. In different colours. But there's different gangs, aren't there? Yeah. Colours is also a very interesting point. What colour would you say the traditional pirate flag is? Black. Uh-huh.

But the red pirate flag is? Black. Uh-huh. But the red pirate flag, the story's not often told of the red pirate flag because the red indicated that they would be taking blood. The black pirate flag, they just wanted your goodies. And so they'd let you go if you handed everything over peacefully. You'd go behind their thing. You'd go behind their thing. You'd go behind their thing.

They'd cruise in and they'd just be in a ship and they'd be like, oh, who's that? And just as they got on you, up goes the flag. Now, if it was a black one, you'd be like, damn. If we fight, they'll fight back. But if we just give them what they want, they're just going to leave us alone. If the red flag went up, the story wasn't going anywhere.

Unless you could beat the pirates. Oh, God. I reckon I could, but do you know what I mean? I'd take them. You'd take a pirate? Yeah, ma'am. You'd take a pirate. Well, the golden age of piracy, which I just love, even researching for these pirates. The two facts. The'd take a pirate. Well, the golden age of piracy, which I just love, even researching for these pirate facts. The 2000s.

They keep talking about the golden age of piracy, not digital downloads. Okay. Not the mid to late 2000s. Yeah. The golden age of piracy, the early 18th century. So all the pirates had flags, and it was a bit of a la-di-da if you had a cool flag.

So Calico Jack Rackham, he took the Jolly Roger, Pirates had flags, and it was a bit of a la-di-da if you had a cool flag. So Calico Jack Rackham, he took the Jolly Roger, but he's like, you know what's scarier than bones? Swords. He had the crossed swords with his skull above it. Oh, okay. Which was badass. One of the other famous, Bartholomew Roberts was a very famous pirate. He had a flag where he was holding an hourglass out,

and the other person holding the hourglass was deaf. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like a lot of detail on a flag. A lot of detail on a flag. Henry Every's Jolly Roger was in red so it was really bad. Skull, profile Skull wearing a bandana with an earring above the two

and that was a flag. Gay pirate. Yes, because it's in the gay ear. And he's got a cute little bandana on, cute little hat. The gay pirate. Little do-rag. Was it in the gay air? Yeah, it was in the gay air. And it was a red flag.

Okay. So he'd get you. So today's fact of the day is whilst the Jolly Roger was the most popular pirate flag, pirates had many flags and a red flag meant death. Today's Fact of the Day is Pirate Week. Arr. Arr. Me RTs.

And today's Pirate Fact comes from Oron who listens to the show on the way to school with his mum. Oh. And he was very excited

about Pirate Week. About Pirate Week because he's just finished a project on pirates. Oh, my God. A wealth of knowledge. Perfect timing. And he would like to submit an alcohol pirate fact.

Oh, okay. Now, how old is he? He's at school. He's a young fellow. Okay. So he's not personally drinking the alcohol, but he could be drinking, if he was a pirate of age, grog. Grog. You know the term of age. Grog. Grog.

You know the term grog? The grog shop. Yeah, the slang for alcohol. Is that more of a British slang? Grog? Pirates. It's a pirate slang. Right.

And I guess a lot of pirates have British connections, so that's probably how it got back there. But grog technically is a mix of rum and water and sometimes lime and sugar, but not for technically is a mix of rum and water and sometimes lime and sugar but not for a delicious refreshing cocktail, primarily to preserve the water. No, but that's like hard, that's nearly a mojito. It's almost

rum, lime, sugar and water, that's a mojito. We need some crushed in mint and some ice. And shove it in an aerator and get it bubbly. Yeah, and welcome aboard the good shit mojito. Yes. I thought it was magina.

I've been saying it wrong. You always embarrass us by ordering magitas. Magita. Can I have a magita? Minty magita. Not everybody's done 160 days of Duolingo. Oh, yeah. Speak Spanish to us.

Yeah. Go, say a sentence. Hola. Hola, chica. I quite like all of her music, though, not just her Spanish songs. That's so lame it's funny. It's so lame. All right, let me continue.

We love a duolingo. Our alcohol was used to extend the life of water aboard a pirate ship. This is, by the way, word for word from Oron. And I fact-checked it, and it all adds up. Are we giving the school project A plus? I'm giving this an A plus. Yeah, good. We'll ring the school and make sure that goes ahead.

I'm giving it an R plus. R plus. No, it's an R. R. R. R's got to be worse than a D. It's A, A, A. R.

R. R. R plus. Alcohol was used to extend the life of water on board the ship. The first liquids often consumed aboard pirate ships were beer and water because beer would go bad just about as fast as water, but it had some flavor to it. So they would hook it into that early.

Hook it into that. And then they'd drink the water because the water could not be kept fresh in the wooden barrels at the time, and rats aboard the ship would be drawn to the water. They would leave behind their poo. They could not keep it clean. Yuck. Water was stored in wooden barrels at the time, and rats aboard the ship would be drawn to the water. They would leave behind their poo. They could not keep it clean. Yuck. Water was stored in wooden barrels.

It would go bad pretty quickly. The water, they would add alcohol, normally rum as it was the easiest to come across, to the water to kill the algae and the bacteria and make it taste better, and then add in the lime and the sugar. And the little umbrella. Yeah. And the glass. And the fresh mint leaves. Yeah. And the ice. Num, num, num the sugar. And the little umbrella. Yeah. And the glass. And the fresh mint leaves.

Yeah. And the ice. Num, num, num, num. And the work shake. And the Boston shaker. Yeah, pour into a cold glass. Through a strainer. So today's Fact of the Day from Oron is that pirates drank grog

because the fresh water on their long sea voyages went bad pretty quick. Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. Today's Fact of the Day. We're in pirate week, by the way, here at Fact of the Day. Arr. Arr. And one of the coolest things about pirates, indeniably the coolest thing about pirates,

they're ships. I was going to say the fashion. The fashion. Fashion was their passion. Jackets. Yeah. The pants, the boots. The tricorn hats, but kind of like a,

not, you know, flash, military, but roughed up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pants, the boots. The tricorn hats, but kind of like a, not, you know, flash, military, but roughed up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A bit naughty. A bit naughty. A bit naughty. But your pirate ships are also cool. So cool. But my question is, where'd they get their ships from?

Because they're pirates. They built them. They built them. They never, you know, pirates never built ships. Did they just steal them? They stole them. But whose ships were never built ships. Did they just steal them? They stole them. But whose ships were they originally? Great question.

Vikings. No, they had different ships. Vikings did build their own ships. They did pillaging up and down coasts, but they arrived in their own ships. But pirates... BYO ship. The golden age of pirates.

When we think about pirates, we think of, you know... 17th. Pirates of the Caribbean, 1700s pirates. So they would steal their ships. Some of them started out life as buccaneers and privateers, and that's kind of what pirates is drawn from, privateers. What's a buccaneer? Buccaneer was a government-employed person

that wasn't part of the military, kind of like a mercenary. But law-abiding. Well, they would work outside of the usual lines of the law to get things done that needed to be done that were perhaps a little bit questionable. Right, okay. I'm talking your CIA operatives at the time. Yeah, right, right.

Do what must be done. Your spies. But they had questionable morals. Okay. Because they would do things that, you know, nice guys and gals wouldn't do. No gals back then, let's be honest. There was, it was female pirates.

They're most, oh, you know what? I might do females and female pirates tomorrow. Yes, please. Finish it on a then, let's be honest. There was, it was female pirates. Oh, you know what? I might do females and female pirates tomorrow. Yes, please. I thought we were simply wenches to look at. No, absolutely not. My queen, my queen, no, you may please. Stay churned. Take a flotilla.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, flotilla of all the pirates you could possibly handle. So they got their ships. The buccaneers or the privateers would be like, yeah, okay, what do you want done, Kingdom of Holland? And they'd be like, vivant, zisette. And they'd go out and they'd be like, we'll get it done for you. Sail offshore and yell as loud as they could,

sake, thanks for the boat, and they'd just become pirates. So they were like provided a boat to do a task. Yes. And then they just commandeered it. They just commandeered the boat and then just become pirates. Oh, so they were like provided a boat to do a task. Yes. And then they just commandeered it. They just commandeered the boat. And they were like some of the best sailors out, so they would just never catch them. Yeah.

And they would be pirates. Other situations, and there's a historic situation of a pirate crew starting by literally, a naval ship was in dock and they paddled up to it in a little dinghy that they stole off the side of the beach, paddled up to it in a little dinghy that they stole off the side of the beach, paddled up to it, climbed up the side, untied it, sailed it away

and just that's our boat now. Right. And then they would hermit crab. Right. When they got a big crew and they got too big for the boat they had, they'd just steal a bigger boat. So why was the boat the style?

Because you look at a pirate ship and you're like, that looks like a pirate ship. Yeah. Why was was the boat the style? Because you look at a pirate ship and you're like, that looks like a pirate ship. Yeah. Why was the style of the boat? Because that was just the style of the time. Yes, Spanish galleons and stuff, they had a specific look but when pirates got them in like, I found a really cool article

called Pirate Ships, Hot Rods of the Sea. Oh, that's nice. Because when something happened, they couldn't afford to dry dock it and fix it like militaries of the time would. Or these's nice. Because when something happened, they couldn't afford to do it. They couldn't afford to dry dock it and fix it like militaries of the time would. Or these super rich, you know, sailing traders would.

They would just fix it on the go as they could and that's why they started looking rough, patched together, bogged up. Which gave it a pirate aesthetic. We should give a moment now

just to remember the Rainbow's End pirate ship. Yeah. If we could have a moment of silence for the Rainbow's End pirate ship. Do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do-do. Rambo's End pirate ship. Yeah. If we could have a moment of silence for the Rambo's End pirate ship. That's someone who ate too much before they got on the pirate ship.

Someone spewed on me. We're ready to start it. It's sloshing around the bottom. So today's fact of the day is pirates never built their own ships that steal them and then hermit crab to bigger ones when they needed them. Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. Play ZM.

Fact of the day It's the last fact of pirate week I've had fun This has been a fun week Do you know what you're going to do next week? No Okay We don't know yet

Today I want to cover a female pirate Because I believe it was yesterday Do you know what you're going to do next week? No. Okay. We don't know yet. Today I want to cover a female pirate because I believe it was yesterday that Hayley said something about a female. What did you ask? I said I thought the women were just wenches. No, no, no, no. They actually had ice baths on their pirate ships. The woman did.

I don't even get one. No, they ice very hard to come by and a luxury of sorts. Of course. There's a Wikipedia article called Woman and Piracy and there's so many pirate ladies. Oh, hot. And especially in the 20th century.

I reckon they would have smelled. Yeah, they would have. They would have smelled. Stinky and hairy. They would have smelled. So the really interesting part is the 20th century, all major pirates were from Southeast Asia, the China Sea. I was like, that's where piracy

moved to. After it moved out of the Caribbean, which is the Caribbean Atlantic across there to England and Spain. That would be where I would be a pirate because it's beautiful. Yeah, but apparently the South Chinese Sea was massive for pirates as well.

And it's in the South China Sea that we are going to learn about a pirate today called Jingyi Xiao. Great pronunciation too there, by the way. Nailed it. Thank you. 1884 was when she died.

I know, I just hit it with a bit of confidence. Confidence, eh? Yeah. That's what you're going to do. I did say to my father-in-law, who's staying with us, Anne speaks some Mandarin, although as he said, he's rusty. I said, how would you say this?

And that's how he said it. Oh, he does his research after hours. See, I knew. Great pronunciation. So she lived from approximately, no one's exactly sure, 70, 75 to 1844. And at the height of her pirate leadership, she was in charge of the Guangdong Pirate Confederation,

which composed of over 400 junks, which were what? The ships were called? 400 junks and 40,000 to 60,000 pirates. Oh, wow. In 1805. She was a badass. Boss B. When she was born,

she was born in a village, a fishing village. She may have worked as a prostitute on a floating brothel. That's what she told people. Right.

And it's there that she met her husband, Jingyi, a pirate. He was a pirate and that was her step into piracy, now he died he died and she was like I'm in charge now, and if you've watched

Griselda, you know the Netflix thing where no one took her seriously and she had to work really hard to prove herself and was not afraid to be cutthroat about it that's what she was like this sounds like it needs a Netflix series. It sounds like it needs a Netflix. It does, eh?

Totally needs a Netflix. I could play her. So, um... Why not? I'm very transformative as an actor. Um... What's the issue? Let me audition.

Get me in the room. Yeah, we'll let you audition. Let me get the hands on the script. It's just going to be... You can outwrite it, but we're going to need. What's the, okay. I'm going to show you in the room what I can bring to the character. During her time as the head of the Pirate Confederation,

she went to war. You know, people were hunting her and she wasn't afraid to stand up to them. She went up against the East India Company, which were a massive trading conglomerate. They do the tonics, don't they? The gin and tonics. That's what it's named after. The East India is named after that company because it was the company that got tonic

to the British soldiers in India who were getting malaria and the gin and tonic would keep the mosquitoes at bay. Yum, though. That's why I drink a lot of gin and tonics. Same. Malaria. She also went in against the Portuguese Empire,

who were massive at the time, and also the ruling Chinese dynasty at the time. She wasn't afraid to get in and muck in with them and make a real mess. This is great. What a character. She had three rules, three codes that the pirates should live by.

Okay. One, if any pirate goes ashore privately, his ears will be mutilated. Ooh. He'll be paraded around the fleet. Oh my gosh. And then executed. Oh. She will keep the ears. She's a psychopath. Not the least thing, she'll be taken privately from the stolen and plunders good.

All stolen goods shall be registered and pirates will be given their share after the management have taken theirs. All right. And women captured from villages shall not be harmed or harassed. All women captives shall be registered, their place of origin recorded,

and given separate quarters. Feminism. Anyone who broke that rule would be executed. In front of everybody to show them the rules. I like her. This is definitely a Netflix series in the making. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So today's fact of the day is females were pirates and Jingyi Cao was one of the most badass of the lot. Great pronunciation. How do you know? Fact of the day, day, day, day, day. We've had a text. What does it say? Type one. I am Chinese and that pronunciation was perfect, I have to say.

Nice. And I told you it was. It was brilliant. Nice. Sheesh. Sheesh. Is that the podcast done? Because I'm blasting for a poos.

Blasting for a poos. Jesus. Give us a review.