Hempen Jig
"
Dancing the Hempen
Jig" was the punishment for
pirates caught and convicted of their
crimes. The "
hempen jig" was the
dance of death at the end of the
hangman's hemp rope.
Pirates often joked about being
executed, and for most pirates the everyday
dangers of
life at sea were more of a
hazard than the
hangman. Relatively few were brought to
justice, and even those found
guilty were often
pardoned.
For
privateers,
capture meant only
imprisonment, with the possibility of
freedom in an
exchange of
prisoners. But many privateers feared prison;
gaols were
disease-ridden places form which many never returned.