Stubbs

There is one condition that seems to particularly fall upon pirates. It is called Stubbs. It refers to having a limb or two reduced to a stub... sometimes more than one can be afflicted! Eyes and even ears are other parts of the body that can go missing over a pirate's lifetime. Others who make a living upon the sea can also suffer from stubbs but not to the same degree of affliction that befalls pirates. Peg legs, hand hooks, and eye patches adorn more pirates than any other seafarer, especially in the Basquay Sea region, a place rife with piracy and those determined to protect themselves and their cargoes. A pirate ship's shipwright is a master at carving out peg legs and making hooks while most any pirate has a gift for stitching scraps of canvas into a fine eye patch.
Some claim it is the lack of proper healing when things go wrong, blaming pirate captains for being uncaring and entirely willing to expend the bodies of their crews. Others say it is the savage nature of pirates as they pillage plunder. Why, they are so savage that if a captain cannot find something for them to plunder they will turn on each other.
The life of a pirate is indeed rough. They spend their lives fighting others in order to take what is not theirs. Unlike navies, a pirate is not trained. Instead, they are given a cutlass and learn how to fight while in action. If they survive then they have learned a little something to help them live a little longer on the next attack.
Pirates who manage to live to an old age without being caught and hanged for piracy can find their way to a sailor's lodge, a place many towns build for sailing folk who have reached their aged years. As long as they stay quiet about their piracy, they can live out their years in relative peace. Pirate captains, however, have to be craftier as their infamy can be so well known that one look at them would send the authorities after them.
The exception to this is the mysterious Crescent Isle upon which rests Tangorray. This town was built by pirates for pirates and is considered neutral ground. Not even the Dread Pirates, who each control a fleet of pirate captains, dare to claim it as their own. It is here many pirates with their peg legs, hand hooks, and eye patches choose to retire. Captains retire here as well, building their own manors with their ill-gotten booty.

by januszj