Asked what had drawn him into the life, one pirate recalled, “I may begin with gaming! No, whoring, that led on to gaming…”
There were scenes of heartfelt regret and penance. Others reacted differently.
”Yes, I do heartily repent,” one told the judge. “I repent that I had not done more Mischief, and that we did not cut the Throats of them that took us, and I am extremely sorry that you an’t all hang’d as well as we.”
These kinds of mocking confessions run through the transcripts of pirate trials, and many a judge was incensed to see the condemned corsairs cracking jokes, laughing at the crowd, and generally living as they were about to die.
Source:
Talty, Stephan. “Aftermath.” Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign. New York: Crown Publishing Group (NY), 2007. 273. Print.
Sounds like Captain Jack Sparrow was more spot-on than I'd have guessed