Seventeenth-Century pirates would be compensated for the loss of a limb, and even a peg leg!

>The most extraordinary clauses in the articles were the ones addressing the “recompense and reward each one ought to have that is either wounded or maimed in his body, suffering the loss of any limb, by that voyage.” Each eventuality was priced out: >>Loss of a right arm: 600 pieces of eight >>Left arm: 500 >>Right leg: 500 >>Left leg: 400 >>Eye: 100 >>Finger: 100 >Some articles even awarded damages for the loss of a peg leg. Prostheses were so hard to come by in the West Indies that a good wooden leg was worth as much as a real one. _____________________________________ **Source:** Talty, Stephan. “Into the Past.” *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. 58-59. Print. _____________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Real de a ocho / Spanish Dollar / Eight-Real Coin / peso de ocho (Piece of Eight)]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar)