Pirate boots?

17th century soft riding boots
After a find from the Waddensee, nearby Groningen, Netherland

This would be the perfect boots for a pirate movie, but has anybody ever given a thought about the fact that horses where quite scarce on high sea and naval cavalry unheard of? Since Errol Flynn nobody could imagine a pirate without knee high riding boots. This is probably one of the reasons why the movie industry needs to consider public expectation more than historic accuracy. Others believe pirates had no shoes, wrong again, as we found on this interesting article about pirate footwear. The few pictures of famous Pirates of the South Sea from that time are seriously lacking in the boot department.

 

 

 

This post has 5 Comments

  1. serge on 09/11/2011 at 3:11 pm

    If you where looking for genuine pirate boots so have we. Still looking for them but never found any so far. We still got hopes 😉

  2. Serge Volken on 02/12/2014 at 5:00 pm

    As a follow up: An interesting article about sailors shoes
    //usscm.blogspot.ch/2014/02/slip-shod-truth-about-early-navy-shoes.html

  3. Luke on 09/05/2014 at 11:51 am

    Beautiful boots! Could you tell me what type of leather was used for them and its finishing? Thanks!

  4. SAV on 10/21/2014 at 11:23 am

    THe boots are made of vegetable tanned calf leather, it is tanned with quebracho and mimosa extracts if I remember right,

  5. Didier Cochelin-Belloir on 03/08/2019 at 5:57 pm

    Bonjour,
    je pense que ces bottes ne sont pas anciennes.
    La façon de monter les semelles n est pas correct pour l epoque.
    J ai une paire de bottes haute du 18 eme siecle dans ma collection et je peux vous envoyer des photos. …
    A bientot
    D Cochelin-Belloir

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