How long did pirates usually live for?
The ‘Golden Age’ of piracy is the 17th and early 18th centuries, and life expectancy wasn’t very high then. Even a fairly rich person, living in a town, with access to a doctor would be lucky to live beyond 50. Living a rough, violent and dangerous lifestyle as a pirate would probably bring that figure down quite considerably. Just being at sea was a high-risk occupation in its own right, never mind getting into any battles! According to one website that I found (see link) most pirates were in their 20s and few plied their trade for more than about 10 years. The smart and lucky ones might retire, but battles, accidents at sea, disease, etc. would probably take a toll on most of the others. Being captured and hanged by the authorities also tends to bring down your life expectancy…
