Can your earrings save your eyesight?!
We received the strangest ‘update’ from EE t’other which posed the question:
“Did you know Pirates believed earrings helped their eyesight?”
You may have also received the same intriguing mail in your inbox. It certainly caught our attention and imagination. All sorts of thoughts about Captain Pugwash, Captain Jack Sparrow and The Black Pearl went swirling around and it had to be checked out.
It turns out it’s absolutely true! Pirates wore earrings for various (sadly, mistaken) reasons, amongst which was the belief that the precious metals in earrings could restore failing eyesight!
They also, somewhat more practically, realised that valuable gold or silver was a sign of exotic and extensive travels and success in the pirating game. If they were unlucky enough to die on the high seas, the said gold or silver could be used to return their body to their family/loved ones or pay for a proper burial. They weren’t entirely daft about the healing properties of earrings either.
They used to hang wads of cotton on their hoops, handy for stuffing into their lugholes whilst firing the ships’ cannon! So whilst doing little for their eyesight, earrings possibly saved some from deafness!
We can’t make any such claims about our latest re-stock of earrings but they are jolly nice and won’t make you look like a Pirate at all!
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