If you’ve ever consumed any media about pirates, you’ve come across stories of fearsome peg-legged people. Oftentimes, the peg leg proves that the pirate is tough as nails and a ruthless enemy who isn’t to be crossed.
Of course, in a world where most people did manual labor (especially pirates and privateers) and surgery had only the most rudimentary of tools, limb loss and disability was common, a simple scrape could lead to infection. Limb amputation was a lifesaving procedure that held enormous risk. For the lucky few who survived a leg amputation in an era with no knowledge of antibiotics, they then had to decide how to move around.
Prosthetics, or a device used to replace the function or appearance of a missing body part, have been around since ancient times. There are extant examples of prosthetics from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. (Even King Tut had special therapeutic shoes to assist with walking since he was born with disabilities that caused him trouble while walking.) When it comes to legs, there is a functional leg prosthesis from an ancient civilization in North China that dates to 300 BC/BCE! There are also records of medieval knights having prosthetics that could do basic functions like holding a shield for use in battle. From ancient times through the 19th century, most prosthetics used wood or metal.
While the people of the upper classes could use specialized chairs or have their servants move them around, for people of the lower or working classes wood would have been the only affordable option for moving around. Peg legs, or straight wooden prosthetics that fit at the knee, were used since antiquity and functioned well if the prosthetic was properly fitted to the wearer.
There were indeed privateers and pirates who used peg legs outside of fiction including admiral for the Dutch West India Company Cornelis Jol who was nicknamed Houtebeen or “pegleg”. Admiral Blas de Lezo, a Spanish naval officer, also used a peg leg after being harmed with cannonfire.
Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there were incredible advances in lower limb prosthetics. Today, leg prosthetics are made from a wide variety of materials including plastics, alloys, and fiberglass. You can see amazing specialized prosthetics on display at the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at the end of summer!
Rebecca McCormick is a writer and editor based in Fairfax, Virginia. She has a passion for history education and holds an MA in History of Decorative Arts. Rebecca believes that hands-on history and interacting with objects help learning come alive for children and adults.