Pirate Crew photo courtesy Walt Disney Pictures/The Kobal Collection

They've been the subject of hundreds of movies and books, loads of toys and even some video games. Maybe your first glimpse came via the tale of Peter and the Lost Boys. Or, it was through the entertaining antics of Robin Williams in "Hook" or Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson made the introduction. We'd even make a guess that, like us, you've spent at least one, if not more, Halloween nights dressed as one. No matter where you first heard about them, there's no denying that pirates are a popular and fascinating topic.

From books and movies, you know that pirates lived on boats, and sailed around looking for other boats to plunder. But have you ever wondered what pirates were really like? Forget the fantastic films and fanciful fiction. If you were a real pirate - say living in the late 1600s - what was it like? What did your pirate ship look like? How did you become a pirate? What weapons did you use? What happened during a pirate attack? Let's take a look.