Pirates and their mysterious relationship with eye patches

The eyepatch that pirates used to wear, was that a fashion statement or was it to make up for a missing eye?

In movies and storybooks we are always forced to visualize pirates wearing eyepatches But why did they wear them let us learn

A human eye takes several minutes to become used to dark surroundings we call it dark adaptation and it takes more time to get used to dark if you are coming from a bright light condition(The complexities of The Pupil and the photoreceptors in the retina are responsible for this).

It is estimated that intelligent pirates soon observed this and patched their other eye so that when they are on the surface of the ship ie., bright light conditions and suppose there is an attack by an enemy pirate and they have to quickly retreat to the deck ie., Dark environment, they immediately shift the patch to another eye thereby reducing the time of dark adaptation significantly

That eye already being used to darkness as it was covered by a patch earlier on helped them see clearly even in the dark.

But the fact that the pirates did wear eye patches to cover missing eyes is also true indeed.

One more thing that the pirates missed was the advantage of binocular vision.

When we use both our eyes we tend to have a good depth perception due to a phenomenon called stereopsis.

The advantage of stereopsis is again a bit subjective, it varies from individual to individual

Guess what, the pirates preferred smoother dark adaptation over depth perception and this is the mystery behind eyepatches and their unique relationship with pirates.

So, what do you think Pirates wore Eyepatches for?

Did they really wear eyepatches?👀