User blog comment:JessicaFin23/The Real Pirates That Inspired One Piece Characters/@comment-24850639-20181126204439

Thanks a lot for this blog! I love learning about this kind of stuff. I was wondering why there were so many people you left out, but then remembered that you only wanted the people who were inspired by PIRATES. There are quite a few OP Pirates that are inspired by Privateers, which isn't the same thing. Privateers were like the Shichibukai - they do almost everything that pirates do, except they are commissioned by a government. A few examples:

Cavendish - Named after the English privateer Sir Thomas Cavendish

X Drake - Named after English Privateer Sir Francis Drake

Orlumbus - Christopher Columbus was technically an Italian "explorer" under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain

Jean Bart - Named after French Privateer Jean Bart

That said though, still a few pirates that I didn't see either of you mention:

Scratchmen Apoo - He was likely named and inspired by a 19th Century Chinese pirate named Chui A-poo. He definitely has a Chinese design, and his bald head and ponytail are an extremely likely nod to Chui.

"Calico" Yorki - You mentioned Calico Jack in your writeup of Anne Bonny. I didn't find many similarities in terms of the life they lived, but they both had a very unique way of dressing. John Rackham earned the nickmane "Calico" specifically because of the clothing he wore, whereas it was never specificed why Yorki had the epithet.

Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom) - likely named after the female pirates Charlotte Badger and Charlotte De Berry, though the latter is considered to be mainly fictional. She doesn't share much with either of them aside from name, but in the case of De Berry, there is a point where her crew is shipwrecked, and they resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive. The person they choose to eat is her husband, and she had become captain of the crew in the first place because she rallied the crew to mutiny against her ex-husband that was abusive to her.

Pedro - Potentially named after Don Pedro Gilbert, an early 19th century pirate who was originally a privateer for the Columbian government. The similarities seem to end at the name.