History Main / SeadogPegLeg

This was TruthInTelevision as several pirates, privateers and admirals had those during the modern era. Before the invention of antibiotics in the early 20th century, a broken or otherwise injured limb would often become infected. It was therefore common practice to amputate. Unlike the stereotype, however, a character with a wooden leg would most often become the ship's cook, as the peg leg meant he couldn't climb the rigging anymore.

* Dodder from ''Literature/TheLittleGreyMen'' and ''Literature/DownTheBrightStream'' has a peg leg made from bone, and is skipper of a clockwork steamboat.

* Just like the game, Captain Brineybeard in ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'' gets a pair of peg legs; here, he gets them after Mugman accidentally breaks off his original legs while carrying him [[TakenForGranite as a frozen statue]]. When he breaks free of Cala Maria's stone gaze, Brineybeard thanks Mugman for giving him two peg legs since most pirates only have one.

And in its place he has two wooden pegs:\\

"Well was it walkin' across the sea\\

-->-- ''My Son Tim'', Irish traditional[[note]]As performed by John Francis Flynn, Frank Harte and Donal Lunny, and others[[/note]]

* The traditional Irish sea shanty ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxaJ_obGKKM My Son Tim]]'',[[note]]or John, in some versions[[/note]] (which provides the page quote) tells of an inexperienced sailor whose legs were blown off by a cannon ball in battle. In some versions, [[MamaBear his mother]] vows revenge against the leaders of the countries whose soldiers harmed him; in others, such as the version sung by Music/GaelicStorm he blames the monarchs off ''all'' the nations of the wars he was involved in (and the British in particular) for the loss of his legs.

* The traditional Irish sea shanty ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxaJ_obGKKM My Son Tim]]'',[[note]]or John, in some versions[[/note]], (which provides the page, quote) tells of an inexperienced sailor whose legs were blown off by a cannon ball in battle. In some versions, [[MamaBear his mother]] vows revenge against the leaders of the countries whose soldiers harmed him; in others, such as the version sung by Music/GaelicStorm he blames the monarchs off ''all'' the nations of the wars he was involved in (and the British in particular) for the loss of his legs.

-->-- ''My Son Tim'', Irish traditional[[note]]As performed by Frank Harte and Donal Lunny, John Francis Flynn and others[[/note]]

* The traditional Irish sea shanty ''My Son Tim'',[[note]]or John, in some versions[[note]], (which provides the page, quote) tells of an inexperienced sailor whose legs were blown off by a cannon ball in battle. In some versions, [[MamaBear his mother]] vows revenge against the leaders of the countries whose soldiers harmed him; in others, such as the version sung by ''Music/Gaelic Storm'' he blames the monarchs off ''all'' the nations of the wars he was involved in (and the British in particular) for the loss of his legs.

--> The foreign wars I'll now denounce\\

-->-- ''My Son Tim'', Irish traditional[[note]]As performed by Frank Harte and Donal Lunny[[/note]]

** Captain Barbossa loses his leg between sometime after the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third]] ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie, and has a peg leg in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]''. Fitting, since he's been the most stereotypical pirate throughout the series. Then, just to take that stereotype UpToEleven, he had it hollowed out and ''uses it as his personal bottle of rum''. You can't get more pirate-y than that.

* Music/{{Alestorm}} takes this UpToEleven. "Wooden Leg" details how the narrator lost both his legs to cannon fire from a Spanish ship, then got into a bar fight with a samurai who cut off his arms, giving him two peg legs and two peg arms. In "Wooden Leg, Pt 2 (The Woodening)" he hunts down his enemies, cuts off their limbs, and uses voodoo magic for some AppendageAssimilation. [[spoiler: the stolen limbs turn out to be possessed and drive him to madness and suicide.]]

An [[StockCostumeTraits iconic trait]] of seamen of all kinds, be they pirates, sailors or fishermen, is to have a wood (might also be metal, bone or some other material) stump in place of one of their missing legs, which they probably lost to a [[ThreateningShark shark]], whale, [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodile]] or other aquatic hazard somewhere. As would be expected of any character that lives a dangerous life at the sea, expect said characters to be {{Badass}}es often of the {{retired|Badass}} variant.

An [[StockCostumeTraits iconic trait]] of seamen of all kinds, be they pirates, sailors or fishermen, is to have a wood (might also be metal, bone or some other material) stump in place of one of their missing legs, which they probably lost to a [[ThreateningShark shark]], whale, [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodile]] or other aquatic hazard somewhere. Expect those characters to be badass - as would be expected of any character that lives a dangerous life at the sea - often of the {{retired|Badass}} variant.

An [[StockCostumeTraits iconic trait]] of seamen of all kinds, be they pirates, sailors or fishermen, is to have a wood (might also be metal, bone or some other material) stump in place of one of their missing legs, which they probably lost to a [[ThreateningShark shark]], whale, [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodile]] or other aquatic hazard somewhere. Expect those characters to be badass (as would be expected of any character that lives a dangerous life at the sea), often of the {{retired|Badass}} variant.

* Also parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' with a Captain Ahab {{Expy}} who had replaced his ''entire body'' with wood.

* ''VideooGame/PirateHunter'', where you spend the entire game fighting hostile pirates, have a few enemy mooks bearing peg-legs as well.

* Triple-Patte (Three-Legs), originally from the French comic ''ComicBook/BarbeRouge'' but [[ParodyDisplacement far better known for his appearances]] in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}''. In both cases he functions as the SmartGuy, giving out appropriate Latin quotes and hitting people with his crutch.

* In the ''Series/GetSmart'' two-part episode "Ship of Spies", the captain of the ship has a peg leg which makes a distinctive "clip-clop" sound when he walks - but so does practically everyone else on the ship.

* In the ''Series/GetSmart'' two-part episode "Ship of Spies", the captain of the ship has a peg leg which makes a distinctive "clip-clop" sound when he walks - but so does practically everything else on the ship.

* Music/DropkickMurphys' "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw I'm Shipping Up to Boston]]" (with lyrics that Music/WoodyGuthrie wrote decades earlier but never set to music) is an odd little shanty-like song about a sailor with a wooden leg, which he lost while he was climbing up the topsail, and now he's "shipping up to Boston" in search of it.

* Captain Ahab from ''Literature/MobyDick'' is the other TropeCodifier (to the point that some examples on this page are [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of either him or Long John Silver mentioned below). Captain Ahab lost a leg during a previous whaling voyage while hunting the white whale and now has a grudge against it. In fact, his missing leg is the main force that drives his revenge plot against the titular whale. He had his peg leg made from a sperm whale's jawbone while at sea; late in the story, he damages it and has the ship's carpenter make him a new one. It's mentioned that Ahab had a earlier serious accident, in which the leg apparently broke and the broken stump stabbed him in the groin. In the Creator/PatrickStewart film adaptation, one of the crew throws a scare into the others by coming down the ladder using one leg and a stick.

* Long John Silver of ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, although he didn't have a peg leg in the original book, using a crutch to help him move around instead. The peg leg would originate in later adaptations. And, in keeping with the TruthInTelevision mentioned in the trope description, he ''was'' the ship's cook! (Though it's not specified whether that was also his job before he lost his leg.)