One popular theory says pirates wore eye patches to keep one eye dark-adjusted, ready for below deck. Dark adaptation is real. Your eyes can need up to 30 minutes to adjust to darkness.
What is not proven is that pirates used it. Historians find no evidence that any pirate wore a patch for night vision, and tests of the trick have been inconclusive.
The simpler documented explanation is that patches covered eyes lost to injury. The night-vision version is a great story that sailed out of fiction.
Source: HistoryExtra, "Did any real pirates wear eyepatches or have peg legs?" (checked 2026-10-18).
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