There's a pervasive internet meme that pirates wore eyepatches so they could adjust to the light below decks when fighting. As far as I know there is very little historical basis for this even if it is a plausible theory.

I am sceptical that seafaring warriors even wore eyepatches aboard ship with the pirate eyepatch thing being a Hollywood invention.

I guess te old sea dogs with missing limbs and eyes were more likely casualties of conventional naval warfare where cannon fire would produce fragments that could put out an eye.

So what is real? Did active pirates or naval marines routinely wear eye patches and if so was it to adjust to the light rather than an old war wound?