National flags were also used, often as a ruse to disguise the pirates’ intention to plunder and murder. Pirates flew many other types of flags to signal their terrible purpose in approaching a ship, usually with gruesome imagery like skeletons, swords, and bleeding hearts. The threat that no quarter was to be given was often reinforced by raising an additional flag, an all-red one. The raising of the pirates’ flag, usually only hoisted at the last minute, signalled that the ship under approach should immediately surrender or face not only attack and boarding but the execution of all on board. The Jolly Roger with its white skull and crossbones set against a black background has become a rather jovial part of pirate folklore but, in its day, this flag and others with similar blood-curdling designs, had a single and terrifying purpose. The first recorded use of a Jolly Roger ‘black flag’ is on the ship of Emmanuel Wynne, a Breton pirate. These flags were designed to instill terror into victims and bring immediate surrender whenever they were raised. The term ‘Jolly Roger’ actually referred to any design of pirate flag using macabre imagery. Retrieved 14 December 2018.The Jolly Roger, a flag used by pirates and first documented c. Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy.
The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths. The Semiotics of X: Chiasmus, Cognition, and Extreme Body Memory. Pirates of the eastern seas (1618-1723): a lurid page of history. Raiders and rebels: the golden age of piracy. ^ "British Fifth Rate ship 'Poole' (1696)"." Jolly Rogers: the True History of Pirate Flags." Bartholomew Roberts, who was known to have flown not just one but several different Jolly Roger flags.There were no other reports at the time of pirates using similar flags, but within 15 years the skull and crossbones design and its many variants would become the standard flag of Golden Age pirates. His flag, showing the distinctive skull and crossbones motif, was augmented with another common pirate symbol: an hourglass, meant to signify to his prey that their time was running out and only by timely surrender could they evade death. Most historians agree that Cranby's account is the first mention of a Jolly Roger, which Cranby described as "a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hour glass" (the quotation is from Earle, Pirate Wars, p. 154) or "A Sable Flag with a White Death's Head and Crossed Bones in the Fly." Wynne is believed to be the first pirate to fly the now familiar form of the jolly roger. Cranby enlisted the assistance of Portuguese soldiers, but thanks to their delay in attacking, Wynn slipped out of the harbor and escaped. Cranby chased Wynn into a cove at Brava Island where Wynn was able to hold out. īritish Admiralty Records, in the Public Records Office in the UK show, in a report dated 18 July 1700, that HMS Poole, a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate commanded by Captain John Cranby, engaged Wynn's ship off the Cape Verde islands. He later moved to the more profitable waters of the Caribbean, attacking both English and Spanish ships. Wynn began his piratical career raiding English merchantmen off the coast of the Province of Carolina near the end of the 17th century. 1700) was a French pirate of the 17th century who is often considered the first pirate to fly the Jolly Roger. 17th-century French pirate Emanuel Wynn's flagĮmanuel Wynn ( fl.
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