Jun

Pirate Flag Jolly Roger

The pirate flag is an immediately recognizable symbol of fear and death.

The Jolly Roger is a skull on or over a pair of crossed bones.

How the name for the pirate flag the “Jolly Roger” came to be is lost to history but there are a variety of stories floating around that sound plausible.

One story goes the French buccaneers original flag of terror was a red cloth. Instantly recognizable, the “bloody flag” told all that no quarter would be given. (no quarter meant the target ship should surrender without a fight. If the ship surrendered without a fight then all lives would be spared. If there was resistance then potentially all on board could be killed.)

The French phrase joli rouge meant pretty red. So it is thought that the English ended up bastardizing the phrase to Jolly Roger.

Many pirate captains took this basic symbol of fear and made it their own.

Pirate flag Captain Emmanuel Wynne

Emmanuel Wynne used the pirate flag above showing an hour glass. The hourglass was meant to represent time was running out.

Most pirates flew some variation of symbols that included skulls, bones, hourglass, skeletons and weapons.

All pirate flags were intended to convey a message of fear and death to the intended targets so that their victims might easily give up without a fight.