Jolly Roger

Jolly Roger flag

"Jolly Roger" refers to the flag traditionally flown by pirates, and especially those pirates who flourished during the Golden Age of Piracy from the mid-17th to early 18th centuries. Usually depicted as a white skull-and-crossbones centered on a black banner, the Jolly Roger was a symbol of terror and impending death on the seas, as well as an early attempt at collective branding.

Origins

The origins of the Jolly Roger are rather clouded. Since the black death ravaged Europe, the color black was used as a symbol of death, and ships that came into port bearing evidence of the plague were quarantined; upon their masts would fly a warning flag which was checked black and yellow. It is known that beginning in the 15th century ships at sea were attacked by pirates who flew a solid black banner.

The image of the skull-and-crossbones is older than the flag itself, and referred to as a memento mori (Latin: "remembrance of death") since Medieval times. The Knights Templar order has been cited by several sources as being the origins of the Jolly Roger, when the skull-and-crossbones - or "magic head" as they called it - was used against their enemies:

"A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him "guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things", and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order."

The memento mori was first known to be transferred to a green flag flown by Muslim pirates when they raided England in 1625; by the middle of that century piracy's Golden Age was about to begin, and pirates operating on the high seas employed a national flag as a ruse - perhaps the British Union Jack or the Dutch tricolor - in order to get in close to their intended victim; they would then lower it and replace it with one of two banners: a black one, which advertised immediately that they were pirates and they expected a bloodless surrender; or a red one, which stated that they would take the vessel and kill everyone on board. Tradition has it - though probably inaccurate - that the red banner is from the French jolie rouge ("pretty red"), and said to be in use by French corsairs at the time and claimed to be the origin of the name "Jolly Roger".

Another, more accurate tradition, is that the Jolly Roger came from another name for the devil, "Old Roger". In July 1723 several pirates were executed after being captured by HMS Greyhound, and a news report described their banner:

"Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows. It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it. This Flag they called Old Roger, and us'd to say, They would live and die under it."

The same flag was described years earlier in 1703 by John Quelch, and also referred to as the "Old Roger". Three years earlier pirate Emanuel Wynn flew possibly the first documented Jolly Roger when his ship was engaged by HMS Poole in July, 1700; his flag bore the familiar skull-and-crossbones motif along with an hourglass symbol, suggesting to his victims that time was running out.

Image	Pirate	Remarks
	Emanuel Wynn	Little is known of this French pirate, who sailed the Caribbean ca. 1700. Wynn is credited with flying the first skull-and-crossbones pirate flag, with the added hourglass symbol to show his prey time was running out
	Edward England	Operated within the Indian Ocean 1717-1720. Unusual for a pirate in that he did not kill his captives, which led to a mutiny by his crew and eventual marooning on Mauritius. He died a pauper, possibly in England.
	Richard Worley	His flag or England's were among the first to be referred to as the "Jolly Roger". A contemporary of Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, Worley operated in the Caribbean and east coast of North America before being killed in battle against a superior force sent to hunt him down on February 18, 1719; other sources state that he was captured and hung the following day.
	John Phillips	A relatively minor pirate captain, Phillips would find fame of a sort as having been one of the few who created a pirate's "code", i.e. regulations of conduct. His flag was described in a contemporary Boston newspaper as ..their own dark flag, in the middle of which an anatomy, and at one side of it a dart in the heart, with drops of blood proceeding from it; and on the other side an hour-glass.
	Walter Kennedy	The naked figure is a sign of shamelessness, and Kennedy exemplified that during his short career as a pirate. Initially a part of Bartholomew Roberts' crew, he took advantage of Roberts absence and stole his Royal Rover; his incompetence as a navigator made sure of a shipwreck in Scotland instead of porting in Ireland; his partying ways ensured the imprisonment and/or hangings of his surviving crew. Kennedy himself escaped and made his way to Ireland, where he was later recognized, brought to trial, and hung in London.
	Stede Bonnet	A former officer in the militia with the rank of major, Bonnet was also wealthy and could have done anything, but his reasons for turning to piracy are unknown. He was called "the gentleman pirate", was accused of cowardice by his own crew, but he succeeded in capturing several vessels despite the fact that he had no knowledge of shipboard handling prior to turning pirate. His own incompetence led to his capture; his unsuccessful defense without council at trial guaranteed his hanging, which took place December 10, 1718.
	Edward Teach	Variously known as Teach, Thatch, or Drummond, he became known as "Blackbeard" from the large beard he cultivated, which in battle was festooned with red ribbons and wreathed in the smoke from slow-burning cannon fuses he placed under his hat. The stereotypical image of pirates throughout history, the violent Blackbeard was a hellish presence in battle who neither gave nor expected quarter; when he was killed in battle on November 27, 1718, his body bore five pistol and twenty-seven stab wounds.
	John Rackham	A dandy of a pirate if there ever was one, Rackham was known for the colorfully-styled garments he wore, earning him the sobriquet "Calico Jack". He was also known for the famous romance he had with Anne Bonney, one of two female pirates among his crew (the other was Mary Read). Captured in battle while cowering in the ship's hold (with most of his crew drunk) in October, 1820, Rackham would die on the gallows not long after Bonney gave him a stinging retort: "Had you fought like a man, you would not have died like a dog!". The two women may have been spared death on account of their pregnancies.
	Christopher Condent	Little is known of this pirate, who flew an unusual pennant design instead of a typical rectangular flag. After his piratical career was over, he successfully petitioned the governor of Reunion to gain a French pardon, and in France he became a wealthy merchant.
	Bartholemew Roberts	"Black Bart" Roberts was the most successful pirate of his day, capturing well over four hundred ships during his career. His low point was during his last battle against a Royal Navy warship in February, 1722; he normally wore his finest clothes when in battle, unfortunately making him an easy target. The image of this flag was meant as a "toast with death" to his unlucky victims.
	Bartholemew Roberts	Although not a cruel pirate who abused his captives, Roberts could be ruthless and vindictive. This was the jack of his ship, and the initials printed on it stood for "A Barbadian's head" and "A Martiniquian's head", said to have been created as a result of an official search mission directed against him from those islands; making good on the visual threat, Roberts took and hung the governor of Martinique from a yardarm.
	Edward Low	Low ranks as one of the cruelest pirates, who engaged in the torture of his captives; in one episode he had the captain of a captured ship watch his men die, then was forced to eat his own lips after Low had them cut off and cooked. He ended his days around 1824, either having been lost in a hurricane, or set adrift by his own crew to be rescued, recognized, and hung in Martinique.
	Henry Every	If the tales of him are true, Every ranks in terms of the sheer amount of treasure taken on the high seas; his capture of vessels belonging to the Mogul Empire of India, as well as several vessels belonging to the British East India Company were in excess of half a million English pounds, and posed a threat to the economic survival of Britain. Captain Charles Johnson in his General History of the Pyrates states that Every did not take such a fortune, but he did capture and ravish the daughter of the Mogul of India. Every is one of the few pirates thought to have survived to live a normal life.
	Thomas Tew	A successful pirate who switched from privateer soon after receiving his letter of marque from the governor of Bermuda in 1692. Among his admirers was the corrupt governor of New York, Benjamin Fletcher, who delighted in hearing of Tew's adventures in addition to receiving stolen gold and jewels from the huge loot of a Mogul ship captured in the Red Sea. He was killed during his second Red Sea voyage in 1695; his flag, a disembodied arm bearing a sword, reportedly meant he was ready to kill.
	Christopher Moody	Suspected of being a former member of Bartholomew Roberts' crew, Moody operated of the North American coastline about 1713-1718. His flag is distinctive with its red background in keeping with the older origins of pirate flags; the flying hour glass was meant to show his victims that time was fleeting.

References

• Rediker, Marcus. "Under the Banner of King Death: The Social World of Anglo-American Pirates, 1716 to 1726." The William and Mary Quarterly, 38 (2), 203-227 (1981)
• Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, London, Saturday, October 19, 1723; Issue LVII.