Recently, while reading Dixon’s 1956 classic “The Secret of Pirates’ Hill”, I suddenly realized that there is something about pirates that I don’t understand at all. It’s the flag thing. Did pirates really fly the skull and crossbones, and if so, why?
What possible reason could an outlaw have for putting a sign on his vehicle that says “I’m an outlaw.” It ruins the element of surprise if an approaching ship can identify from a distance that pirates are coming.
Two scenarios:
“Look mateys, an approaching ship with an Italian flag. I wonder what they want?”
“Look mateys, an approaching ship with a pirate flag!! Break out the muskets and cannons!! All hands on deck!! etc. etc”
One can plainly see that in scenario #1, the pirates using sneaky tactics would clearly have the advantage over pirates in scenario #2 advertising their approach.
Two more scenarios:
“Arrgh! Somehow we have to clean these waters of pirates for the safety of the Queen’s ships. But how? I guess we’ll have to check every boat in the water. It’ll be a tough job for the navy!”
“Arrgh!! Somehow we have to clean these waters of pirates for the safety of the Queen’s ships. Fortunately. those incompetent pirates mark their ships with flags. This should be easy!”
Again we see the skull and crossbones do not in any way aid the pirate cause. Possibly a sailor might be intimidated by a pirate flag and give up easier? Doubtful! These are the same tough sailors we’ve seen prowling the waterfront drinking and acting tough. I wager most sailors have more backbone than to start whining the minute they see a pirate flag.
So what’s with the flag? With the exception of a very interesting comment on the origin of the term “Jolly Roger” I can find little to help me here.
I suspect the flag was rarely used at all, and it’s just an unquestioned myth we just accept but shouldn’t. Or can someone enlighten me?
As I understood it, the pirates only flew the flag when they were working on the Macintosh. Oops, wrong pirates.
I meant to say, I thought the pirates only raised the Jolly Roger when they were close enough that it wouldn’t matter. Seems I always hear or see stories where someone shouts out, “Hoist the Jolly Roger!” or some such after either flying another country’s colors or some other unknown flag.
Still, that doesn’t mean that the skull & crossbones were used often if at all. Maybe only a few pirates used it, or maybe it was a group who used it to terrorize people, like the dread pirate Roberts. It’s all in the name. As far as scaring the sailors, I think you would get scared if you knew the ship was a lot bigger than you and had more cannon. Not all the ships were the same size or outfitted with enough weaponry for it. Although you’re right, it would make it easier for the pirate hunters.
panama jack
part of the original testing team for the video game “Skull & Crossbones”
Most of the pirates who bothered with flags had already established a reputation. They then tailored their flags to identify themselves uniquely. The point of the flag was to tell the victim “You’re up against the meanest, baddest, cruelest, pirate in these waters. Surrender now because you’ve already lost.”
None of the “Jolly Rogers” that I have seen reproduced looked anything like the stylized skull with crossed femurs that Hollywood adopted. The flags tended to be black and bore a skull, but with lots of variation on the remaining images.
No answer here either. But I believe that pirates did fly flags indicating their profession. I remember seeing some of the flags that different pirates used (ie- Edward Teach aka Blackbeard had a personal flag).
Not sure when these were used though. Presumably you would need to fly a pirate flag to not spook the residents of your buccaneer-port of choice. Flags can be seen from far away. When you get closer, people can easily recognize familiar ships.
What was the origin of the term “Jolly Roger” anyway?
peace
(Sorry about that, Tom. The new software requires quotation marks in around the html address. I started a thread about as soon as I got to the boards today. The reason Funneefarmer’s reverted is that I fixed it but forgot to say so. -manhattan)
"In popular legend, every pirate flag displayed a skull above srossed bones or crossed swords. In fact there was ample variation, since every crew wannted a unique flag. The first reference to a modified basic ‘Jolly Roger’ was in 1700, when the French privateer Emmanuelle Wynne flew a black flag embellished with a skull, crossed bones and an hourglass (Henry Every flew a basic skull and crossed bones, though with the skull turned to the side, as early as 1696, on both a red and black flag). It was presumably also used before the turn of the century, although there is no surviving evidence. It may also have indicated that the flyer no longer considered himself to be a privateer, and was a full-blown pirate. What is known is that following 1700, additional emblems on the basic red or black flag were increasingly associated with piracy, and different symbols were in turn associated with individual pirate captains.
Of these, the most common symbol was the skull, the symbol of death. It was also frequently depicted in association with crossed bones, another death symbol (although only Edward England flew the “skull and crossed bones” in it’s pure form. Christopher Condent’s banner repeated the same symbol 3 times.)"
I don’t know. The flag seems pretty weird to me still. Why take time to hoist a flag when you’re just at the point of attacking a ship. Didn’t the flag raiser have something better to do than decorate the boat during those crucial first few minutes of piracy? And if every pirate’s flag was different and meant to show just how doggone mean the pirates were…well I can just picture a Saturday Night Live or Monty Python sketch where all the pirates are arguing over which design was meanest or attacking a ship and having the victims laugh at the flag and not take it seriously, to the dismay of the pirates.
My vote still goes to pirate flags being rare to non-existent during the days of Edward Teach.
You’re not imagining things Tom. Neither worked, now just mine works yet I see nothing wrong with your code. Bugs still roam the board apparently. Anyhow, from the same site I linked above (I was going to add it before but I could see the delivery man coming up the road…)
“Some reports say the Jully Roger was run up first, to signify an offer of quarter. If the victim refused to surrender, the plain red flag was flown to show the offer had been withdrawn and no mercy could be expected.”
Well, yes, but the bigger problem is buggy moderators. I’m still getting used to the fact that there’s no automatic tag when I edit a post. I edited everyone’s links to include the now-required quotation marks around the web address.
Sorry to weird you guys out. I’ll get used to this stuff eventually.
I don’t remember where I heard this (Naval History in Navy boot camp, maybe?) but…
The Jolly Roger meant “surrender and we won’t kill you”.
It only would have been flown when the pirates were within sight of a ship they thought would surrender without a fight. Either because the victim was hopelessly out matched, or the captain/crew had no interest in risking their lives for somebody elses cargo.
You’ve obviously never seen a real sea battle in eighteenth century ships (not that I have–I only date back to the early nineteenth century).
While the ships are manuevering (at between 4 and 11 miles an hour) the pursued ship is hoping to force the pursuer to stay behind, bow on, so that it can neither board nor use its broadside cannon, and the pursuer is attempting to “steal” the pursued ship’s wind so that it can overtake, lay alongside, and board it. The chase could take several hours (ships that were evenly matched for sailing characteristics sometimes (not often) spent days in the chase).
On the other hand, merchant ships often altered course to meet when in mid-ocean to exchange news about the current value of commodities and the current political climate. If a pirate looked more like a merchantman, it would wait until both ships had hauled up to parley (with the pirate’s excess boarding crew in hiding), then hoist the flag to demand surrender. I suspect that you’re right that pirates did not wander around displaying their colors, but the actual drama (prior to the actual boarding) happened in what we, with powerful engines and automatic weapons, would consider slow motion.
(Manny, thanks for the heads up on the new hyperlink protocol.)
The following is from Under The Black Flag: The Romance And The Reality Of Life Among The Pirates by David Cordingly.
And on the subject of the “skull and crossbones”:
And finally, the difference between red and black:
Thus, we can see that pirates had no problems with flying the flags of any nation they pleased, the Jolly Roger most likely meant “surrender or else,” and the red flag most likely meant “we’re going to kill you.”
– Sylence
Biotop: how about a third scenario -
Look mateys, an approaching ship with a pirate flag!! Oh ^%, we’re in trouble now.
Smithsonian had an article on Edward Teach - Black Beard the pirate in the February issue. One quote: “He was a master of psychological warfare and intimidation, a charismatic and dramatic personality and a savvy outlaw.” Historian Lindley Butler: “Teach … didn’t want to fire the cannon. Teach did all he could to intimidate” Yet another quote: “Typically, in taking a ship, he would fire a cannon across the bow of the intended prize - a warning shot - ant then hoist the flag. Usually that was enough. One look at the dreaded Blackbeard, his rough-and-ready crew, cannon poking out from every port, and the black flag runnin up the mas could scare even the most courageous merchant captain into immediate submission. Those fools who did resist drew more cannon fire, as well as hand grenades fashioned from bottles filled with powder shot and lead” It was in the best interest of the pirates to do as little damage as possible: remember, they were basically trying to steal what they had their guns pointed at. So they wanted to make it as obvious as possible that if you fought them, you would die. At that point, the Jolly Roger becomes a form of intimidation.
This is a complete wild ass guess, but I suspect that a secondary benefit of a pirate flag would be to serve to unify the crew. The psycology of keeping a couple dozen strong, violent, armed men from killing each other when adrift at sea together for weeks at a time with no form of amusement to speak of has to be fairly complex. I know that it was a problem on navy ships, and one would think that they had a (slightly) better caliber of men to work with. One way to keep a group from consuming itself is to give it a strong sense of group identity–of fraternity. Militaries have always done this. A pirate ship, however, could not rely on the same rhetoric–love of country, and home, and honor, and the possibility of court martial when they got home. Summary executions are not really enogh by themselves because you run into real problems if you have to cut off the heads of half your crew. It seems to me that one possible way to help with this problem is to foster a team mentality–we are not just a band of pirates, we are Blackbeard’s men, and we fly under this flag!!. This would have the added benefit of makeing mutiny–something that had to be an enourmously threatening possibilty, because unlike the various British mutinies pirates might actually get away with it–psycologically difficult. “Ole Blackbeard’s not just our boss, he’s our fearless leader! We love him!” Symbols–flags being a good example–are critical to setting up this type of mentality. So the important thing would not be flying a flag, but having one.
But thanks Tomndeb, Sylance, funneefarmer, and zyada for the cites. Much more useful than my WAG.
Manda Jo, you’re probably right to an extent. Rallying flags & colors have historically been used to unite groups in a common cause.
Interestingly enough, one of the other things mentioned in the article was that the pirate crews were very solid democracies in an age where most organizations were aristocratic heirarchies. The crew members got voting rights and equal shares in the booty, except the captain got two shares instead of one. This is one of the things that really chapped the English privilege based Navy.
This was a great article that I learned a lot from - check it out if you get a chance.