In his column
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_292.html
Cecil says the bones under the skull are femurs. I have allways seen them cited as tibias. Tibia is one of the leg bones, while femor is the tigh bone as Cecil mentions.
Not to hijack, but when reading this Cecil column, I was wondering why Cecil didn’t mention that “roger” is British slang for shagging, rooting, the ol’ in-out, making the beast with two backs, slap and tickle, copulation, screwing, fornicating, makin’ whoopie, etc.
Because (as far as I can see) it’s irrelevant?
Au contrare. Check out http://www.piratesinfo.com/detail/detail.php?article_id=68 : “One of the characteristics of pirates was their brutal treatment of female prisoners, who commonly were ‘rogered at the rail’ by one and all and then thrown overboard, to fend for themselves”.
A few hundred years ago, “Jolly” referred to bravery not a sanguine attitude. Calling someone a “jolly fellow” meant that you thought he was stouthearted and did not quail in the face of risk.
Although this sense existed for “jolly” in period, it was not the original sense of the word, and was not at any time the only or primary sense.
And although “roger” = “shag” is attested in period, it appears to have been an extension from “roger” = “prick”, also in period.
And neither the “joli rouge” nor the skull-and-crossbones exhibits any remarkable similitude to or suggestion of a membrum viri.
AndrewT. You DO realize that the story told on the site to which you link was pure crap, don’t you?
All you have to do is submit an article to that website, and they’ll publish it.
No scholarly basis for the assertions.
Captain Jack Broome, RN, DSC, in his excellent book on naval flag and signal history, Make a Signal (Putnam, 1955), has a short segment on the history of piracy and the Jolly Roger. He says:
(Vane floreat c. 1718)
Broome goes on to say:
(Ellipses mine). Worley died 1718.