I was watching a TV show the other day and there was an ad for something that had pirates in it. Looking at the ship that Hollywood supposed pirates would have sailed around in, I couldn’t help but wonder where the notion of the skull and crossbones came from. Is it just a creation of the movie making industry, or does it have some basis in fact? Have there actually been discoveries of “pirate” ships or anything “pirate” related that included the ominous symbol, or has Hollywood lead me to believe in something that, although really cool, is simply a modern day creation? Any help in answering this would be greatly appreciated.
While Cecil maintained in his article that there truly was a flag that pirates used in the 1700’s and later that had either a skull or bones as part of a design, I have yet to see an example of such a flag or see any documentary evidence of same except in popular literature and movies.
What leaves me puzzled is th edepiction of the Jolly Roger with a skull and a little white hourglass-shaped thing where the crossed bones ought to be; what’s up with that?
There’s a discussion of pirate flags at the Flags of the World site; you have to treat it more as you would one of our threads than as simply The Authoritative Answer–there is a certain amount of back and forth as various people speculate and provide this or that cite–note that one person actually mentions the Straight Dope column linked to above.
I am given to understand that the design originated on masonic tracing boards.
There is some indication that some of the early freebooters flew under a masonic flag – indeed there are remains of what appear to have been a Templar-style church in Nova Scotia that pre-date Columbus.
Some information. A caveat: There is a notable lack of historians jumping up and down to corroborate Andrew Sinclair’s speculations.
At any rate, it’s a ripping yarn.
The classic pirate flag of the popular imagination - a skull superimposed on crossed bones - is pretty much the same as the actual flag of pirate Edward England. England was a relatively good-natured pirate active around 1700 or 1710 (memory getting fuzzy - rum not watered enough). His was one of the simpler and grimmer flags, which might explain its popularity. Different pirate bands had different flags, of course, and there is an interesting variety in those preserved (don’t know if the actual flags are in some museum or if they have been reconstructed from paintings, drawings, etc.) Compare Englands’ flag to Bartholomew Roberts’s second flag - a man standing on a pair of skulls labelled “ABH” and “AMH” (a Martinican’s head, a Barbardian’s head) - this is a fairly obscure reference to Roberts being mad at the government of Martinique and Barbados for hunting him, not exactly a timeless symbol of the romantic legend or grim reality of pirates.
Anyway, MEBuckner’s link has some great pictures of the flags. Whether or not it counts as documentary evidence, I don’t know, but pretty much the same images are in the Time Life book on pirates, which I read about twenty times as a youth. I know Time Life is not exactly considered hard core historical research material, but it is much better information on pirates than popular fiction or movies. The book debunks goofy legends like the practice of forcing captives to walk the plank; puts piracy’s Golden Age (1690-1725) in its proper context (following the War of Spanish Succession when there were lots of unemployed sailors floating around hungry); discusses the realities of shipboard life and points out that life ashore was not necessarily much happier.
Hmm. Looks like England’s skull isn’t superimposed on the crossbones, its above the cross bones. Emmanuel Wynne’s has the skull superimposed (along with an hourglass whose significance I don’t know). Looking back, though, I think I’ve seen both images (skull-above and skull-superimposed) in popular culture. I like England’s better anyway.
Please note–pirates are not extinct.
Areas in the Philippine Sea, off the Ethiopean & Somolian coasts, & throughout the Carribean are dangerous to this day.
Although they uses assault rifle, SAW support weapons, grenades & anti-tank rockets today, they will stiil rob & kill you if they can.
I don’t know if they have parrots, though.
The significance of the hourglass is to signal to a victimized ship that their time is running out. Sounds cliche, but I’ve seen that explanation in several different sources.
It worked; in most cases a ship would surrender pretty quickly, and a band of pirates with a reputation for doing their work quickly and mercifully would get maximum cooperation. Most captains were insured and weren’t willing to die for their cargos, so they’d just hand the booty over. Actual cannon battles were extraordinarily rare.