The Poole attacked Wynn off the Cape Verde islands in July of 1700. One of the few contemporary descriptions of Wynn’s flag comes from Captain John Cranby, who commanded the HMS Poole. This was a symbol to anyone who saw it that time was running out and that they could only avoid death by surrendering. His flag consisted of a white skull over crossed bones with an hourglass underneath. Wynne is one of the first pirates to fly a Jolly Roger as we know it today. Emanuel Wynn Captain Emanuel Wynn, The First Pirate Flag Buy On Amazon Prime for $24.50 Among pirates, privateers and naval captains, flying a red flag often meant that no quarter would be given.Īdd this to the designs on Moody’s flag - an hourglass with wings, representing time flying away an arm holding a dagger and a gold skull with crossed bones - and you get a flag that is particularly chilling to see coming closer to you on the horizon. The use of a red background is particularly ominous. Instead of the traditional white designs on a black background that most pirates favored, Moody chose designs picked out in gold on a red background. Captain Christopher Moody, “No Quarter Given Flag”, 1713 – 1718 Buy On Amazon Prime for $24.50 His flag, shown below, only confirms that. Operating from 1713 to 1718 in the waters around North and South Carolina, Moody was a particularly bloodthirsty pirate. Moody is yet another pirate who completely eschews the standard conventions of the Jolly Roger that we’ve come to know. The heart and dagger represented life and death, with the skull and bone being a crude approximation of a scale. If Bonnet did indeed use the flag that popular culture had associated with him, it would have had a very clear meaning. Captain Stede Bonnet, “The Gentleman Pirate Flag”, 1717 – 1718 Buy On Amazon Prime for $24.50Ĭontemporary sources say that Bonnet flew either a dark red flag or a flag with a death’s head on it. The earliest source listing this is from an unknown, undated manuscript that was gifted to the Maritime Museum of Britain in 1939. However, there is no contemporary source for this having been his flag. Stede Bonnet, “The Gentleman Pirate”īonnet’s flag is traditionally thought to have been a skull over a horizontal long bone and between a heart and a dagger (shown below). He and his crew captured several more ships around Bermuda and Saint Kitts later that year. Spriggs then took his ship, the Delight, and set sail for the Caribbean.įrancis Spriggs was still active by April of 1725, when he set some of the crew from his Caribbean conquests free on the island of Roatan off the northern coast of Honduras. Instead, it comes from one of Spriggs’ former sailing partners, Edward Low.Īlthough it’s unknown when Spriggs began his career of piracy, he and Low had split by Christmas of 1724. The design of Spriggs’ flag, a red skeleton on a black flag, doesn’t even originate from him. However, it lacks almost all of the symbols we’ve come to associate with Jolly Rogers. Spriggs’ flag was one of the first flags to be called a Jolly Roger. Francis Spriggs/Edward Low Francis Spriggs / Edward Low Flag, 1721 – 1724 Buy On Amazon Prime for $24.50 We’ll take a look at the top ten most famous real pirate flags of all time. Many different pirates have used it, including “Black Sam” Bellamy, Christopher Condent and Edward England. The skull-and-crossbones design of the Jolly Roger flag has been used in many different styles and variations. This hourglass image was then picked up by other pirates and appears on several other flags. Wynn’s flag also used an hourglass image to symbolize that whoever saw it was running out of time. The earliest use of a black flag with a white skull and crossbones is credited to the French pirate captain Emanuel Wynn in 1700. They announced to anyone who saw them that the crew of the ship was pirates and that if they surrendered, they’d be given mercy. No matter how they looked, all Jolly Rogers had one purpose: to send a message. Bartholomew Roberts’ first flag was a caricature of him sharing an hourglass with Death. These first flags, flown by Bartholomew Roberts and Francis Spriggs, looked nothing like what we would expect a modern Jolly Roger to look like.įor example, Francis Spriggs’ flag was a red skeleton on a black flag. While pirates had been around as early as 1650, the first Jolly Rogers weren’t flown until after the Golden Age of Piracy. View Larger Share this Image On Your Site Famous Pirate Flags Infographic by Vispronet A Short History of the Jolly Roger Pirate Flag When it comes to pirates, perhaps nothing has captured people’s attention more than one of the most famous pirate flags in existence, the Jolly Roger. Almost since the end of the Golden Age of Piracy in 1720, pirates have captured the imagination of the public.
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