Augustine Pirate Museum in Florida, US, and the National Museum of the Royal Navy, in Portsmouth, England -there is one in each museum. Today, two of the remaining Jolly Rogers flags can be seen at the St. Nevertheless, during the next decade, the English Navy set out to dismantle piracy in this part of the world, and, as a result of this crusade, most Jolly Roger flags were destroyed or lost. So, it’s not unlikely that by the 1650s, many European sailors (and soon-to-be pirates in the New World) would have already heard about the Barbary pirates and their flag.īy the 1710s, many Caribbean pirates began featuring Jolly Rogers symbols on their flags to identify themselves as potential threats. However, these corsairs terrorized the waters of the Mediterranean Sea from the early 16th to the 19th century. Barbary or Muslim pirates are much less known than their Caribbean counterparts. PD.Īnother account suggests that the Jolly Roger symbol evolved from the design of the skull over a dark green background flag of the Barbary pirates. A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs – Laureys a Castro (1681). According to the first one, this symbol was inspired by the mark used in logbooks to register the death of a crew member a practice widely spread among European sailors during the Golden Era of Piracy. Regarding this symbol’s design, there are at least two historical accounts that try to explain its origin. But not everything about this symbol was ominous, as the black background also implied that the pirates flying the Jolly Roger were primarily interested in robbing the goods of a soon-to-be boarded vessel and that they might spare its crew, given that they didn’t try to resist the pirates. In short, the message sent by the Jolly Roger was: ‘turn in your ship or die’. It’s believed that this symbol’s name comes from the French expression Jolie Rouge (‘Pretty Red’), which is a reference to the red flag flown by French privateers during the 17th century.īack in the Golden Age of Piracy, understanding the meaning of this symbol was easy for those who saw it, as most sailors understood the sense of danger that the skull and crossbones conveyed. Generally featured on a black flag, it consists of a skull placed above a pair of crossbones. The Jolly Roger is probably the most known pirate symbol of all. This was not the case, for instance, with a red flag, which at the time was a well-known pirate symbol for ‘ no mercy/no lives spared’. One of the most popular ways pirates had to intimidate their victims, as they approach them, was to display flags decorated with ominous symbols, the majority of which were designed to convey a very clear message: ‘ A violent death is about to fall upon those who see this sign’.Ĭuriously enough, however terrifying these symbols were, most of them left open the possibility for a boarded crew to save their lives, if they surrendered without opposing any resistance. Instead, corsairs preferred to try some intimidation tactics first, to make their targeted vessel surrender without a fight. Unlike what the Pirates of the Caribbean films might have made some people think, pirates didn’t always go for the kill when they boarded a ship, as engaging in combat with another crew meant risking losing some men in the process. Purpose of Pirate Symbols During the Golden Age of Piracy Pirate ship symbol.
They were private sailors commissioned by their governments with the destruction or capture of ships that worked for other rival nations. Privateers, we must add, were not pirates, as they acted following the laws of particular European nations. This is in consideration of the fact that by the mid-17th century, privateers were already using some of the symbols included on this list.
For this article, we will adopt the broader span of time attributed to this period, some eighty years- approximately from 1650 to 1730.
Historians are still debating over which is the exact extension covered by this era. The Golden Age of Piracy is a period known for the high peak in the piratical activity that took place in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic.ĭuring this time, hundreds of experienced sailors turned to piracy, after having suffered the harshness of life working for a merchant or naval vessels. In this article, you’ll discover which were some of the most famous pirate symbols from this period, along with their meanings and how they came to be. Therefore, being able to understand their meanings was crucial for surviving an encounter with pirates. These symbols aimed to inform other sailors what to expect from a pirate crew whenever they were boarded by one.
#Pirate simbl series#
Pirate Menacing a Skeleton with a Flaming Swordĭuring the Golden Age of Piracy (mid-17th to the early 18th century), pirates created and displayed a series of symbols on their flags.
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