Old Roger

Pyrate flags! What pyrate (enthusiast) doesn’t have pyrate flags displayed around their office, home, and/or on their vehicle? Not just one, either…many, SO many pyrate flags! Aye?

Just me? I think not. If you’re reading this and call yourself a pyrate, then I’m willing to wager my next piece of eight that you have AT LEAST one pyrate flag in your possession. Probably, two, in fact. Could even be three. Last count of my collection: Four, (plus a few national flags just to confuse the neighbors. Is she a pyrate or a privateer? English or Spanish? Gotta keep’em guessing).

The accompanying phrase for raising one’s pyrate flag, is (and it MUST be shouted), “HOIST THE COLORS!”. Which means, of course, raise your pyrate flag so we can frighten everyone in close proximity and make them soil their armor…erm…trousers. Then we plunder the things!

Pyrate flags were quite real, and they were used to send messages to other ships. You probably know the drill:

Pyrate ship flies a national flag as it searches for plunder victims – national flag intended as camouflage for the pyrate’s plundering plans
Pyrate ship gets close to intended victim’s ship and then HOISTS THE COLORS while crew goes into pre-plunder berserker mode
Intended victim probably surrenders and plunder begins

It’s also true that pyrates had differing designs, colors, and motifs on their flags. The chosen components of a flag acted as long-range communication and identification tools. Sort of like a Golden Age of Piracy authentication process, if you will. You probably know this primer as well:

Pyrate ship black flag message: Some of you might live to see tomorrow
Pyrate ship red flag message: No quarter – everyone is goin to Davey Jones’ locker today

The alleged Jolly Roger of Captain Henry Avery

So, I was wunderin’ the other day about the term “Jolly Roger”. Was/is it a specific flag design? Specific color? Was there a Captain Jolly Roger at some point? Maybe there was a crew member, pet parrot or ship kitty named Roger who was incredibly happy ALL of the time?

I did find a few answers:

The first written use of “Jolly Roger” is from 1724, Charles Johnson’s The General History of Pyrates.
Some scholars think the term comes from the French “joli rouge” which means terrible red flag
And my favorite: “Roger” or “Old Roger”—a common 18th-century nickname for the devil

The most common pyrate flag design usually included some sort of human bone element: a skull with crossed leg bones is the most recognizable. I find all of this flag stuff to be really fascinating, (can ya tell?), but I had another question that I needed answered: How and who made the flags for the pyrates?

Who made the flags? Most likely, a crew member since a pyrate couldn’t really order one from Amazon or go sailing into port and have one crafted by a professional seamstress. Can you imagine the conversation between the seamstress and the pyrate? Heh. Anyway…
How were the flags made? The old-fashioned way – cloth, needle (BIG needles, I imagine!), twine (maybe dyed), and lots of rum…er…patience
Where did the materials come from? Most likely, the flags were made from sailcloth.
Black “dye” was usually tar painted on the cloth
Red flag colors were made from a dye, “cochineal”, which is made from a bug from Oaxaca, Mexico

Finally, did you know that there are (at least) three real, authentic pyrate flags that you can actually see with your own pyrate eyes?

The Curry flag is displayed in the National Museum of the Royal Navy in England. This flag was captured by Lieutenant Richard Curry, a naval captain, on the Barbary Coast of North Africa in 1780.

A rare 18th Century red Jolly Roger pirate flag
© The News, Portsmouth/Solent
UK +44 (0) 2380 458800

In the Aland Maritime Museum in Finland, there is a Jolly Roger flag, complete with, skull-and-crossbones, that flew on a pirate ship off the Barbary Coast in the late 1700 or early 1800s. The flag is the oldest known pirate flag and is a faded black flag made of cotton with a white skull and cross bone that has been stitched.

From the Barbary Coast, a Jolly Roger displayed in Finland at the Aland Maritime Museum

Finally, for the US pyrates who can’t get over to England or Finland anytime soon, there is a third pyrate flag located in the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. I’ve seen this flag with my own eyes, (it’s a FABULOUS museum, by the way), and it is indeed a thrill to see it in person. It’s a black flag with a white skull and cross bone stitched on. The flag dates to 1850 but the full history is yet to be discovered.