Flags In Piracy! Last update 26th December 2001
These flags listed below have come from whatever book and painting I can scan that makes sense. My technical knowledge of the nations flags is not good, so I could probably be wrong, but at least it's a place to start.
Pirate Flags
Pirate flags served two purposes. To declare their intention, and to frighten opponents. They were usually run up when the pirate drew close to a prize and declared their intentions, hoping just the sight of the flag alone was enough for captains to surrender. Where a gun battle ensued, the blackflag came down and was replaced by a red one, often called a bloody flag, denoting no quarter.
Early flags were red, to declare no mercy. I feel that it is more likely that the name Jolly Roger is an anglicisation of the French Joli Rouge (pretty red), rather than any other explanation. Also used were plain black flags, probably to denote death. These evolved in time to become black with skulls, a common symbol on tombstones of earlier times. The first black flag of the "pirate" type was flown by Emanuel Wynne. The black flags with skull and cross bones was soon to flourish and were more prevalent in British pirates than those of other nations, who often simply flew the flag of their nation, or sponsor. Pirates often also flew a friendly nations flag to entice prey within their range. Flags were just another method of lulling the enemy into a false sense of security. Once it was too late, British pirates would fly their black flag and the game would be up.
Symbols used were the skull and crossed bones to denote death, skeletons (called anatomies) to also denote death, an hourglass to indicate the victims time was runing out, an arm with cutlass to denote battle was coming and hearts to indicate blood would be spilled. At times, plain flags were also used, either blood red or black.
Individual pirates employed their own version of the flag, using symbols that represented their style of piracy. Remember the flags were home made, on the ship as time permitted, and were not great works of art such as the flags of chinese and malay pirates. For the most part they were very plain, simple, and often faded.
Henry Avery had a black flag with a white skull looking sideways, a bandana on its head with a large hoop earring. Below this was a set of white crossed bones. At least that's how it looks to me.
Samuel Bellamy flew a great black flag with a deaths head and bones a cross (same as Edward England)
Stede Bonnet flew a black flag, with a central skull above a single bone. To its left a short dagger, to the right a heart. All symbols in white. I assume this is from his later career after Teach. However, I have also read that he used a plain red flag.
Christopher Condent had a long black penant with 3 sets of white skull above white crossed bones.
Edward Cook - Red and yellow stripes with a hand and sword device
John Coxon - Red flag
Howell Davis used a plain black flag.
Edward England had a black flag with white skull above white cross bones.
Unkown French pirate - white flag with black death's head
Petr Harris - green flag
Walter Kennedy had a black flag, on the left a skull above cross bones, on the right a pirate swinging cutlass in one hand with an hourglass in the other. All symbols in white.
La Bousse used a plain black flag.
Edward Low. Late in his carrer, in July 1723, he flew a black flag with a red skeleton. Mention is made of a flag in his early career called the Green Trumpeter, which is a geen silk flag with a yellow figure of a man blowing a trumpet on it, used to signal his other ships that the captains of the pirate fleet were to meet on his ship. It was hoisted on the mizzen peak. Initially he used the same 'pirate' flag as Teach, with a red flag run up if a fight ensued.
Christopher Moody had a red flag, with a gold hourglass with blue wings, an arm with cutlas in white, and a yellow skull overlaying yellow cross bones.
Captain Napin - flag included deaths head and hourglass
Captain Nichols - flag included dart and bleeding heart
John Phillips flew a black flag with skeleton in the middle, to one side red heart pierced by an arrow with 3 drops of blood, and to the other side an hourglass.
Thomas Pound flew a "bloody flag" (red).
John Rackham had the traditional pirate black flag, with a white grinning skill above white crossed swords.
Bartholomew Roberts flag had two flags after initially flying a plain black flag, the first was black with a picture of him toasting a skeleton in white. This was a large flag flying on the stern. Written records describe the skeleton holding crossed bones, with a dart (spear) nearby, early drawings showing differently as depicted in the link. The second flew on the spritsail, and depicted Roberts with a flaming cutlass standing on two skulls, the left marked with the letters ABH (A Barbados Head) and the right with the letters AMH (A Martiniques Head), showing off his particular dislike for people from these two towns, whose governors were pro active in hunting him.
Richard Sawkins - Red flag striped with yellow
Bartholomew Sharp - Red flag with a bunch of white and green ribbons
Francis Spriggs - Used the same flag as Low and Teach.
Edward Teach had a black flag, set off by a white horned skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand, and the other pointing a spear at a blood red heart with drops of blood. Other times I have seen it refered to simply as a plain black flag.
Thomas Tew had a black flag with a white arm holding a cutlass.
Richard Worley had a black flag with a skull overlaying white crossbones (same graphic as Wynne but without the hourglass)
Emanuel Wynne flew the first recognsied black flag with skull overlaying crossed bones, below which was an hour glass also in white.
Another example, not recorded for a specific pirate, is a red heart pierced by an arrow.
These are only examples from pirates from many eras and locations, you may do as you wish with your own pirate ship.
Naval Flags
France - Blue, white and red vertical bands?hehehehe. Flags and penants could be blue with gold fleur de lis. I don't recall seeing any other variants in the very limited examples I have.
Holland - Red, white and blue bands the same as the French flag, but banded horizontally. More colourful versions had much smaller bands, the three colours repeated either twice or three times. Penants were simply the three colours with 3 long tails
Spain - A large yellow flag with the two headed eagle symbol bearing the coat of arms. Other versions had red, yellow and black bands, or red yellow then red band with 2 of the 2 headed eagle symbols in black. Penants were gold or black. Or could have one red and one yellow tail hanging from a small rendition of the coat of arms of Castile, being red and white qaurtered with a gold castle on red background on the upper left/lower right, and a red lion on white background for the other two quarters. Particularly spectacular warships had the coat of arms on the lower fore sail. It wouldn't surprise me if the early treasure fleet warships had embroidered sails.
Other Flags
Royal East India Company - Her flags were horizontal bands of red and white as seen on the modern US flag. The small bowsprit sail had 9 red, 8 white bands, the larger stern flag 10 red and 9 white bands. Another version I have seen has the red St Andrews cross in the upper corner, on white background, with the red & white banding elsewhere.
