Jolly Roger
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What is the Jolly Roger?
The Jolly Roger is a flag design used by pirates and privateers to intimidate other ships into surrendering. The flag is most recognizable by its white skull-and-crossbones on a black background, though individual pirates would create their own variations to communicate specific intentions or for identification.
Pirates did not constantly fly the Jolly Roger. They would hoist the flag of another country to trick other ships into letting them draw near to plunder them. Before using the Jolly Roger, pirates would raise a plain black flag to intimidate a crew into surrendering, which meant they might be taken prisoner instead of being executed. If the targeted crew didn't surrender, the black flag would be replaced with a red flag, signaling that no quarter would be given and that the pirates would fight to the death to obtain their loot.
The name's origins are unclear. "Roger" or "Old Roger" was a nickname for the devil, and "roger" was a label for vagrants and privateers. Others believe the name came from the French phrase joli rouge ("pretty red"), a red flag commonly flown by privateers.
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What does the Jolly Roger flag look like?
The Jolly Roger flag was used by pirates to intimidate other ships into surrendering. The flag is most recognizable as a white skull and crossbones on a black background. However, individual pirates used variations of the flag with different design elements to identify themselves or to communicate specific intentions. For example, the Jolly Roger of Stede Bonnet, known as the Gentleman Pirate, displayed a skull flanked by a dagger and a heart. Some historians believe French pirate Emanuel Wynn was the first to fly a flag with a skull and crossbones, but his flag also included an hourglass symbol. The term "Jolly Roger" was often used as a catchall for black pirate flags.
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Who used the Jolly Roger flag?
Pirates and privateers flew the Jolly Roger to intimidate other ships into surrendering. It was most notably used during the "golden age of piracy," from the late 17th to the early 18th century.
Individual pirates often customized the flag with unique design elements to identify themselves or communicate specific intentions. Some variations include:
- Emanuel Wynn Historians consider Wynn to be the first to fly a flag with a skull and crossbones, which also featured an hourglass symbol.
- Richard Worley and Edward England Credited as early adopters of the black flag with a white skull and crossbones between 1717 and 1720.
- Bartholomew Roberts Roberts' flags displayed a pirate sharing a cup of wine with a skeleton holding a spear, a skull with a sword, and a pirate standing atop skulls.
- Stede Bonnet Bonnet's Jolly Roger displayed a skull flanked by a dagger and a heart.
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Why did pirates use the Jolly Roger?
Pirates used the Jolly Roger flag, most recognizably a white skull and crossbones on a black background, primarily to frighten other ships into surrendering. Before showing the Jolly Roger, pirates would trick other ships by raising the flag of another country to get close enough to attack. The use of the Jolly Roger followed an earlier practice of using a plain black flag to scare targeted crews into surrendering, which meant they might be taken prisoner rather than killed. If the targeted crew didn't surrender, the black flag was replaced with a red flag, signaling that no quarter would be given and the pirates would fight to the death for their loot. The term "Jolly Roger" was a general term for black pirate flags.
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Were there different versions of the Jolly Roger flag?
Yes, there were different versions of the Jolly Roger flag. It is most recognizable by its white skull-and-crossbones design on a black background, but individual pirates also used other design elements for identification or to communicate specific intentions.
Some variations include:
* French pirate Emanuel Wynn's flag, which featured a skull and crossbones along with an hourglass symbol.
* British pirate Richard Worley and Irish pirate Edward England's flags, which were early versions of the Jolly Roger, featuring a black flag with a white skull and crossbones.
* Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts' flags, which displayed a portrait of the pirate and a skeleton holding an hourglass.
* Stede Bonnet's Jolly Roger, which featured a skull flanked by a dagger and a heart.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How has the Jolly Roger become a symbol in modern times?
The Jolly Roger, a flag design featuring a white skull and crossbones on a black background, was historically used by pirates to intimidate their prey. Today, it has become an icon in popular culture.
Its modern use as a symbol of martial prowess began with British navy submarine crews in World War I, who created their own versions of the flag. The USS Kidd is the only U.S. naval ship authorized to fly the flag. The Jolly Roger frequently appears in fictional works about pirates, such as Treasure Island and Peter Pan. Several American sports teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Pittsburgh Pirates, use variations of the flag for their team logos. The skull-and-crossbones design is also a warning symbol on poison control labels.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Jolly Roger, flag design used by pirates and privateers to frighten the crews of other ships into submission. The Jolly Roger is most recognizable by its white skull-and-crossbones design on a black background, but the flags of individual pirates also carried other design elements for identification or to communicate specific intentions. The Jolly Roger, or some variation of it, was most notably used during the āgolden age of piracy,ā which spanned the late 17th to early 18th century.
The origin of the name Jolly Roger is not clear. During the golden age āRogerā or āOld Rogerā was a nickname for the devil, and ārogerā was a label for vagrants and privateers (who were also known as āsea beggarsā). Other sources maintain that the name could have been derived from a French phrase, joli rouge (āpretty redā), which referred to a red flag commonly flown by privateers.
Purpose and origins
The flag was not flown constantly by pirate vessels. Before hoisting the Jolly Roger, pirates would raise the flag of one country or another to trick the crew of a ship into letting them draw near so they could plunder the ship. The flagās use followed a previous tradition of raising a plain black flag to intimidate a targeted crew into surrendering. The black flag signaled to the targeted ship that it was about to be attacked and boarded, but quarter might be given (meaning that the targeted crew might be taken prisoner instead of being executed) if the ship was surrendered immediately. If the targeted crew did not heed this warning, the black flag would be replaced with a red flag, which signaled that no quarter would be given and that the pirates would fight to the death to obtain their loot.
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The origins of the flagās design are not well known. The skull and crossbones may have originated with Barbary pirates, who added a skull to their green flag as early as the 16th century. Later an entry in a French shipās log from 1687 refers to a red flag with a skull and crossbones carried by disembarked pirates on land.
French pirate Emanuel Wynn, who operated in the western Atlantic Ocean near Britainās Carolina colonies and in the Caribbean Sea about 1700, is considered by many historians to have been the first to fly a flag with a skull and crossbones, but his Jolly Roger also included an hourglass symbol. British pirate Richard Worley and Irish pirate Edward England are both credited as being early adopters of better-known versions of the Jolly Roger (that is, a black flag with a white skull and crossbones) between 1717 and 1720.
There is evidence that the term Jolly Roger was used as a catchall for black pirate flags of the period. The first known appearance of the term occurs in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724)āa book attributed at the time to a Capt. Charles Johnson but possibly written by English novelist Daniel Defoe or English printer-journalist Nathaniel Mist. In this work, the name Jolly Roger refers to the flags flown by Welsh pirate Bartholomew Roberts, also known as Black Bart Roberts, and English pirate Francis Spriggs, both of whom flew several variants of the skull-and-crossbones design about the same time as Worley and England.
Roberts used a series of black flags made up of different elements, including those with a skull and a single sword, a single skeleton, a pirate sharing a cup of wine with a spear-brandishing skeleton, and a pirate bearing a sword and standing atop two skulls. Likewise, Spriggsās flags featured a red skeleton set against a black field or a white skeleton holding an hourglass and a spear with a red heart image against a black background. Other pirates, such as Stede Bonnet (known as the Gentleman Pirate), flew their own versions of the Jolly Roger.
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Use in modern navies and popular culture
The Jolly Roger has become an icon of popular culture. Its use as a modern symbol of martial prowess began in World War I (1914ā18) with the British navyās submarine crews, who designed their own variations on the flag. The USS Kidd, a destroyer whose mascot is English privateer William Kidd, is the only U.S. naval ship authorized to fly the flag.
The Jolly Roger is frequently found in fictional works about pirates: in the novel Treasure Island (1881ā82) by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, the main character throws the flag overboard, and in the play Peter Pan (first staged in 1904) by Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie, the ship commanded by the villainous Captain Hook is named Jolly Roger. Several American sports teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Las Vegas Raiders (both of the National Football League [NFL]) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (of Major League Baseball [MLB]), have used variations of the flag for their team logos. The skull-and-crossbones design is also used as a warning symbol on poison control labeling.