During the Golden Age of Piracy, pirate ships commonly employed various techniques to communicate their origin and intentions. Among these techniques, raising the flag on the highest position of the ship was the most frequently used method. The most popular of these flags was the “Jolly Rodger” used by Edward Teach, popularly known as Blackbeard.
While Jolly Rodger has gained immense popularity and is widely associated with Blackbeard today, evidence proves that this flag was never used by Blackbeard.
The exact design of Blackbeard’s Jolly Rodgers flag remains unclear in history. There are two competing designs, with conflicting reports suggesting that Blackbeard may have had multiple flag designs in use.
The most widely accepted design features a two-horned skeleton holding an hourglass and a spear or dart aimed toward a bleeding heart. However, there is no historical mention of Blackbeard’s flag depicting this imagery.
Many historians have tried to determine the exact design of Blackbeard’s flag, which chilled the blood in the veins of his victims, owing to his notoriety.
What did the Pirate flags look like?
Pirate ships often concealed their, allowing them to maintain an air of legitimacy as they sailed near unsuspecting merchant vessels or populated areas and ports. However, once the pirate ship was prepared to strike, the pirate flag would be raised.
The flags were frequently black or red and featured distinct symbols associated with death, devilry, or warfare, such as demons, skeletons, spears, swords, daggers, hourglasses, hearts, blood, skulls, and bones.
What flag did Blackbeard really use?
The most famous pirate flag design of all time is the black background with a white human skull and two crossed bones underneath, which was most likely the design used by Blackbeard. This design gained popularity through famous pirates such as “Black Sam” Bellamy and Edward England.
In the late November of 1717, Blackbeard captured the ship “Mountserrat Merchant” near Nevis. His newly acquired vessel, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” displayed a flag known as the “Death Head” on its stern. Four months later, when Blackbeard’s flotilla captured the ship “Protestant Caesar” near Honduras, they flew flags described by a witness as “Black Flags” with “Deaths Heads” on them.
In the well-known book “A General History of the Pirates” by Charles Johnson, written in 1724 under a pseudonym, it was mentioned several times that Edward Tech’s flag had an identical look.
The book also introduced various stylized elements of piracy that later became integral parts of popular notions concerning piracy and romanticized views of the age of Caribbean piracy, including the Jolly Rodger flag, pirates with missing limbs or eyes, buried pirate treasures, and almost mythical pirate captain abilities in combat and looting. Most of the notions romanticized by this book were just myths in reality.
As per the sources, the other flag used by Blackbeard could have been a blood-red flag with no patterns or markings.