Crane, Skull

THE BLACK FLAG and THE JOLLY ROGER

His first appearance was reported in 1700 by the master of His Majesty's Ship Poole attacked off the coast of Santiago de Cuba by a French pirate named Emmanuel Wynne. The latter wore a black flag with skull, crossbones and hourglass, symbol of the little time remaining for the opponent to make a decision to fight or surrender, or express to everyone that life is fleeting and is just sand. Skull and crossbones are a symbol of death which was used by some European armies in the fifteenth century before the pirates return to this "idea".

The term "Jolly Roger" which means the black flag by the Anglo-Saxon sailors, is probably of French origin. Historians believe that French pirates and buccaneers of the Caribbean Sea called their red flag, "the pretty red" with "e" in "red" marked. This expression from mouth to mouth English French, would have distorted the name to "Jolly Roger", which would have been preserved for the black flag.

Some pirates hoisted the black flag to invite the boat continued to go without a fight. If he refused to stop, then the pirates hoisted a red flag to indicate that they attacked and that the fight would no thank you.

The pavilions pirates were mostly pieces of canvas sewn by the main points of sailing on board and whose motives were simplistic.

Decorated with emblems of death, pirate flags, hoisted before the collision, the boat intimately coveted order to surrender.

These flags were not always black, some were white, but the worst were the red, which meant: "Death to all" or "No quarter".