Jolly Roger

The Jolly Roger is the traditional flag of European and American pirates, envisioned today as a skull over crossed bones (see skull and cross bones), on a black field. However, there were many variations and additional emblems on actual Jolly Rogers. Calico Jack Rackham and Thomas Tew used variations with swords. Edward Teach (a.k.a. Blackbeard) used a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear or dart in the other while standing beside a bleeding heart. Bartholomew Roberts (a.k.a. Black Bart) had two variations: a man and a skeleton, who held a spear or dart in one hand, holding either an hourglass or a cup while toasting death or an armed man standing on two skulls over the letters ABH and AMH (a warning to residents of Barbados and Martinique that death awaited them). Dancing skeletons signified that the pirates cared little for their fate.

Related Topics:
Flag - Pirate - Skull - Bone - Skull and cross bones - Calico Jack Rackham - Thomas Tew - Edward Teach - Blackbeard - Skeleton - Hourglass - Spear - Dart - Heart - Bartholomew Roberts - Black Bart - Barbados - Martinique - Fate

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A black flag with skull and crossbones is also the flag of the Chetniks.

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