The Jolly Roger is the traditional flag of European and American pirates, envisioned today as a skull over crossed bones on a black field.
Origins of the term
The origins of the term "Jolly Roger" are unclear.
One theory is that it comes from the French term "joli rouge," ("red beauty") which the English corrupted into "Jolly Roger". This may be likely as there were a series of "red flags" that were feared as much, or more, than "black flags". The origin of the red flag is likely that English privateers flew the red jack by order of the Admiralty in 1694. When the War of Spanish Succession ended in 1714, many privateers turned to piracy and some retained the red flag, as red symbolized blood. No matter how much seamen dreaded the black pirate standard, all prayed they never encountered the joli rouge. This red flag boldly declared the pirates' intentions: that no life would be spared. In combat practice many merchants were surprised when a fast ship changed a fellow national flag for the more portentous Jolly Roger, which was the desired effect[citation needed].
Another theory proposes that the leader of a group of Asian pirates was called Ali Raja; English pirates appropriated and corrupted the term[citation needed].
A further theory is that the name derives from the English word "roger", whence "rogue", meaning a wandering vagabond. "Old Roger" was a term for the devil[citation needed].
In his book Pirates & The Lost Templar Fleet, David Hatcher Childress claims that the flag was named after the first man to fly it, King Roger II ofSicily (c.1095-1154). Roger was a famed Templar and the Knights Of The Temple [1] were in conflict with the Pope over his conquests of Apulia and Salerno in 1127. Childress claims that, many years later, after the Templars were disbanded by the church, at least one Templar fleet split into four independent flotillas dedicating themselves to pirating ships of any country sympathetic to Rome. The flag was thus an inheritance, and its crossed bones a reference to the original Templar logo of a red cross with blunted ends.
But this seems unlikely, as the Knights Templar used a Greek cross (✚) and not the Andreas cross (Χ) as used on pirates' flags.
The real origin may simply lie in the fact that from early Roman times on and all through the Middle Ages, skulls and long bones were on display in catacombs, monasteries, churches, church crypts and graveyards. They are the bones that resist decay the longest, and remain long after the corpse has gone. They were then carefully laid out respecting the dead.
Later, skull and long bones crossed were depicted or sculpted in said places, especially above the entrances to churches and graveyards. They served as a Memento Mori, meaning "Remind yourself of your own death." It was a general warning against the sin of vanity, reminding bypassers of their mortality. Thus, it became at once a common symbol of death and decay and a warning against the vagaries of Fortune, as well as a first hint of an emerging sense of democracy: in death, we are all equal.
This complex of meanings may have played a role in later Renaissance privateers' and pirates' adopting the symbol for their own.
Use in practice
At first sight, it might seem a bad idea to forewarn your quarry by flying the Jolly Roger. However, its use may be seen as an early form of psychological warfare. A pirate's primary aim is to capture the target ship intact along with any cargo it may be carrying. With a sufficiently bloodthirsty reputation, a pirate flying the Jolly Roger could intimidate the crew of a target ship into surrender, allowing the ship to be captured without firing a shot[citation needed]. Typically, if a ship then decided to resist, the Jolly Roger was taken down and a red flag was then flown, indicating that the pirates intend to take the ship by force and without mercy[citation needed]. It was hoped by many crews that this course of action would help spread the word that resistance was a poor idea for ships.
Flying the Jolly Roger too early as the only flag has its drawbacks. The quarry might have sufficient warning to attempt an escape. Also, warships were often under standing orders to fire at will at a ship flying this flag[citation needed].
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 (A Barbadian's Head) and AMH (A Martiniquais' Head -- a warning to residents of Barbados and Martinique that death awaited them). Dancing skeletons signified that the pirates cared little for their fate.
File:ORP Sokol 1.jpgORP Sokół returning from a World War II patrol flying her Jolly Roger (which traditionally signifies a successful combat mission); and a kill indicated by the swastika flag flown
Admiral Sir Arthur WilsonVC, the Controller of the Royal Navy, summed up the opinion of the many in the Admiralty at the time when he said in 1901 "Submarines are underhand, unfair and damned un-English. The crews of all submarines captured should be treated as pirates and hanged." In response Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral Sir) Max Horton first flew the Jolly Roger on return to port after sinking the German cruiser SMS Hela and the destroyer SMS S-116 in 1914. During World War I, the submarine service came of age, winning five of the Royal Navy's fourteen Victoria Crosses, the first by Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, Commanding Officer of HMS B11. In World War II it became common practice for the submarines of the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy to fly the Jolly Roger on completion of a successful combat mission where some action had taken place, but as an indicator of bravado and stealth rather than of lawlessness. The Jolly Roger is now the emblem of the Royal Navy Submarine Service.[1]
After Operation Veritas, the attack on Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, HMS Trafalgar entered Plymouth Sound flying the Jolly Roger on March 12002. She was welcomed back by Admiral Sir Alan West, Commander-in-Chief of the fleet and it emerged she was the first Royal Navy submarine to launch tomahawk cruise missiles against Afghanistan,[5]. HMS Triumph was also involved in the initial strikes and on returning to port had a Jolly Roger emblazoned with two crossed Tomahawks to indicate her opening missiles salvoes in the "war against terrorism" and HMS Superb's whose flag had a dagger, for force protection, a bee for her nickname (the Super B), and two communications flashes[6].
More recently, on April 16, 2003, HMS Turbulent, the first Royal Navy vessel to return home from the war against Iraq, arrived in Plymouth flying the Jolly Roger after launching thirty Tomahawk cruise missiles. [7]
Use by United States Navy aviators
In the U.S. Navy, the Jolly Roger is associated with aviation. The use of the Jolly Roger by U.S. naval aviation dates back to the formation of VF-17 in January of 1943. Flying the Chance VoughtF4U "Corsair," VF-17 produced more aces than any other squadron and many top aces. VF-17 initated the use of the Jolly Roger, and it is still in use at present.
For several decades, the "Bones" used a distinctive black-and-gold paint scheme that was instantly identifiable from a great distance, and feared by their foes. During the 1990s, under official orders, the Bones experimented with a low-visibility paint scheme, trading their bold colors for subdued greys. However, they eventually returned their fighters to their classic colors.
VFA-103 is the current "Bones" fighter squadron of the U.S. Navy. The Fighting Eighty-Four carried the Jolly Rogers name for 40 years before being deactivated on September 29, 1995. Two days later, the Fighting 103 (formerly the Sluggers) would become the fourth fighter squadron to carry the Skull and Crossbones.
The textfile version of the Anarchist Cookbook VI v4.44 was released maintained by a man who identified himself as "the Jolly Roger". The version number was kept for several subsequent additions in honor of a group of phreaks called the 414's, after their phone number area code.
Jolly Rogers was the name of a 1970s record label, owned by country singer Kenny Rogers and distributed by MGM.
The Jolly Rogers is a successful Reniassance Faire performance group based out of Kansas City.
Jolly Roger was also the pseudonym disc jockey Eddie Richards used when he released his seminal 80's acid house track "Acid Man", which samples Dennis Hopper's character from the film Easy Rider.
When entering the Persian Gulf, some U.S. Navy ships will take down the ensign from the mast and replace it with the Jolly Roger, much like their British counterparts.
There is a Jolly Roger painted over the cockpit of the VF-1S piloted by Roy Focker in the animated series Robotech. His squadron is called Skull Squadron, and their colors and insignia are based on the VFA-103 Jolly Rogers described above. (This is partly because the VF-1 resembles the F-14s that the Jolly Rogers are famous for.)
There are various movies of this name, including one publicized by Science Fiction Channel in June, 2006, & July, 2006: Search IMDb.
Emanuel Wynne's Flag
Thomas Tew's Flag
Stede Bonnet's Flag
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