In films and adventure novels, pirates often raise the same flag - a black panel with a skull and crossed bones. We decided to check if it was in reality.
A flag with a skull and bones is the most common image of a pirate banner. It almost always appears on the covers books And Encyclopedias On this topic. Such a flag is raised in "Treasure Island»Robert Lewis Stevenson, it can be seen in most films about pirates: from the silent"Black pirate"Before the film franchise"Pirates of the Caribbean".
For the first time, the name "Funny Roger" appeared in the book "The general story of the pirates"Released in 1724. In the chapter dedicated to Bartoloi Roberts (1682–1722), it is indicated that the pirates called their black flag. At the same time, on the famous flags of Roberts himself were not a skull and bones, but more complex drawings.
The book describes three flags under which this pirate went into swimming: at the first, a man with a flaming sword in his hand (symbolizing Roberts himself) ships two heads. The second depicts a man with a sword and a skeleton with a sand clock and a spear. On the third - a man with a flaming sword and a skeleton. The author of the "General History of the Pirates" adds that the last two flags symbolized contempt for death.
The book was written at the end of the golden age of piracy, two years after the death of Roberts, that is, its contemporary. At the same time, the author is not known for certain: the book came out under the name of Captain Charles Johnson, but most researchers They believeWhat Daniel Defoe wrote it, the author of Robinson Crusoe. It is as the text of Defoe that is published in Russian.
Another example of the “Verific Roger” from the “General History of the Pirates” is the flag of Francis Springs. This pirate was part of the team of another famous gentleman of good luck - Edward Lowe, whose flag was a black panel with the image of a skeleton. In one hand at the skeleton, a spear piercing the heart, in the other - a sand clock. According to the author, Springs robbed under the same flag. It is important that at the time of writing the book Pirate was still alive.
Nevertheless, a pirate flag with a skull and bones is not a fiction of Stevenson, Sabatini or Hollywood screenwriters. The earliest mention of this symbol dates back to 1686. French filter Masseri In his ship's magazine Describes The next episode: "We removed the white flag and took out a red flag, with a skull and crossed bones."
There is a flag with a skull and bones in the already mentioned “universal history of the pirates”, although it is not called the “cheerful Roger”. According to the author, it was used by the Bonnet Steid (1688–1718). Also, perhaps, under the flag with a skull and bones, the ships were robbed by Edward Tich, nicknamed Black Beard (1680–1718) and Edward Ingland (1690–1720).
Finally, there are material evidence - preserved pirate flags. At the National Museum of the Royal Fleet in Portsmut Store The flag captured by the pirates in 1780. This is a red panel with a skull and crossed bones.
In other words, the flag with the skull and bones of the pirates was used, but not so often. He became “one” already in the 1920s, in the wake of a surge of interest in the theme of sea robbers. In these years, several books about piracy are published in which powerless collected And mythological flags, and real ones.
The pirate theme at that time gained popularity thanks to the novel by Rafael Sabatini “Odyssey of Captain Blade” (1922). Two years later, the book was A filled In the United States, since then in Hollywood, several pirate films have been shot every year (the most famous movie of that time on this topic - “Black pirate"1926). Since then, the idea of a black flag with a skull and bones as a traditional pirate symbol has been strengthened in fiction and cinema.
Thus, the pirates had no single flag. A few reliable sources record numerous options, and a flag with a skull and bones is only one of them.
Photo on the cover: Wikipedia Commons
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