Jolly Roger Flag (Skull & Crossbones)

Measures 3'x 5' with Brass Grommets. Super-Polyester construction with extra sewing on the fly side.

The Jolly Roger is the name given to any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates The flag most usually identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, being a flag consisting of a skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field.

This design was used by four pirates, captains Edward England, John Taylor, Sam Bellamy and John Martel. Despite its appearance in popular culture, plain black flags were often employed by most pirates in the 17th-18th century. Historically, the flag was flown to frighten pirates' victims into surrendering without a fight, since it conveyed the message that the attackers were outlaws who would not consider themselves bound by the usual rules of engagement -- and might, therefore, slaughter those they defeated.

"Jolly Roger" is documented all the way back to Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724. Johnson specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag "Jolly Roger": Bartholomew Roberts in June, 1721 and Francis Spriggs in July, 1723. While Spriggs and Roberts used the same name for their flags, their flag designs were quite different, suggesting that already "Jolly Roger" was a generic term for black pirate flags rather than a name for any single specific design.