Jolly Roger

The Jolly Roger is the black pirate flag of the early-18th-century Atlantic and Caribbean, most often charged with a white skull and crossed bones or crossed cutlasses. Pirates flew it to demand surrender without a fight; a red flag instead signaled no quarter. Documented designs include those attributed to captains such as ‘Black Bart’ Bartholomew Roberts and Edward Teach (Blackbeard). The name’s origin is disputed, with derivations proposed from ‘jolie rouge’ or the term ‘Old Roger’.