Jolly Roger Meaning: Pirate Flags and Richard Worley's Skull and Crossbones

"Jolly Roger" is the traditional name for the flags flown by pirates in the early eighteenth century, the so-called Golden Age of Piracy. The best-known design, a white skull above crossed bones on a black field, is associated with the pirate Richard Worley, and it has become the universal sign for piracy.

What a pirate flag was for

A pirate flag was a message. Raised as a pirate ship closed in, it told the crew of a merchant vessel exactly who was approaching, and invited them to surrender without a fight. Royal Museums Greenwich notes that pirate crews designed their own flags, and that death imagery such as skulls, skeletons, hourglasses and weapons was chosen to intimidate.

Richard Worley's flag

Richard Worley was a pirate active off the American coast in 1718–1719. Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, first published in 1724, describes his black ensign with a white death's head in the middle, one of the earliest descriptions of the skull-and-bones design now called the Jolly Roger.

Many flags, one symbol

There was no single pirate flag. Crews flew variations with full skeletons, raised glasses, hourglasses or daggers, and some used red flags that signalled no quarter. The simple skull and crossbones won out in later popular culture, from novels to films, and the name "Jolly Roger" came to mean any of them.

A long-lived emblem

The skull and crossbones did not begin with pirates: it was a familiar memento mori on gravestones and in art long before. After the pirates it was adopted by military units, by poison labels and by countless modern designs.

The Jolly Roger in jewellery

A Jolly Roger design references maritime history, the Golden Age of Piracy and one of the most recognisable graphic symbols ever made. Take a look at the AURYN Jolly Roger charm on its product page.