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Pirates Richard Worley - Black Flag

Pirates Richard Worley - Black Flag

SKU: C64 Category: Portfolio:

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33,70 €
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Description

Pirates Richard Worley - Black Flag

Skull and crossbones on black: the flag of the pirate Richard Worley

The flag of the pirate Richard Worley is the most classic of all pirate flags: a black field with, in the centre, a white skull above two crossed bones. It is the image everyone recognises at first glance, and one that tradition ties to one of the least fortunate and most stubborn captains of the early eighteenth century.

What the 1724 «General History» tells

Almost everything we know about Worley comes from a book published in London in 1724, «A General History of the Pyrates», signed by a certain Captain Charles Johnson, whose true identity is still uncertain. Johnson writes that Worley made himself «a black Ensign, with a white Death's Head in the Middle of it». The book says nothing of bones: the skull-and-crossbones flag is attributed to him by tradition.

From New York to the Delaware, in an open boat

According to Johnson, Worley left New York at the end of September 1718 in a small open boat, with eight companions, a few biscuits, a little keg of water and half a dozen old muskets. He went up the Delaware River, took a first sloop and then another, and after a cruise as far as the Bahamas had a crew of about twenty-five men and six guns.

The last battle off Virginia

Under the black flag, Johnson goes on, the crew swore neither to ask nor to give quarter. The oath was kept: off the Capes of Virginia Worley faced two sloops fitted out by the Governor of Carolina and fought hand to hand. Only he and one other man survived, badly wounded, and they were hanged the next day, which Johnson dates 17 February 1719.

The Jolly Roger, a name and an era

Already in Johnson's book the pirates call their black flag the «Jolly Roger». The skull above crossed bones on black is the flag of the «golden age» of piracy, between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and Worley is among the first to whom it is credited. Before attacking, many sailed under other colours, and the black flag went up the mast only at the last moment.

Who chooses it

For lovers of pirate stories and collectors of historic flags, for re-enactment groups and theatre companies, for film and video sets, for themed parties, fancy-dress parties and pirate birthdays, for a pub, a tavern or a pirate-themed venue, for anyone who wants it on a boat or in the garden. We sew it to order, in the size and fabric you choose above, and you see the delivery date before you pay.

Flag facts

Reconstruction from period descriptions, not from an official drawing.

Validity
Historical
Years in use
1718–1719 · period 1500–1799
Officiality
De facto
Type
Pirates
Source of the drawing
Reconstructionreconstruction from period descriptions
Use
Not applicable
Proportions
2:3
Shape
Rectangular
Number of colours
2
Colour
BlackWhite
Design
Plain
Symbols
Skull

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