DOTLAN EveMaps

Pirats for life.


During the Golden Age of Piracy, pirates used bloody flags in combination with the "black flag of piracy" to signal demands and threats to their victims. Initially, a false national flag would be flown as a way to close the gap between the pirate ship and the victim ship. When the victim ship came within gun range, the black flag would be raised, signaling that "quarter would be given", if the enemy surrendered, meaning they would spare the victims after rifling through their cargo. To signal "yes", the victim ship would have to take down their own flag (in naval terminology called "striking their flag"). However, if they refused or were too slow, the pirates would raise the bloody flag, which would signal that the cargo would be taken by force and that "no quarter would be given" to prisoners.[3] If the pirates had several ships, the raising of the bloody flag would also act as the signal "to attack" for the rest of the ships.