r/pirates • u/AntonBrakhage • 6d ago

Art/Crafts A Pirate Flag I Made.

Pirate flag design consisting of a red heart with three drops of blood on a white field with gold trim.

I whipped up this flag today on Sketchpad based on a design I created. The flag draws inspiration from the story of Libertalia, specifically the claim that pirates in that fictional kingdom flew white flags instead of black, as well as stories of La Buse flying white flags and trial testimony saying John Rackham flew a white pennant. The bleeding heart is both a threat (such designs being a common motif on pirate flag designs, most famously the Devil skeleton stabbing a bleeding heart that is (falsely) attributed to Blackbeard, and also a cheeky nod to my own political views, what conservatives would have once called "a bleeding heart liberal" before they came up with new pejoratives. Red and white conveys a duel message: white for peace (for our friends and those who surrender) and red for no quarter (for enemies).

Red and white would also suit an English* pirate crew well, as they were the colours of the English flag (the Cross of Saint George IIRC) before it merged with Scotland and adopted the Union Jack. So multiple layers of symbolism here.

The gold trim is just to give it a bit more colour and style, and also because pirates/gold.

*Edit: Come to that, I'm Canadian, so its also my national colours.

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u/Apprehensive-Gear-86 6d ago

Don't take this as an asshole comment cos it's a cool design.

But the colours of the nations in which the crew is from being involved in the flag design... Doesn't that defy the point? Pirates are nationless. free men under no crown.

Nevertheless I love hearts on pirate flags

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u/AntonBrakhage 6d ago

So, this depends on era.

The Buccaneers, for example, overlapped more with lawful privateers, and tended to have more national allegiances.

Also for fictional depictions, the novel Captain Blood (which is set roughly late Buccaneer era) has blood flying the English flag of Saint George (the film gives him a more conventional skull and crossed swords I believe).

But even in the later Golden Age, national allegiances never completely disappeared. For example Bartholomew Roberts' crew is said to have favoured English recruits, and actually banned Irishmen after an Irish member of the crew mutinied and stole their loot (source: If a Pirate I Must Be, by Richard Sanders).