The Jolly Roger

Traditional.

Wiki:

The Jolly Roger is any of various flags flown to identify a ship's crew as pirates. The flag most usually identified as the Jolly Roger today is the skull and crossbones, a flag consisting of a human skull above two long bones set in an x-mark arrangement on a black field. This design was used by several pirates, including Captains Edward England and John Taylor. Some Jolly Roger flags also include an hourglass, another common symbol representing death in 17th- and 18th-century Europe. Despite its prominence in popular culture, plain black flags were often employed by most pirates in the 17th-18th century. Historically, the flag was flown to frighten pirates' victims into surrendering without a fight, since it conveyed the message that the attackers were outlaws who would not consider themselves bound by the usual rules of engagement—and might, therefore, slaughter those they defeated (since captured pirates were usually hanged, they did not have much to gain by asking quarter if defeated). The same message was sometimes conveyed by a red flag, as discussed below.

Since the decline of piracy, various military units have used the Jolly Roger, usually in skull-and-crossbones design, as a unit identification insignia or a victory flag to ascribe to themselves the proverbial ferocity and toughness of pirates.

In a non-naval context the skull and crossbones motif has additional meanings, for example, to signify a hazard such as poison.

Pirate flag of Edward Low.

A Pirate flag often called the "Jolly Roger." This flag is usually attributed to Blackbeard. Similar to flags reportedly flown by Edward Lowe and Francis Spriggs

Although referred to as "John Quelch" flag, in fact it is closer to the description of Pirate flag of John Phillips.

Walter Kennedy's Jolly Roger ensign (which was identical to the flag of Jean Thomas Dulaien).

Wiki:

It is thought that the French jolie rouge (red flag) is the origin of the Jolly Roger or the Skull and Crossbone. This flag originated with the Knights Templars. After they were dissolved many could not make a living except as brigands and sea pirates. Other members were skilled as masons and craftsmen. Those who had no other skills other than what they were trained for (soldiers of God), took to the seas.

The flag known as the Skull and Cross-Bones was the choice of pirates long after the Crusades. The religious significance of the elite Order of the Knights Templar was turned into pirates who many feared. The skull and cross-bones signified death much like the skull and crossbones on a bottle of poison. It meant surrender to our ship or die.

The skull and two bones meant resurrection to the Knights Templar. The skull and cross-bones, alluded to Gol'gotha - "the place of the skull" - and the cross - where Jesus Christ died.

The Catholic Church taught that the resurrection of man was a bodily resurrection. The Templars, contrary to the beliefs of the Church, thought that only the skull and two bones were needed to be buried for their owners to go to heaven. The skull and crossed bones were a popular motif on the graves of their fallen. When Templars turned to piracy they flew the Skull and Cross-Bones and if the ship they wanted to plunder didn't succumb, they raised the red flag, or jolie rouge. This flag meant "no quarter, or mercy, will be granted," The Templar rogues no longer answered to the pope in Rome, Italy.

It was thought that later pirates used this symbol because the ship's log, which listed those who died on board, had the skull and cross-bones at the heading of the dead list.

Bartolomew Roberts' first flag shows him and Death holding an hourglass.

...I was just browsing the Newton thread (from where I lifted his personal coat of arms)

Roberts' new flag showed him standing on two skulls, representing the heads of a Barbadian and a Martinican.

Jolly Roger flown by Calico Jack Rackham.

Traditional depiction of Stede Bonnet's flag.

Is that a bottle of poison of the left of the design?

Flag of pirate Christopher Condent.

Popular version of Henry Every's Jolly Roger. Reportedly, Every also flew a version with a black background.

Flag of Christopher Moody.

Possible flag of Thomas Tew.

eddie wrote:
Traditional depiction of Stede Bonnet's flag.

Is that a bottle of poison of the left of the design?

......a dagger?

Possibly.

Since the exposure of the Murdoch Media Empire's stranglehold on the London Metropolitan Police force and 10 Downing Street went ballistic a couple of weeks ago, this flag has been flying from the building across the road from Aldgate Tube station, on the very edge of the City of London (i.e. the UK equivalent of Wall Street: the financial district):



The building in question is widely believed by station staff to be a brothel. I don't know whether that is an industrially accurate description or not, but nude ladies are often glimped through the windows of the upper storeys from street level.

It appears that at least one of the nude female residents reads The Guardian.