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Talk Like a Pirate Day
"🎶 Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
~ Dead Man's Chest, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883
Well, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum—or perhaps whisky! Shiver me timbers and arrghh! Grab the peg leg, slap on an eye patch, and perch a talking, squawking and thoroughly ill-mannered parrot on the shoulder. It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day! And for a properly Scottish pirate, surely the only thing missing is a kilt.
Should a little additional shock and awe be required among the crew, there is always this particularly piratical kilt in the Jolly Roger tartan.
Scotland, after all, was not entirely lacking in real pirates. Among the more notorious was William “Captain” Kidd, born in Scotland and remembered as one of the most famous names associated with piracy—although whether Kidd was truly a pirate or an unfortunate privateer who crossed the wrong political interests has been debated ever since. There was also John Gow of Orkney, whose brief but spectacular piratical career ended in 1725 after he returned to his native islands, and Andrew Barton, the early 16th-century Scottish privateer whose attacks on Portuguese shipping eventually brought him into conflict with the English. The line between pirate and privateer could be decidedly murky, particularly when kings, commissions and international grudges became involved.
And then there is the Jolly Roger itself. The precise origin of the name remains uncertain. One long-standing suggestion connects it with the French joli rouge, or “pretty red,” supposedly associated with the blood-red flags used to signal that no quarter would be given. Another explanation connects “Roger” with old English slang such as Old Roger, a name for the Devil. Whatever its linguistic origins, Jolly Roger eventually became the traditional English name for the flags used by pirates to announce exactly who had just appeared on the horizon.
The familiar black flag with its white skull and crossbones became particularly associated with piracy during the Golden Age of Piracy, although there was never one universal pirate flag. Individual captains devised their own wonderfully menacing variations—skulls, skeletons, hourglasses, swords, bleeding hearts and other cheerful little reminders that surrender might be a sensible idea.
Pirates generally did not sail about permanently displaying their pirate colors. A ship might approach under no colors or under false colors so as not to frighten away its intended prey. Once the victim was within range, the pirate flag could be raised—sometimes accompanied by a warning shot—giving the other crew an opportunity to surrender without a fight.
So, for Talk Like a Pirate Day: hoist the Jolly Roger, break out the tartan, mind the parrot—and don’t forget the rum.
Or, even better, the whisky. Squawk! 🖤 🤍 🖤 🏴☠️ 🥃 🦜
If "Arrrgh" is just a little too succinct for you on Talk Like a Pirate Day, try this little monologue from "Black Sam" Bellamy, the "Prince of Pirates" (1689-1717)
"Damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under protection of our own courage; had you not better make one of us, than sneak after the asses of those villains for employment?"
To piratically supplement this completely frivolous holiday, we include this purely "for fun" unofficial tartan from Sport Kilt, the Jolly Roger tartan, woven in the black and white colors of the most identifiable of pirate flags from the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the early 18th century.
The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today, is the skull and crossbones symbol on a black background. The Jolly Roger flag was used during the 1710s by a number of pirate captains including "Black Sam" Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor.
The origin of the name Jolly Roger is unclear. From the 17th century onwards, Jolly Roger had been a generic term for a jovial, carefree man, but by the early 18th century, it began to be applied to the skeleton or grinning skull in ships' flags.
For more pictures and origins and symbolism of other famous pirate flags, click the Jolly Roger.