Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger is the traditional pirate flag consisting of a white skull and crossbones on a black field. Since recently it has become especially popular among anarchists. There was democracy established in many ships of pirates. There is also the story that pirates founded the anarchist pirate republic that was called Libertalia and was situated in the island of Madagascar. Anarchists say that they like the pirate love to freedom and justice that is why they use the pirate flag.
According to one of versions the Jolly Roger comes from the French "Joyeux Rouge" that is translated as beautiful red flag. This was the flag of the red blood colour that was hoisted by pirates and it meant that they were going to kill everybody who was abroad the ship which they attack.
Corsairs that had to hoist the national flags used the black sign flag during their attacks that meant ultimatum. If the enemy didn't give up corsairs hoisted the red flag. Later Englishmen turned "Rouge" into more comfortable name for them "Roger" and "Joyeux" into "Jolly" that meant "Jolly".
There is also another version that is not less true. During the plague epidemic or another dead disease as well as during the threat of rebels pirates hoisted another special flag that looked like two white stripes on the black field. This was the sign to other ships to keep far from it. And pirates often used it to avoid the attack from the side of powerful ships. Later two white stripes turned into the crossed bones.
Another version says that this tradition is connected with the Tamil pirates. They were acting in the Indian and Pacific oceans and called "Alli Radga" that meant "Lords of the sea". And this word combination sounded in English as "Jolly Roger".
