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Pirates: Libertalia

by António Martins

See also:

Pirates

There's no information on the flag, but in Pirates: Terror on the High Seas from the Caribbean to the South China Sea (consulting editor David Cordingly, Turner Publishing 1996 ISBN1570362858), Chapter 6 is on 'Libertalia: The Pirate's Utopia'. It suggests that Libertalia was a myth (thus the flag probably never existed) but looks at the reasons for its legend.
David Cohen, 22 June 1998

In "Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy", by Frank Sherry, ISBN:0688046843, it is asserted that it existed. Sherry even describes the flag, as shown in my drawing. He claims that Captain Misson was, perhaps, a myth, but that Libertatia did exist.

Sherry claims that this was, in a perverse way, the first democracy. He quotes "articles" by which the pirates lived. They are strangely egalitarian.

By the way, Sherry discusses pirate flags...that they were red, and rarely black. He illustrates several, some with chevrons.

Are there any other sources available?
Edward Mooney, Jr., 21 June 1998

There are, but I doubt how reliable they are. Children's' books especially conflict greatly on what pirate used what flag and what it looked like. This is also true of some books for adult readership. I have a Wordsworth Reference book (which I can't put my hands on at the moment) which is a reprint of an old account of pirates which has flag info - but the information conflicts with what's in the standard encyclopedias etc. My favourite quote on pirate flags comes from Flags at Sea by Timothy Wilson (National Maritime