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However, there were many variations and additional emblems on actual Jolly Rogers. Calico Jack Rackham and Thomas Tew used variations with swords. Edward Teach (a.k.a. Blackbeard) used a skeleton holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear or dart in the other while standing beside a bleeding heart. Bartholomew Roberts (a.k.a. Black Bart) had two variations: a man and a skeleton, who held a spear or dart in one hand, holding either an hourglass or a cup while toasting death or an armed man standing on two skulls over the letters ABH and AMH (a warning to residents of Barbados and Martinique that death awaited them). Dancing skeletons signified that the pirates cared little for their fate.
One theory is that it comes from the French term "joli rouge," ("pretty red") which the English corrupted into "Jolly Roger". This may be likely as there were a series of "red flags" that were feared as much, or more, than "black flags". The origin of the red flag is likely that English privateers flew the red jack by order of the Admiralty in 1694. This red flag boldly declared the pirates' intentions: no life would be spared. No quarter given, none asked. When the War of Spanish Succession ended in 1714, many privateers turned to piracy and some retained the red flag, for red symbolized blood. The term was subsequently used for the black flag with skull and bones which appeared in use around 1700.
In his book "Pirates & The Lost Templar Fleet," David Hatcher Childress claims that the term was coined after the first man to fly the flag, King Roger II of Sicily (c.1095-1154). Roger was a famed Templar who had a public spat with the Vatican over his conquests of Apulia and Salerno in 1127. Childress claims that, many years later after the Templars were disbanded by the church, at least one Templar fleet split into four independent fleets that dedicated themselves to pirating ships of any country sympathetic to Rome. The flag was thus an inheritance, and its crossed bones are an obvious reference to the original Templar logo of a red cross with blunted ends.
At first sight, it might seem a bad idea to forewarn your quarry by flying the Jolly Roger. However, its use may be seen as an early form of psychological warfare. A pirate's primary aim is to capture the target ship intact along with any cargo it may be carrying. With a sufficiently blood-thirsty reputation, a pirate flying the Jolly Roger could intimidate the crew of a target ship into surrender, allowing the ship to be captured without firing a shot. Most times, pirates prawled under the disguise of a regular flag until they spot their prey. Flying the Jolly Roger too early has its drawbacks. The quarry might have sufficient warning to attempt an escape. Also, warships were often under standing orders to fire at will at a ship flying this flag.
Typically, if a ship then decided to resist, the Jolly Roger was taken down and a red flag was then flown, indicating that the pirates intend to take the ship by force and without mercy. It was hoped by many crews that this course of action would help spread the word that resistance was a poor idea for ships.
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