Museum of London Docklands Pirates exhibition

Taken by me at the Museum of London Docklands Pirates exhibition in 2012, these might be less-than-brilliant photographs but the subject matter is exciting nonetheless.

The first picture shows a very rare original skull and crossbones flag, used by pirates as they prepared to board a ship. They would show friendly colours to approach ships before swapping out their flags to reveal their true identity and intentions. The flags were designed and sewn to show distinctive colours and subjects, with each pirate captain ‘branding’ himself using the flag. Jack Rackham is said to have designed and used one of the first ‘Jolly Roger’ flags that we’d recognise today, and in the book he is very proud of his creation.

The second image shows a collection of pirate loot. It might look vaguely familiar as I used this very image to populate Jack’s desk in his cabin aboard Revenge in the book.

I’ve explored London’s key links to the history of piracy in this blog article.