Tis be those Skull and crossbones

[Piranha]

Most of the Lego pirate ships have skull and crossbone patterns on them.

However I am not a fan of this :-|

By having the symbols on the sails they give them selves away to all merchant ships

Plus all Imperial soldiers who hunt them Pirates

The BSB is therfore me favorite pirate ship

The SES would have been if it wasn't for the huge skull on the upper sail |-/

What do you think about them skull and crossbone on sails?

Piranha

(hehe me sig has been updated, commets or feedback or always welcome on it too)

Edited May 28, 2007 by Piranha

[Scouty]

"The Jolly Roger" was a very common flag to distinguish a ship of pirates to strike fear into the ship or ships they are going after. Many used them, but some had different styles, like and arm with a sword representing strength. If you wanted, switch the flag with another non-pirate flag and when you get close and the time is right, raise it up and you can catch them by surprise. Or raise one to slip by them!

[Piranha]

X-D I meant the sails with the printings of the skull and crossbones like on crossbone clipper and renegade runner

The flags are fine by me :)

Piranha

[Scouty]

Some people had those Icons on their sails. Pirates might have 'em. But I see know records that indicate they do.

[hans-thegreat]

I see that imperial scouts has touched up on his history. Tell me, do you like history, or is the ships that you like? Do you like the pirates themselves? Or the technology?

[Mister Phes]

"The Jolly Roger" was a very common flag to distinguish a ship of pirates to strike fear into the ship or ships they are going after. Many used them, but some had different styles, like and arm with a sword representing strength. If you wanted, switch the flag with another non-pirate flag and when you get close and the time is right, raise it up and you can catch them by surprise. Or raise one to slip by them!

Actually that's not true as it was the colour of the flag that indicated the nature of the pirates.

A black signified the pirates would show mercy to those who surrendered their goods while a red flag signified theyd give no mercy and take no prisioners. I.e. A fight to the death. The red represented blood you see.

[Dreamweb]

Mister Phes is right. That's why the red flag was much more feared than the black one.

About the sails - AFAIK pirates didn't decorate their sails with skull and crossbones or any other piratical symbols. That would give their intentions away much too soon. This is something Lego made up to make their ships more visually attractive. And it's one more reason why I prefer the BSB to the SES.

[Scouty]

Actually that's not true as it was the colour of the flag that indicated the nature of the pirates.

A black signified the pirates would show mercy to those who surrendered their goods while a red flag signified theyd give no mercy and take no prisioners. I.e. A fight to the death. The red represented blood you see.

Ah yes. I got this information from a book, you see, that I looked at intently and briefly. 'Pirates' it was called I think. It had many stories, legends, types of ships, types of weapons, types of flags, etc. I did see that there were red flags, but I didn't read that part, as I was just browsing in a book store. I should probably buy that book X-D .

hans-the-great= Yeah, I love history, it's one of my favorite subjects. Especially the 16-18 century eras.

[Mister Phes]

That information is available in Wikipedia's Jolly Roger article which is well cited so the information should be reliable. I've also got a book called "Piratetology" which also states the same information.

[Scouty]

Heh, I should go check that X-D .

[zouave]

I read that alot of pirate symbols were found on old graves.