eli5 what was the point of the skull and bones pirate flag? why would you give away that you are a pirate?
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The pirate flag only went up once the pirates were close enough that there was little escape. When that flag appears, the goal is to scare the target ship into giving up immediately.
Let’s say pirates raid a merchant ship. The merchants just want to sell their stuff on shore. Sure, they have cannons and their people can fight, but they are a big, slow, fat target. The pirates have a fast ship and are used to combat. So now, the pirates are too close, and they use their preferred tactic: boarding. After all, you don’t want to sink the ship you’re attacking. Your goal is to get in, steal stuff, and leave.
The second that flag appears, most of the crew will just give up. After all, most pirates had a reputation that if you hand over your stuff, like a mugger, they leave you be. But if you don’t, they will come aboard and butcher some of you, and some will torture your fellow crewmen to death while others watch. The crew on most ships just wasn’t paid enough compared to the officers on board, to give a shit about giving up their lives for the products on board. (In fact, if they particularly hated their captain, sometimes the pirates would kill him, or the crew would bail and join the pirates, because one haul of good loot was more lucrative per pirate than living as a low-tier crewman on a trading vessel and working for slave wages.)
The pirates fly that flag to get this result. After all, they can’t just dock and get repairs at any port. They’re wanted men, and they will hang if they’re caught. Also, if the enemy crew fights, they have a chance of death. Surrendered men don’t shoot you or cut your throat or cannon your ship.
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