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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Intimidation. The pirates preferred that ships surrendered to them instead of fighting them and their reputation worked in their favor. Revealing they were pirates at the right time was key when approaching another vessel. That’s where the unique flag designs came into play too, since if the pirates had built up a reputation, often filled with falsehoods and tall stories of the horrors they supposedly committed, then the target vessel was much more likely to surrender without a fight.
Piracy was a numbers game, and a surrender was the ideal scenario. If the target vessel did not surrender a fight would break out anyways when the pirate vessel reached them so really they had nothing to lose to try. That being said pirate ships didn’t fly their pirate flags all the time. As I said above they chose when to hoist it up at the most opportune time.
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