Jestapher

I mostly just fix a few errors around here when I come across them.

Blackbeard's flag not his flag?

Blackbeard's flag

From <a href="/wiki/User:Jestapher" title="User:Jestapher">User:Jestapher</a> 19:24, 30 October 2006:

The most recent change to this entry claims that Blackbeard's flag is erroneously attributed to Blackbeard. The text:

Blackbeard's flag, showing a skeleton, probably a similar figure to the devil, holding an hourglass and threatening a bleeding heart with a spear.

Was replaced by:

A flag often erroneously attributed to Blackbeard.

This change was made by <a href="/wiki/User:MosheA" title="User:MosheA">User:MosheA</a> with a comment linking to <a href="http://flagspot.net/flags/pir-bbrd.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://flagspot.net/flags/pir-bbrd.html" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>.

On that page it states:

Blackbeard is known to have flown the "deaths head"; Johnson's History of the Pirates shows his ship flying the skull and crossbones only. All other flags attributed to Blackbeard are fictional.

I did a small amount of Googling and couldn't come up with anything to substantiate that sentence. Most of the world seems to believe that this is indeed Blackbeard's flag. It would be nice to substantiate this change more, revert it, or to not present this claim as truth.

This opens up a can of worms. You're right that most of the world does believe that that is Blackbeard's flag, but an increasing number of experts now doubt it. The contemporary sources do not ascribe any flag like that to Blackbeard (although Johnson's General History describes a very similar flag to <a href="/wiki/Francis_Spriggs" title="Francis Spriggs">Francis Spriggs</a>). The tons of secondary sources that attribute that flag to Blackbeard apparently are relying on an undated manuscript in Britain's National Maritime Museum, donated in the 1930s by Philip Gosse. Since the provenance of the manuscript before the 1930s is completely unknown, a lot of historians now reject it. But popular literature and the Internet haven't kept up with the latest research. <a href="/wiki/User:Piratedan" title="User:Piratedan">Pirate Dan</a> 18:42, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

From <a href="/w/index.php?title=User:70.165.30.175&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:70.165.30.175 (page does not exist)">User:70.165.30.175</a> 22:31, 28 June 2007:

Ed Foxe's website <a href="http://www.bonaventure.org.uk/ed/flags.htm" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bonaventure.org.uk/ed/flags.htm" rel="nofollow">[2]</a> clearly disputes many of the myths associated with pirate flags. Regarding Blackbeard's flag, he writes:

Period of operation: September 1717-November 1718.

Source: Flag 1: 1 is the flag usually depicted as Blackbeard's, but there is no period source to support this and the horns on the skeleton render it stylistically unlikely.

Flag 2: Blackbeard's flag is described in at least one Colonial Office document as a "Death's Head".

Flag 3: In an engraving of 1734 Blackbeard is depicted standing in front of a ship flying flag 3 [Skull with crossed bones] from the bowsprit.

Flag 4: This pennant is shown flying from the main mast of Blackbeard's ship in the same engraving as 3.

This is good information, however I wouldn't say it "clearly" disputes. None of the statements there are referenced. Not suggesting it's wrong, it would just seem best to find more sources. The current text about Blackbeard's flag says it "is often attributed" to him, which solves the original issue brought up by this discussion. It would be interesting to learn more about his flag than just that though. <a href="/wiki/User:Jestapher" title="User:Jestapher">User:Jestapher</a> 21 Jul 2007