Captain Ned Low and his "red Anatomy of Death"

Capt Edward Low in ye Hurricane
which He and All the Crew had
Like to Perish'd by J. Nicholls
and James Basire, hanging in the
National Maritime Museum in London

The date is March 19th, 2009. I'm sitting beside Professor Stephen O'Neill, the associate director and curator at Pilgrim Hall Museum, at the Jones River Landing in Kingston, Massachusetts, listening to Professor Len Travers from UMass Dartmouth speak about "Pirates in New England." He's focusing on Captain Ned Low, in consort with Captain Charles Harris, and their battle with the HMS Greyhound off of Block Island in Rhode Island in late May/early June of 1723. Professor Travers examined the days-long engagement through primary sources, as the capture of pirates was big news for the newspapers of the time. Captain Low, in his sloop the Fancy, escaped the Greyhound and left his consort Harris, in the sloop Ranger, as a sacrifice. It was an act of cowardice on Low's part, but he turned it around and swore oaths of vengeance against the British Man-o'-War, and continued to uphold his reputation as one of the most terrifying, ruthless pirate captains of the Golden Age for capturing and torturing other ship captains and their crews. Cowardice turned villainy.

Before moving on, I must make a mention of pirate ship names (it will be a short one, as an entire blog could be devoted to just that subject). As previously mentioned, Low's sloop (a small, one or two masted sailing vessel known for its lightness and speed in the water) had the good fortune (where is the sarcasm font when you need it) of being named the Fancy. Low was not the only one to name his vessel such a terrifying name, as there are at least three other pirate ships named Fancy. And in truth, most pirate vessels did not have terrifying names ... no, they were called such things as Bachelor's Delight and Happy Delivery,--a euphemism if I've ever seen one--or Mocha and Mary Anne, even Rose and Pearl. Yes, names that would strike fear into the hearts of their victims!! Riiight.

But the reason I bring up the "Pirates in New England" lecture is Professor Travers, when talking about the execution of Captain Harris and 25 of his men in Newport on July 19th, 1723, mentioned something that caught my attention so fiercely, I had to hold back the urge to yell out, "WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" and had me gawking and gaping at my companion in a rather stupefied manner. Reading from a primary source, the Boston News-Letter, Professor Travers said that their flag of indigo color was draped over the men after they were hung. Cue the reaction of Scooby Doo proportions; I'd been designing all of the flags with BLACK backgrounds! And everywhere we looked, the sources stated they were BLACK flags! Oh my God I have to change everything?!?!?!

*graphic designer perishes under the immense weight of a new workload*

As it turns out, it was more probable for the flags to have been dyed with indigo. In the 18th century, black as a dye was:

1. very expensive;
2. very hard to come by and rare; and
3. faded extremely quickly.

The likely source of these supposed "black flags" was lots and lots of indigo dye, that from far away looked black. Or, had been dyed over and over to be so dark that they were black, but then faded to the indigo/blue color, which out on the open ocean was extremely likely to happen. And thus, we decided to not change the backgrounds, especially since there was only one source about indigo flags, and the flags started out dyed to look black, right?

Right.

So let's take a look at Captain Low's flag, the with the "red Anatomy of Death." I did not have to do any real redesigning of the flag; instead, I had to make it look meaner and more menacing, as well as more realistic. I mean really, how mean and menacing and realistic does that skeleton look? Not so much. It's just a goofy looking head floating on a body that is probably more apt to make you laugh then scare you into submission.

It's also a guess, really, as to what was meant by an "anatomy." Sure, there's the literal definition of the word, but in the 18th century an anatomy usually referred to the skeleton figure or a skull, as seen on many gravestones from the time period and previous centuries. So, do we do the typical skull and crossed bones, in red instead of white? Or should we go for the full monty?

Of course, we went for the full skeleton. There are absolutely no records stating that the skull and crossed bones ever appeared in red. It was only natural that we assumed Captain Low would have used a full skeleton. It's meaner, it's gnarlier, more menacing, and a great way to remind your potential victims that you're gonna get them, and they're gonna die. I'd be contemplating throwing myself overboard if that flag appeared on a vessel headed straight towards mine.

Interested in my source for these posts? Then you must get your hands on A General History of the Pyrates by Daniel Defoe (it can also appear under the name Captain Johnson, but is the same thing). You can get it for as low as $8.32 on Amazon!