Emanuel Wynn

Emanuel Wynne (also Emmanuel Wynne and Emanuel Wynn ) was a Breton pirate who in the late 17th and early 18th century in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean operated. He is regarded as the one who first used a flag with skull and crossbones.

First user of the Jolly Roger

Wynne's flag showed under the skull and crossbones in addition an hourglass, an under pirate also popular icon that should signal the loot ship that only timely surrender could avert otherwise certain death.

Wynne first operated off the coast of the British colony of Carolina (now North Carolina and South Carolina) to North America, where he lay in wait for British ships, then moved to the more lucrative business but in the Caribbean, where he was also Spanish ships muster.

On July 18, 1700 as official British Admiralty reports, discovered Captain John Cranby with his frigate HMS Poole ( 1696 Nye in East Cowes, 32 guns) Wynne's ship Adventure in the Cape Verde island of Brava. Cranby pursued the pirates for several days, but Wynne escaped when two other pirate ships (La Foudre under Lussan and Treasure under Moore ) published in his support. Cranbys report is, to the extent known, the first who mentions a flag with skull and crossbones on a pirate ship: " a black flag with crossed bones, a skull and an hourglass " ("a sable ensign with cross bones, a death's head, and an hourglass "). Wynne is therefore considered as the first (or at least one of the first ) pirate who led the now well-known form of the Jolly Roger as a flag.

Even Henry Every, who sailed in 1696 for the last time, is referred to as the first bearer of a skull and crossbones flag.

Film

Wynne's flag was in the American pirate movie Cutthroat Island ( Original title: Cutthroat Iceland ) shown in 1995.