Pirates & Privateers Quiz

Answer: The Jolly Roger. The "Jolly Roger" is the pirate flag, often black with a skull. The origin of the name is still debated: some point to the French "joli rouge", a red flag meaning "no quarter", others to "Old Roger", an English nickname for the devil.

Answer: Francis Drake. Francis Drake was the first captain to complete a full circumnavigation in command of his own expedition. Along the way he raided Spanish colonies, and the queen knighted him aboard his ship, the Golden Hind.

Answer: Roughly 1650 to 1730. The golden age broadly covers the buccaneer era and then that of great pirates such as Blackbeard and Roberts. British crackdowns brought it to an end around 1720-1730.

Answer: Treasure Island. Published in 1883 by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island set almost all of today's pirate imagery: treasure maps, wooden legs, parrots on shoulders… In reality, pirates very rarely buried their loot, preferring to spend it.

Answer: The Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Somali pirates attacked container ships and tankers to extract ransoms. International naval patrols, such as the EU's Operation Atalanta, and armed guards on board caused attacks to plummet after 2012.

Answer: Madagascar. Around 1700, Île Sainte-Marie, off Madagascar's east coast, was a base for pirates attacking ships returning from India. Graves from that period can still be visited there.

Answer: Edward Teach. Blackbeard, whose real name was Edward Teach (or Thatch), terrorised the coasts of the Caribbean and North America around 1716-1718. He was killed in combat in 1718 by a Royal Navy detachment.

Answer: Henry Morgan. Henry Morgan led great raids on Spanish possessions, including the sack of Panama. Instead of being punished, he was knighted and appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica, where he was tasked with… fighting pirates.

Answer: He did not drink alcohol and preferred tea. According to contemporary accounts, Roberts was teetotal and drank tea. He also imposed strict rules on his crew, such as lights out at 8 pm. An unexpected pirate… but a formidable one.

Answer: One who takes loot freely. Vrijbuiter, "free plunderer", gave English freebooter and French flibustier, which later passed into English as filibuster. The word referred to adventurers who roamed the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Answer: A Chinese woman pirate who led a huge fleet. In the early 19th century she commanded a confederation of several hundred junks and tens of thousands of pirates in the South China Sea. In 1810 she negotiated an amnesty and died peacefully, a rare fate for a pirate leader.

Answer: Robert Newton. In Disney's Treasure Island, Robert Newton exaggerated the rough West Country accent of his native south-west England. His performance long defined how pirates "talk" on screen.