"[1] Records from as early as 1723 report a flag of the same or very similar design to have been used by pirates, but not by Blackbeard in particular.

[1] Later in the century approximately around the 1970s it started to be described as Blackbeard's flag and was often used as such in books and television programmes portraying him.

[5] The design of the flag consisted of a horned skeleton raising an hourglass "toasting the Devil" in its right hand.

[1] Most pirate flags at the time would have used simple imagery based on Christian symbols of mortality.

[1] Flags of a similar design had been used by Edward Low, Francis Spriggs and Charles Harris.