Emanuel Wynn

Emanuel Wynn (sometimes spelled as Emmanuel Wynne, Emanuel Wynne, Emmanuel Wynn) was a French pirate active in the 1700s. Not much is known about Wynn expect that he was active in the late 17th century around Province of Carolina, and later that he was in the Caribbean attacking Spanish and English ships.

Only written records about Wynn comes from British Admiralty Record, which states that Captain John Cranby of HMS Poole ship, engaged Emanuels’ pirate ship near the Cape Verde Islands. Captain Cranby chased Wynn near the Brava island, but Wynn escaped, perhaps aided by Portuguese Soldiers.

Emanuel Wynn was probably the first pirate to fly a Jolly Roger. His flag is a variant of today's most famous pirate flag – crossbones motif, but with an addition of an hourglass which represented that pirate prey’s time is up. Another possible explanation of an hourglass motif is that prey can only evade death by surrendering immediately.

Although not a famous pirate, variants of his flags are often featured in modern pirate stories. For example Cutthroat Island and The Island (1980) movies and the One Piece Anime.

Picture Of Emanuel Wynne
Picture Of Emanuel Wynne
NameEmanuel Wynn
CategoryPirate
NationalityFrench
Active1700s
RankCaptain