Reading up on famous pirates and it’s said that Henry Every used both a red flag with white skull and the typical white on black style of flag. It’s said that the color red was used to symbolize “no quarter given”. To expand on my question, would there be a particular reason for him to use different flags on different ships he chased? Maybe a personal vendetta on certain ships that he would want to kill every member on board?
The real reason red was used was, yes “no quarter” but in reality did all pirates with red jolly rogers aim to kill everyone on board no matter what? Probably not. Usually it was just a scare tactic meant to make ships immediately surrender. Red didnt mean “we will kill u no matter what” it meant “if u surrender and give us everything we want without a fight we’ll probably spare u, but if ur looking for a fight...no quarter”. A black flag also didnt necessarily mean that they would give quarter (everyones human I guarantee there were captains that were ruthless that didnt like red flags or captains that just didn’t care what color they used) but a red flag definitely meant that they would not
Also many pirates would fly under fake colors (a british, french etc. flag) to avoid suspicion. Henry Avery definitely knew what he was doing and if i had to guess you were probably right. I didn’t actually know he ever flew under a red flag so im prety sure he mostly flew the black, and red was reserved for something personal, something exciting or maybe bait when they come up on an extremely dangerous/powerful ship as like a bluff to get them to surrender without a fight. Im not an expert but my fam had been sailors for generations and i love all things pirates, hope that was interesting!