The Romance of Vampires, Pirates, Skull and Crossbones

This is a tale that began in Middle-Europe during the Dark Ages and eventually traveled to the hills of New England during the 1600s. It was believed that the undead who appeared in the night to drink man’s blood were those who had died and were buried, but if they were interred without decaying were the undead. Most of these undecayed corpses displayed a nice rosy color inferring that they were gorged on their victim’s blood. Many a midnight hunt was undertaken with the use of bell, book and candle to find the undead, and many a grave was dug up in the quest.

An example of this legend is Bram Stoker’s monumental novel written in 1816 called Dracula using the historical character of Vlad the King of Transylvania during the middle ages. Vlad was known to his contempories as Vlad the Impaler because impalement was a favorite form of execution exercised by him. In this form of impalement the victim was stood up over a sharpened stake that gradually found its way up through the body until it eventually after many hours of impalement led to the victim’s death. Vlad was eventually executed by one of his enemies and buried in a chapel located on an island in Transylvania. Rumors of his returning from the dead persisted for many years after he died.

Stories of the undead persisted in Europe for centuries after Vlad’s death eventually crossing the Atlantic to the New World. New England was one of the areas that in colonial days was the scene of many stories and rumors of the undead. Many a stout New England farmer believed in the undead rising again to drink man’s blood. More then once these farmers would go forth too search out these undead. When they opened the grave of someone they suspected of this unspeakable act, and found the corpse a nice rosy color and undecayed they would drive a wooded stake through the corpses heart and leave the grave open until the corpse had thoroughly decayed. Afterwards they would return to the grave and place the skull at the top of the burial hole and place the femur bones in a cross shape below the skull. According to the traditions abounding about the undead this peculiar arrangement of the skull and crossbones insured that the undead would never rise again.

The pirates of the Carribean were contemporaries of the colonial New England farmers, and much piracy actually occurred off the coast of New England and included more then one New England farmer who for one reason or another took to the sea. Most pirates considered themselves to be members of the living dead and adopted the familiar skull and crossbones as their flag. This is the story of how the belief in vampires led to piracy and their flag, the skull and crossbones.