Thomas Tew Flag, Traditional Pirate Emblem - c.1690s - Pirate Wax Seal Stamp

Thomas Tew Flag, Traditional Pirate Emblem - c.1690s - Historical Wax Seal Stamp

Wax seal stamp featuring the flag traditionally associated with Thomas Tew, the Rhode Island privateer and pirate whose voyages helped establish the route later known as the Pirate Round.

Thomas Tew was active during the 1690s and commanded the sloop Amity. In 1692 he received a privateering commission in Bermuda for an expedition towards the West African coast, but instead sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean.

Tew’s first voyage proved exceptionally successful. After reaching the approaches to the Red Sea, his crew intercepted a richly laden merchant vessel travelling between India and Arabia. Contemporary and near-contemporary accounts describe the resulting shares as extraordinarily valuable, helping establish Tew’s reputation and encouraging other crews to follow similar routes between the American colonies, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean.

The emblem traditionally attributed to Thomas Tew consists of a white arm holding a short curved blade against a black field. It has become one of the most recognisable designs associated with him in modern collections of historic pirate flags.

There is, however, an important historical qualification. No surviving contemporary account has yet been identified that describes Thomas Tew using this particular flag. Modern research regards the familiar design as a 20th-century attribution rather than a securely documented flag from Tew’s lifetime.

A General History of the Pyrates, first published in 1724, contains an early account of Tew and describes his voyage aboard the Amity, his journey around southern Africa and his activities near the entrance to the Red Sea. Significantly, however, that account does not describe a personal flag or connect the familiar raised-arm emblem with Tew.

The design reproduced here should therefore be understood as the traditional Thomas Tew emblem as it became established in later pirate imagery, rather than an exact reconstruction from a surviving eyewitness description.

Tew undertook a second voyage towards the Indian Ocean in 1694–1695, joining other privateers and pirate captains operating along the lucrative maritime routes between India, Arabia and the Red Sea. His career ended during this second expedition in 1695.

Design: Traditional Thomas Tew flag emblem
Person: Thomas Tew
Date: c.1690s
Period: Late 17th-century piracy
Vessel: Amity
Association: Pirate Round / Red Sea
Source Basis: Traditional later attribution
Stamp Size: 30 mm
Material: Solid brass
Type: Wax seal stamp / sealing stamp

Each stamp is made of solid brass, fitted with a wooden handle and presented in a velvet pouch.

Suitable for letters, envelopes, maritime collections, historical displays, nautical-themed stationery, pirate collections and decorative sealing.

“A gold chain or a wooden leg, we’ll stand with you!” — traditionally attributed to Tew’s crew