his crew was questionable, as he had no access to the procedures and sanctions of admiralty law that supported government captains. Many pirate captains were elected by their crews and could be deposed in the same manner. Because of his ignorance of nautical matters, Bonnet was in an even weaker position than other pirate captains, as is demonstrated by the utter domination Blackbeard exercised over him during their collaboration. During Bonnet's early career, his crew seems to have been less than loyal to him and to have greatly preferred the more charismatic and experienced Blackbeard. At his trial, Bonnet downplayed his own authority over his pirate crew. He told the court that his crew engaged in piracy against his will, and said he had warned them that he would leave the crew unless they stopped robbing vessels. He further stated that he had been asleep during the capture of the sloop Francis. The court did not accept these protestations. Boatswain Ignatius Pell testified that Bonnet's quartermaster, Robert Tucker, had more power than Bonnet. A powerful quartermaster appears to have been a common feature of pirate crews in the early modern era. Nevertheless, Bonnet's crew represented him as being a leader, and it appears likely that, after his rescue of Blackbeard's marooned crewmen, he became at least a co-equal commander aboard the Royal James. He appears to have been entrusted with the company's treasure, and made most major command decisions such as the direction of the ship and what vessels to attack. Most significantly, at Delaware Bay he ordered two of his crew to be flogged for breaches of discipline. Pirates did not lightly submit to flogging, as they resented the frequent use of this punishment in the naval and merchant services from which most of them came, and thus only a leader who commanded the obedience of his crew could successfully order such penalties. Bonnet's pirate flag Bonnet's flag is traditionally represented as a white skull above a horizontal long bone between a heart and a dagger, all on a black field. Despite the frequent appearance of this flag in modern pirate literature, no known early-Georgian period source describes any such device, much less attributes it to Bonnet. This version of Bonnet's flag is probably one of a number of pirate flags appearing on an undated manuscript with unknown provenance in Britain's National Maritime Museum, which was donated by Dr.