Under the Jolly Roger

Infobox Book
name = Under the Jolly Roger
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Louis A. Meyer
illustrator =
cover_artist = Cliff Nielsen
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Young adult, Historical novel
publisher = Harcourt Children's Books
release_date = August 1, 2005
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback, Paperback)
pages = 528 pages
isbn = ISBN 978-0152053451
preceded_by = Curse of the Blue Tattoo
followed_by = In the Belly of the Bloodhound

"Under the Jolly Roger" is a young adult historical fiction novel set in the early 1800s. It is the third book in a series by L.A. Meyer starting with "Bloody Jack".

Plot summary

After leaving Lawson Peabody, a boarding school in Boston, Jacky goes to London to try to meet up with Jaimy. She visits his home only to be kicked out by Jaimy's mother, but their maid tells Jacky where to find Jaimy. Jacky sets off to find Jaimy, and in the meantime rescues her former gang mate Judy from a wash house. Jacky dresses as a boy in order to get into a racetrack, where Jaimy is, without being hassled for being a girl. She sees Jaimy with his cousin and mistakenly thinks that Jaimy has replaced her. She runs away and is captured by a press-gang who mistake her for a boy and take her aboard a ship, the "HMS Wolverine", where Jacky furiously reveals that she is a girl. Instead of sending her back, the captain keeps her around, wanting to have a night of sport with her. Before this happens, Jacky begins making changes to the ship and crew in an attempt to tidy up the dumpy ship. When the captain decides he wants to sleep with Jacky, she offers herself to a fellow midshipman, Robin, wanting her first time to be willing and happy instead of in fear. However they are interrupted and Jacky is sent to the Captain's cabin, where he soon has a heart attack and dies. Only Jacky knows of his death, and keeps it secret for several days in order to gain the crew's respect. She realizes that she is now Captain of the ship, all the sailors ranking above her having been sent off to deliver a message in England. She and her crew take several French ships as prizes and Jacky earns a reputation as "la belle jeune fille sans merci", or the beautiful young girl without mercy. Soon she is removed from her position as captain, but manages to escape on one of the captured ships, which she makes her own. Along with Higgins, a steward from the Wolverine, she finds a crew and begins privateering. Later, she is briefly reunited with Jaimy and finds out that the girl she saw Jaimy with was actually his cousin, and they are together again. However, they are soon separated, and Jacky goes back to Boston.