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Blackbeard

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Blackbeard
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Blackbeard

Blackbeard (c. 1680–November 22, 1718) was the nickname of Edward Teach, alias Edward Thatch (other sources give his name as Edward Drummond, although his birth name is not known), a notorious English pirate who had a short reign of terror in the Caribbean Sea between 1716 and 1718, during a period of time referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy. His final and best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed by some to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.

Blackbeard had over a dozen wives, most of which were common-law marriages. His last wife was Mary Ormond (or Ormand) of Bath, North Carolina, to whom he was only married for a short while. A painting of him hangs in Van Der Veer House (ce. 1790), in Bath.

Blackbeard often fought with, or simply showed himself wearing, multiple swords, knives, and pistols, and was notorious for wearing hemp and lighted matches woven into his enormous black beard during battle. This image, which he cultivated, has made him the premier image of the seafaring pirate.

Contents

Background

Little is known about his early life, though it is believed he was born around 1680, possibly in Bristol, England, or in Jamaica. His career began as a seaman on British privateers sailing out of Jamaica during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1713), and later served aboard a Jamaican ship commanded by the pirate Benjamin Hornigold, whom he met at New Providence, the Bahamas, in 1716. He was eventually made a captain while serving under Hornigold when, near the island of Martinique, they captured the French slave ship La Concorde out of Nantes, on November 28, 1717.

According to the French governor of the island, "Edoard Titche" commanded two boats of British pirates, one of twelve and the other of eight guns, with 250 men. Le Concorde de Nantes[link] was a prize: a two-hundred-ton frigate armed with twenty cannons, which had ranged the west coast of Africa, taking British, Dutch and Portuguese ships. Teach armed it with an additional twenty guns (bringing total cannons to forty) and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.[link]

Hornigold then retired, taking advantage of an amnesty extended to privateers by the British government.

Pirate

In the following two years Teach acquired a fearsome reputation for cruelty after repeatedly preying on shipping and coastal settlements of the West Indies and the Atlantic coast of North America. A running duel with the British thirty-gunned man-of-war HMS Scarborough added to his notoriety.

He would raid merchant ships, coming up on them in major channels and forcing them to allow him and his crew to board their ship. Teach and his men would take all of the valuables, food, liquor, and weapons from the ship and if there was no resistance, let the merchant ship go. On ships that resisted, all aboard were killed.

One legend says that he shot his own first mate, because "if he didn’t shoot one or two [crewmen] now and then, they’d forget who he was." [link] Another says that on one occasion, having too much to drink, Blackbeard said to his crew, "Come, let us make a Hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it." Going below into the ship's hold, they closed the hatches, filled several pots with brimstone and other combustible matter and set them on fire. Soon the men were coughing and gasping for air as the hold filled with sulfurous fumes. All of the men, with the exception of Blackbeard quickly scrambled for fresh air. When Blackbeard finally emerged he snarled, "Damn ye, ye yellow-bellied sapsuckers! I'm a better man than all ye milksops put together!"

Teach kept headquarters in both the Bahamas and the Carolinas. He lived on the island of Nassau where he was named the magistrate of the "Privateers Republic". The Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina received booty from Teach in return for unofficial protection and gave him an official pardon. He was forced to leave Nassau by Royal Governor Woodes Rogers when the island was raided and all pirate occupants were either killed or driven out.

Despite this setback, Teach went back to piracy after a few weeks. As his violent raids increased, the citizens of North Carolina lost patience and sent an appeal to the Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia. Spotswood replied by sending troops to hunt him down. It is questionable as to whether Spotswood had the jurisdiction to do so.

Death

Blackbeard operated in littoral waters with shallow-bottomed ships; it was difficult for ships of the line to engage him in battle. As such, two smaller hired sloops were therefore put under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard, with instructions from Spotswood to hunt down and destroy Blackbeard, offering a reward of £100, and smaller sums for the lesser crew members. Maynard sailed from James River on November 17, 1718, in command of thirty men from HMS Pearl, and twenty-five men and a midshipman of the HMS Lyme, and in command of the hired sloops, the Ranger and Jane, and found the pirates in a North Carolina inlet anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island, on the evening of November 21. Maynard and his men decided to wait until the following morning because the tide would be more favourable. Blackbeard's Adventure had a crew of only nineteen, "Thirteen white and six Negros", as reported to the Admiralty.

A small boat was sent ahead at daybreak, was fired upon, and quickly retreated. Blackbeard's superior knowledge of the inlet was of much help, although he and his crew had been drinking in his cabin the night prior. Throughout the night Blackbeard waited for Maynard to make his move. Blackbeard was asked by one of his crew, "If ye die on the morrow, does your wife, Mary, know where ye buried the treasure?" Blackbeard reputedly laughed and replied, "Damn ye, my friend, nobody but me and the Devil knows where it's hid — and the longest liver will get it all."[[Citing sources citation needed]] Blackbeard cut his anchor cable and quickly attempted to move towards a narrow channel. Maynard made chase; however his sloops ran aground, and there was a shouted exchange between captains.

Maynard's account says, "At our first salutation, he drank Damnation to me and my Men, whom he stil'd Cowardly Puppies, saying, He would neither give nor take Quarter", although many different versions of the dialogue exist. Eventually, Maynard's sloops were able to float freely again, and he began to row towards Blackbeard, since the wind was not strong enough at the time for setting sail. When they came upon Blackbeard's Adventure, they were hit with a devastating broadside attack. Mr. Hyde, captain of the smaller sloop Ranger, was killed along with six other men. Ten men were also wounded in the surprise attack. The sloop fell astern and was little help in the following action. Maynard continued his pursuit, managing to blast the Adventure's rigging, forcing it ashore. Maynard ordered many of his crew into the holds and readied to be boarded. As his ship approached, Blackbeard saw the mostly empty decks, assumed it was safe to board, and did so with ten men.

Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bow
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Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bow

Maynard's men emerged, and the battle began. The most complete account of the following events comes from the Boston News Letter:

Despite the best efforts of the pirates (including a desperate plan to blow up the Adventure), Teach was killed, and the battle ended. Teach was reportedly shot five times and stabbed more than twenty times before he died and was decapitated. His head was then placed as a trophy on the bowsprit of the ship (it was also required by Maynard to claim his prize when he returned home).

History has romanticised Blackbeard. Many popular contemporary engravings show him with the smoking lit ends of his pigtails and the pistols stuck in his bandoliers, and he has been the subject of books, movies, and documentaries. Teach never actually acquired a large fortune, and when his ship and all of its cargo was sold, the earnings were a mere £2,500. There is also no significant evidence supporting the claims that Teach was prone to burying treasure. In times as desperate and difficult as the American Revolution, it was common for the ignorant, credulous, and desperate to dig along these banks in search of hidden treasures; impostors found an ample basis in these rumours for schemes of delusion. His ship is believed to have been discovered near Beaufort, North Carolina in 1996 and is now part of a major tourist attraction.

Fiction

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Computer games

Footnotes

External links

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