Blackbeard (c.1680–November
22,
1718) was the nickname of Edward Teach alias
Edward Thatch, (other sources give his name as
Edward Drummond) a notorious
British
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, the
Queen Anne's Revenge, is believed to have run
ashore near what is now the Ocracoke 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 (ca. 1790), in Bath N.C. He is thought to
have been born in either Bristol, England or Jamaica.
Blackbeard often fought with, or simply showed
himself wearing, multiple
swords,
knives, and
pistols, and was notorious for weaving
hemp and lighted matches into his enormous black
beard during battle. This image, which he cultivated,
has made him the premier image of the seafaring pirate.
Little is known about his early life, though it is
believed he was born in
Bristol,
England in
1680. His career began as a
seaman on
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 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 12 and
the other of 8 guns, with 250 men. La Concorde
was a prize: a 300-ton frigate armed with 40
cannon, which had ranged the west coast of
Africa, taking British,
Dutch and
Portuguese ships. Teach renamed it
Queen Anne's Revenge.
Hornigold then retired, taking advantage of an
amnesty extended to privateers.
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
30-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.
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 of
North Carolina,
Charles Eden, 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 of Virginia,
Alexander Spotswood. Spotswood replied by sending
troops to hunt him down. It is questionable as to
whether Spotswood had the jurisdiction to do so.
Because Blackbeard operated in
littoral waters with shallow-bottomed ships, it was
difficult for
ships of the line to engage him in battle. Two
smaller, hired
sloops were therefore put under the command of
Lieutenant
Robert Maynard, Captain of the
HMS Pearl, with instructions to hunt down and
destroy Blackbeard. Maynard sailed from
James River on November 17,
1718, and found the pirates in a
North Carolina inlet on November 21st. Blackbeard
and his crew of twenty-five were surprised by the
pursuit. At first, Blackbeard's superior knowledge of
the inlet allowed him to manoeuvre freely while the
British ships frequently grounded. Eventually, however,
Blackbeard's frigate ran aground. Rather than engaging
in battle at a distance, he used his first
broadside as the British boarded, killing 29 men and
disabling one sloop.
Maynard, aboard the other sloop, lightened his ship
and brought it close enough that he and his men could
board Blackbeard's sloop. Maynard was overwhelmed at
first by Blackbeard's size (Teach stood 6 feet 4 inches
tall), but led his men forward. Despite the best efforts
of the pirates (including a desperate plan to blow up
their own ship), Blackbeard was killed and the battle
ended. Teach was shot 5 times and stabbed more than 20
times before he died and was decapitated by Robert
Maynard. His head was then placed as a trophy on the
bowsprit of their ship.
Legend has romanticized 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. He acquired immense wealth in
his predatory voyages, and was accustomed to burying his
treasures in the banks of creeks and rivers. 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 current 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.
External links
