Blackbeard

Edward Teach
c. 1680 - November 22, 1718
Blackbeard.gif
Blackbeard (1734 engraving)
Nickname: Blackbeard
Type: Pirate
Place of birth: Bristol, England
Place of death: Ocracoke, Province of Carolina
Allegiance: None
Years of service: 1712 – 1718
Rank: Captain
Base of Operations: Atlantic
Commands: Queen Anne's Revenge

Edward Teach (IPA: [tɛtʃ]; c. 1680[1] – November 22, 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th century, a period referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy. His best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.[2]

Blackbeard often fought, or simply showed himself, wearing a big feathered tricorn, and having multiple swords, knives, and pistols at his disposal. It was reported in A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates that he had hemp and lit matches woven into his enormous black beard during battle to intimidate his enemies. Blackbeard is often regarded as the archetypal image of the seafaring pirate.

Contents

Early life

Nothing is known about Blackbeard's early life. While his real name is usually given as "Edward Teach," most primary source documents actually record it as "Edward Thatch"[3] (or spelling variations thereof), including letters written by those who knew the pirate. Some sources claim "Edward Drummond". Most think Blackbeard was born in Bristol, but other documentation suggests that he was from either London, Jamaica, Philadelphia, or Accomack County, Virginia. Edward went to sea at an early age. He served on a British ship in the War of the Spanish Succession which also included Queen Anne's War, privateering in the Spanish West Indies and along the Spanish Main. After Britain withdrew from the war in 1713, Teach, like many other privateers, turned to piracy. He got his first taste of piracy from the pirate Benjamin Hornigold, who was based out of Jamaica. When Hornigold decided to retire from piracy after King George I offered the two pardons, Blackbeard refused the pardon. Blackbeard took over one of Hornigold's recently captured ships, French slave-ship named Le Concorde. He renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge; the 300-ton vessel was built by Britain in 1710. It was re-captured by the French a year later, upgraded with the latest technology and increased storage space, and renamed for a third time, again as "Le Concorde". Some think that the name was a tribute to the war where he got his first taste of piracy, Queen Anne's War. Queen Anne's Revenge was armed with 40 guns [4] and used to conduct Blackbeard's most significant campaigns from 1717 through 1718.

Blackbeard the Pirate

Blackbeard (18th century lithograph)

According to Charles Johnson, Blackbeard fought a running duel with the British thirty-gun man-of-war HMS Scarborough, which added to his notoriety. However, historian David Cordingly has noted that the Scarborough's log has no mention of any such battle.

Blackbeard would plunder merchant ships, forcing them to allow his crew to board their ship. The pirates would seize all of the valuables, food, liquor, and weapons. Despite his ferocious reputation, there are no verified accounts of him actually killing anyone.[5] He deliberately cultivated his barbaric reputation, and so could prevail by terror alone.[6]

However, colorful legends and vivid contemporary newspaper portrayals had him committing acts of cruelty and terror. One tale claims he shot his own first mate, saying "if he didn’t shoot one or two crewmen now and then, they’d forget who he was." Another legend is that having had too much to drink, he said to his crew, "Come, let us make a hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it." Going into the ship's hold, they closed the hatches, filled several pots with brimstone and set it on fire. Soon the men were coughing and gasping for air from the sulphurous fumes. All except Blackbeard scrambled out for fresh air. When Blackbeard emerged, he snarled, "Damn ye, ye yellow-bellied sapsuckers! I'm a better man than all ye milksops put together!"[7] According to Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates:

“ Before he sailed upon his adventures, he married a young creature of about sixteen years of age . . . and this I have been informed, made Teach's fourteenth wife . . . with whom after he had lain all night, it was his custom to invite five or six of his brutal companions to come ashore, and he would force her to prostitute herself to them all, one after another, before his face. ”

Teach had headquarters in both the Bahamas and the Carolinas as well as Sonoma. He lived on the island of Nassau where he was named the magistrate of the "Privateers Republic". Legends circulate that Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina received booty from Teach in return for unofficial protection. (Eden would eventually offer Teach an official pardon.) Teach left Nassau to avoid meeting with Royal Governor Woodes Rogers, unlike the majority of the pirate inhabitants who welcomed the governor and accepted the royal pardons he brought.

Blockade of Charleston

Blackbeard's chief claim to fame is his blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. In approximately late May 1718, Blackbeard entered the mouth of Charleston harbour with the Queen Anne's Revenge and three lighter vessels. He plundered five merchant freighters attempting to enter or leave the port. No other vessels could transit the harbour for fear of encountering the pirate squadron.

Aboard one of the ships that Blackbeard captured in the harbor mouth was a group of prominent Charleston citizens, including Samuel Wragg. Blackbeard held these hostages for ransom, making an unusual demand: a chest of medicines. He sent a deputation ashore to negotiate this ransom. Due partly to his envoys' preference for carousing rather than bargaining, the ransom took some days to be delivered, and Blackbeard evidently came close to murdering his prisoners. Eventually, the medicines were turned over, and Blackbeard released the hostages, without their clothing, but otherwise unharmed. Blackbeard's whole squadron then escaped northward.

Shortly afterward, Blackbeard ran two of his vessels aground at Topsail Inlet (now Beaufort Inlet), including the Queen Anne's Revenge, and the ship Adventure when trying to 'save' the grounded ship. He has been accused by many, including his own crew, of doing this deliberately in order to downsize his crew and increase his own share of the treasure. Deliberate or not, he stripped three of the ships of all treasure, beached or marooned most of his crew, and went to Bath, North Carolina, where he finally accepted a pardon under the royal Act of Grace. He then went off to Ocracoke Inlet in the last of his four vessels to enjoy his loot.

Death

Having accepted a pardon, Teach had apparently retired from piracy. Nevertheless, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia became concerned that the notorious freebooter lived nearby. Spotswood decided to eliminate Blackbeard, even though he lived outside of Spotswood's jurisdiction.

Blackbeard and Lieutenant Maynard

Blackbeard operated in many coastal waters; 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, 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 11, 1718, in command of thirty men from HMS Pearl, and twenty-five men and a midshipman of HMS Lyme, and in command of the hired sloops, the Ranger and Jane (temporarily commissioned as His Majesty's Ships to avoid accusations of piracy themselves). Maynard found the pirates anchored in a North Carolina inlet 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 crackers and six Negroes", 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 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. Midshipman Hyde, captain of the smaller HMS Jane, 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 in HMS Ranger, 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 assault was preceded by several grenades made by filling rum bottles with gunpowder. Broken glass swept the deck and gunpowder smoke obscured Maynard's view of Blackbeard's boarders.[4]

Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bowsprit

Maynard's men emerged, and the battle began. The most complete account of the following events comes from the Boston News-Letter:[8]

“ Maynard and Teach themselves begun the fight with their swords, Maynard making a thrust, the point of his sword against Teach's cartridge box, and bent it to the hilt. Teach broke the guard of it, and wounded Maynard's fingers but did not disable him, whereupon he jumped back and threw away his sword and fired his pistol which wounded Teach. Demelt struck in between them with his sword and cut Teach's face; in the interim both companies engaged in Maynard's sloop. Later during the battle, while Teach was loading his pistol he finally died from blood loss. Maynard then cut off his head and hung it from his bow. ”

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. Legends about his death immediately sprang up, including the oft-repeated claim that Teach's headless body, after being thrown overboard, swam between 2 and 7 times around the Adventure before sinking. Teach's head was placed as a trophy on the bowsprit of the ship (it was also required by Maynard to claim his prize when he returned home). After the sheer terror of the battle with the pirates, and the wounds that the crew received, Maynard still only acquired his meager prize of £100 from Spotswood. Teach's head was placed on a pike or pole on the north shore of the Hampton River in Virginia, at a place now called Teach's Point, as a warning to other sailors who thought of taking up a life of piracy.

Legend

"Mic the Scallywag" of the Pirates of Emerson wearing cannon fuse in his hair in honor of Blackbeard.

History has romanticised Blackbeard. Popular contemporary engravings show him with the smoking ends of his pigtails or with lit cannon fuses in his hair and pistols in his bandoliers, and he has been the subject of books, movies, and documentaries. There is a Blackbeard Festival in Hampton, Virginia every year and the crew of the modern day British warship HMS Ranger commemorate his defeat at the annual Sussex University Royal Naval Unit Blackbeard Night mess dinner in November.

Another legend in coastal North Carolina holds that Captain Teach's skull was used as the basis for a silver drinking chalice. A North Carolina judge claimed to have drunk from it one night in the 1930s at a closed dinner with a university student. (Blackbeard's Cup and Stories of the Outer Banks by Charles Harry Whedbee.)

Teach was prone to burying treasure. He would allegedly take a treasure chest ashore with one sailor in a small boat, and return alone. The sailor's corpse was said to lie atop the chest in the excavation to discourage the squeamish from continuing the treasure hunt.[4] In times as difficult as the American Revolution, it was common for the credulous to dig along the beaches in search of hidden treasure. A wreck believed to be Blackbeard's Queen Ann's Revenge was discovered near Beaufort, North Carolina in 1996 and is now part of a major tourist attraction.

Blackbeard was thought to have fourteen "wives" throughout his life, living on various islands, as well as a wife and son in England.[9][10]

Historical evidence

In 1723, the book A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates was released by a Captain Charles Johnson, often attributed to Daniel Defoe. This book describes the adventures of various pirates besides Edward Teach: e.g. Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The General Historie's descriptions, which have found their way into serious history-writing, are a mixture of historical evidence and fiction woven together in a way so complex that it is nearly impossible to divide them again. Even Defoe's authorship cannot be proved without doubt.

The problem appears especially in the case of Edward Teach's life and appearance. The description of the burning matches in his beard is in a literary style that uses dramatic descriptions to make a person more interesting—a style closely connected to Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe. Also the earlier mentioned battle with HMS Scarborough lacks evidence in the warship's log. Other incidents, e.g. the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, appear in other sources.

Fiction

Books and comics

Films and miniseries

TV

In 1956, in the tv series, The Buccaneers, Blackbeard appears in several episodes.

Computer and video games

Other

Other sources

See also

References

  1. ↑ Perry, Dan. Blackbeard: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean. Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. 14. ISBN 1-56025-885-3. 
  2. ↑ Queen Anne's Revenge Online
  3. ↑ Full discussion at http://republicofpirates.net/blog/2007/07/whats_in_a_pirates_name_teach.html
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ross, I. "Blackbeard" United States Naval Institute Proceedings October 1974 pp. 72-74
  5. ↑ "For Blackbeard, at least, this investment paid off. According to historian Angus Konstam who has investigated Blackbeard's life and piratical career extensively, until Blackbeard's final battle with the lieutenant of HMS Pearl, Robert Maynard, who took the bearded icon's life, the world's most notorious and fearsome pirate had not so much as killed a single man (2006: 157). Apparently he didn't need to." pg 21, "Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices", Peter T. Leeson
  6. ↑ "Rather than the result of flamboyance, madness, or eccentricity, pirates like Blackbeard deliberately constructed their bizarre and frightful physical appearances to facilitate piratical plunder. "There is no doubt that Blackbeard," for instance, "was conscious of the public image he had created" and worked diligently to maintain it (Lee 1974: 22)." Leeson 2008.
  7. ↑ Pendrand, Norman C. (1975) Blackbeard: The Fiercest Pirate of All.
  8. ↑ Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. pp. 198. ISBN 0-15-600549-2. 
  9. ↑ Norman C. Pendered: Published by: Times Printing Co., Inc., Manetoba, NC, 1975
  10. ↑ Blackbeard ! - Ladies Man - Coastal North Carolina, South Carolina. Outer Banks
  11. ↑ Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)
  12. ↑ http://www.snopes.com/lost/sixpence.htm
  13. ↑ snopes.com: Mostly True Stories Sixpence Error
  14. ↑ snopes.com: Urban Myths Board Game Error
  15. ↑ http://www.snopes.com/lost/false.htm
  16. ↑ "Blackbeard". World of Spectrum. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
  17. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/03/blackbeard.ap/index.html

Shomette, Donald G. Pirates on the Chesapeake: Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay, 1610-1807. Centreville, Maryland: Tidewater Publishers, 1985.

Spotswood, Alexander.The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1710-1722. Edited by R. A. Brock. New York: AMS Press Inc., 1973.

External links

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