|
The early years of Edward Teach, the infamous Blackbeard, are shrouded in obscurity. In fact, only the last 18 months of his life can be accurately documented according to Sandra MacLean Clunies and Bruce Roberts (authors of Pirates of the Southern Coast). His last name has variously been spelled Teach, Thatch, Thach, Thache, and even Drummond. Similarly, his birthplace has been attributed to Jamaica, Philadelphia, London and Bristol, England, with the latter being the most commonly accepted by historians.
In any event he likely served as a privateer at some point during Queen Anne’s War; and by 1716, had joined the crew of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, a well-known pirate of the era. The following year he captured a French slaver, La Concorde. He renamed the slaver the Queen Anne’s Revenge, outfitted her with forty cannons, and made her the flagship of his small fleet. While Hornigold accepted a King’s pardon during the latter part of that same year and retired, Blackbeard continued on with his newfound career. Despite now being on his own, he never forgot his mentor’s most important lesson, i.e., always maintain a terrifying image and reputation.
In keeping with this lesson Teach grew a massive black beard that covered most of his face – a beard that he braided and tied with black or red ribbons. (This beard was obviously the source of his famous nickname.) He wore a crimson coat covered by a bandoleer into which were thrust an assortment of pistols and daggers. From under his hat emerged a number of slow-burning fuses which he lit and used during battle, thereby creating a demonic halo of smoke and sparks around his head. Given his imposing frame and his cultivated appearance, he certainly projected a “terrifying image” for all those who first beheld him.
His deeds often matched his terrifying appearance. For example, Terrance Zepke, author of Pirates of the Carolinas, tells the following story:
Once when the pirate leader, his trusted first mate, and another crew member were seated around a table in Teach’s cabin drinking and socializing, Blackbeard quietly pulled a pistol from one of his numerous shoulder and waist gun slings and shot his first mate, Israel Hands, in the kneecap. As the injured man screamed in agony, he managed to cry out “Why?” to which Blackbeard laughingly bellowed, “If I don’t kill somebody now and then, you’ll forget who I am!”
Nevertheless, the ladies loved him, and he enthusiastically returned that love. He is reputed to have been married at least 14 times during his brief career. Rather than avail himself of the numerous prostitutes in the various ports he frequented, he would go ashore and find an attractive young girl who appealed to him. He would return with her to his vessel and have one of his crew “marry” them. The marriage would usually endure until the Queen Anne’s Revenge and her sister ships sailed from the port in question.
The appointment of a new Royal Governor in Jamaica foretold the beginning of the end of the colony as a safe haven for pirates, and Blackbeard recognized the need to find a new base of operations. In January of 1718 he set sail for the coast of North Carolina, eventually establishing a new headquarters near the colonial capitol of Bath. Charles Eden, Governor of North Carolina at that time, was supposed to be very favorably disposed to pirates whom he may have regarded as a source of increased maritime trade for the State (i.e., pirates sold their contraband to local merchants, often at significantly discounted prices). Rumors abound that he was a close friend and may have even been a business partner of Blackbeard. Terrance Zepke notes that “according to local legend, a tunnel that ran from Bath Town Creek to the basement of Governor Eden’s house was used for the purpose of smuggling stolen goods.”
While Blackbeard is reputed to have captured and looted over 50 ships in his career, his most daring feat occurred in May of 1718 when he blockaded the city of Charleston, South Carolina. His ships stood offshore at the mouth of Charleston’s harbor, and soon seized eight merchantmen that included some of Charleston’s most prominent citizens among their passengers. Blackbeard sent one of these prisoners, Samuel Wragg, a member of the South Carolina Council of State, with two of his own crew to meet with the Governor Johnson. As instructed by Blackbeard, they demanded a ransom (that included a large chest of medicines) for the release of the Charleston captives, noting that their lives would be forfeit if Blackbeard’s demands were not speedily and completely met. Some think that Blackbeard was contemplating retiring from piracy, and that the looting of the Charleston ships and the ransom for their passengers was to construct his own “golden parachute” for his retirement years. Others suggest that Blackbeard may have contracted a venereal disease from one of his many wives, and that the medicine chest was to be put to more immediate use.
Once he received his ransom, he released his captives and set sail for North Carolina. Upon reaching the Carolina coast, he sailed his small flotilla into Topsail Inlet where he deliberately/accidentally ran his flagship and the sloop Adventure aground on a sandbar. Many historians feel that Blackbeard, foreseeing the end of his days as a pirate, deliberately wanted to reduce the size of his fleet and his crew, which had reached four ships and over 400 seamen. A smaller fleet would be harder to track, and a smaller crew would certainly reduce the number of shares into which his hoard of “ill-gotten treasure” would need to be divided. He marooned some of his crew on a sandbar, and abandoned others whom he had sent supposedly to acquire supplies. As a result of these villainous activities, he reduced his flotilla to a single sloop Adventure (smaller than the one that had been grounded with the Queen Anne’s Revenge), with a crew of 40 whites and 60 blacks. (Some have suggested that Blackbeard may have intended to sell the blacks back into slavery, which would certainly have been in keeping with his character.)
When he returned to Bath, he applied for and was granted a pardon from Governor Eden for his previous acts of piracy including the “Blockade of Charleston”. It is even rumored that the Governor presided at his wedding to a sixteen-year-old planter’s daughter, Mary Ormond, who finally agreed to marry him if he renounced his life of piracy. She apparently was his one true love, and he was willing to agree to anything to make her his bride.
After a short interlude of marital bliss, however, Blackbeard’s restless spirit drove him back to the only life he really knew—that of a pirate. He set sail in his sole surviving ship for Bermuda and promptly seized two French merchant ships loaded with valuable cargo. He placed all of the cargo in one of the ships, released the French crews to the other, and returned to North Carolina. In Bath he informed Governor Eden that he had found the French merchantman “abandoned” on the high seas.
While the North Carolina Governor appeared to believe his tale, others were not so understanding. Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, strongly opposed to piracy and involved in a bitter campaign for re-election, declared Blackbeard’s pardon from Governor Eden to be null and void because of his latest transgression. Although Spotswood was clearly in violation of the royal “Act of Grace” upon which Blackbeard’s pardon was based, he proceeded to acquire two appropriate ships and crew them with British seamen in order to pursue the “Terror from Hell” with the hope of bringing his career to an end. The commander of this pursuit was a Lieutenant Maynard, the oldest lieutenant in the British navy, who desperately needed an important victory to propel his stagnant career forward. Thus, both of the primary individuals involved with the pursuit would seem to have had a strong personal interest in Blackbeard’s apprehension.
The two British sloops sailed to Ocracoke Inlet in November; and at dawn on the twenty-second of the month, the battle between pirates and British seamen was joined. Clunies and Roberts note that “tradition has it that Blackbeard’s first cannon volley killed more than twenty men, including Captain Hyde, and crippled Hyde’s ship, the Ranger.” On board the surviving British sloop Jane, Maynard had most of his crew hide below deck, thereby tricking Blackbeard into believing that he had vanquished his pursuers. When Blackbeard and his fellow pirates boarded their presumed “prize”, they were met by Maynard and his crew, and intense hand-to-hand combat ensued. As Blackbeard and Maynard were locked in a bitter struggle, another British seaman struck Blackbeard a vicious blow to the neck, nearly severing his head from his body. However, according to Terrance Zepke, the pirate chief didn’t die until he had been shot five times and received over twenty cutlass wounds. Maynard completed severing Blackbeard’s head from his body, and then threw the body overboard. Local legend claims that Blackbeard’s body swam out around the Jane several times in search of his head, to no avail. The head was returned to Governor Spotswood in Virginia as proof of the successful completion of the mission. ................end
