BLACKBEARD the Pirate
Ocracoke's Most Famous Visitor
Edward Teach, the infamous Blackbeard, served England gallantly as a privateer in Queen
Anne's war. English naval forces were often assisted by private ship crewmen. These
"privateers" were paid to plunder rival merchant vessels. After the war ended in
1713, many privateers turned to piracy, as did Teach.
His energetic career began in the Caribbean with pirate Benjamin Hornigold. Blackbeard set
off on his own in 1717 when Hornigold rewarded him with a ship they had hijacked. Renaming
the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge , he outfitted her for pirating, including 300 men
and 40 cannons. Blackbeard sailed the Caribbean and the Atlantic along coastal waters of
American colonies, torturing merchant ship crewmen and passengers, stealing valuable cargo
and leaving destruction in his wake.
Piracy was as much a state of mind as an occupation. Pirates built upon their
reputations with actions and symbolic gestures. Flags were an important part of creating
the total pirate image. Blackbeard's flag depicting a heart dripping blood while a
skeleton held an hourglass and spear, was designed to strike fear in the hearts of his
victims. Outlandish names, like "Blackbeard", were as important as the manner of
dress.
Despite the giant-sized legend his life and times provoked, the golden age of
Blackbeard was short-lived and ended in waters near Ocracoke Village.
Piracy was prevalent in North Carolina since the Colonial Governor, Charles Eden, had
been bribed by Blackbeard to ignore the criminal activities. With commercial ships using
Ocracoke Inlet to access inland ports, Blackbeard and several other pirates found the
coastal waterway ripe for easy pickings. Though pirates anchored in the deep inlet
channels and came ashore occasionally on the southern tip of Ocracoke Island, there is no
evidence that they built homes or buried treasure here.
After tolerating Blackbeard's terrorism for eighteen months, North Carolina residents
and shipping merchants prevailed upon Governor Spotswood of Virginia for help. Acting with
the utmost secrecy, he arranged for ships and men to battle Blackbeard and strike a blow
against piracy for all time. Knowing that the lure of piracy might turn his men's heads,
Spotswood offered a bonus to his crewmen for the death of Blackbeard and his band of
cutthroats. Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard was chosen to battle Blackbeard.
Cautiously heading down the coast, he hoped to catch the pirate unaware, but when Maynard
entered Ocracoke Inlet, Blackbeard was already there preparing his new ship
Adventure
for battle.
On November 22, 1718, the heated confrontation took place. Maynard's two ships,
Jane
and Ranger, were both fired upon by Blackbeard. The Ranger was badly damaged and
several of Maynard's crew died instantly. When the Jane was hit, Maynard instructed his
crewmen to go below and the entire ship took on the illusion of death. In the smoke and
fire of the battle, Blackbeard was fooled into leading a charge aboard Maynard's vessel.
Maynard and his men surprised the pirates and proceeded to cut them down one by one.
After suffering twenty-five stab wounds and five bullets from the vicious battle,
Blackbeard died. His head was taken and, like a trophy, hung on the
Ranger's
bowsprit; his body was tossed overboard. Legend holds the body swam several times around
the ship before finally sinking from sight in the channel now known as Teach's Hole.
Jean Lafitte the
Pirate
Jean Lafitte, the famous buccaneer, terrorized the
Gulf of Mexico during the 1800s from his hidden base in Louisiana's swamps at Barataria
Bay.
His battles with the law were legendary: when Governor
William Claiborne of Louisiana offered a reward for Lafitte's capture, the pirate offered
an even larger reward for the governor's. But when the British approached Lafitte during
the War of 1812, asking for his help in their invasion of Louisiana, the pirate instead
joined forces with Andrew Jackson and helped rout the enemy at the Battle of New Orleans.
Treasure Island has
captivated children for decades and remains Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book.
With the legendary Long John Silver leading a mutinous pirate crew, children won't want to
miss the boat on this classic tale of treasure and treachery. 'Fifteen men on the dead man's chest - Yo-ho-ho,
and a bottle of rum!' All hands on deck for the swashbuckling adventure of a
lifetime!
