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Blackbeard

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For other uses, see Blackbeard (disambiguation).

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A flag often attributed to Blackbeard.

Blackbeard (November 23, 1675 [1] – November 22, 1718) was the nickname of Edward Teach, alias Edward Thatch (one source gives his name as Edward Drummond), 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 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.

Some accounts claim that he had as many as fourteen wives, most of them common-law, but documentation is lacking. His last wife was Mary Ormond (or Ormand) of Bath, North Carolina, to whom he was married for only 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 ,a big feathered hat, and having multiple swords, knives, and pistols at his disposal. It was said that he had hemp and lighted matches woven into his enormous black beard during battle. Accounts of people who saw him fighting say that they thought he "looked like the devil" with his fearsome face and the smoke cloud around his head. This image, which he cultivated, has made him the premier image of the seafaring pirate.

Biography

Blackbeard is thought to have been born in Bristol, England on November 23, 1675, although some accounts mention Jamaica as his birthplace. He went to sea at an early age and apparently was a privateer before turning pirate. 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[2] was a prize: a two-hundred-ton frigate armed with twenty cannons, which had ranged the west coast of Africa, taking Dutch and Portuguese ships. Teach armed it with an additional twenty guns (bringing total cannons to forty) and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.[3]

Teach originally served as a pirate under Benjamin Hornigold. In 1717, Hornigold retired, taking advantage of an amnesty extended to privateers by the British government.

The 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. Curiously, despite his ferocious reputation, there are no verified accounts of his ever actually having killed anyone.

However, colourful legends and vivid contemporary newspaper portrayals (albeit unsourced) had him committing various acts of cruelty and terror. 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." 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 sulphurous 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!"[citation needed] 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 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.

Although Teach had apparently retired, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia became concerned that this purported former pirate was settled in the region. Spotswood sent troops to hunt Teach down. It is questionable as to whether Spotswood had the jurisdiction to do so.

Death

Blackbeard operated in littoral waters; 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 12, 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 (temporarily commissioned as His Majesty's Ships to avoid accusations of piracy themselves), 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 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 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: [4]

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 pretty much; in the interim both companies engaged in Maynard's sloop, one of Maynard's men being a Highlander, engaged Teach with his broad sword, who gave Teach a cut on the neck. 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. Such was the mythical status of the man. 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 recieved, Maynard still only acquired his meager prize of £100 from Spotswood. Later, Teach's head hung from a pike in Bath.

The Legend

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. 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.

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. A ship believed to have been Blackbeard's was discovered near Beaufort, North Carolina in 1996 and is now part of a major tourist attraction.

Fiction

Books and comics

  • Blackbeard appears as a character in Stephen Vincent Benet's drama, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1937). He is part of the Jury of the Damned summoned by the Devil.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island contains two references to Blackbeard. (1883)
    • "Heard of him [a pirate named Captain Flint]!" cried the squire. "Heard of him, you say! He was the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed. Blackbeard was a child to Flint. The Spaniards were so prodigiously afraid of him that, I tell you, sir, I was sometimes proud he was an Englishman."
    • In the book,Treasure Island , one of Long John Silver's pirates is named Israel Hands, after one of Blackbeard's pirates who was assigned to captain the captured ship Adventure.
  • Blackbeard is a significant character in the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. (1987)
  • Edward Teach appears in Neal Stephenson's series: The Baroque Cycle, commanding a fleet of pirate vessels. A large portion of the opening book Quicksilver involves Blackbeard pursuing Daniel Waterhouse, the protagonist, along the coast of New England (2004)
  • The children's book Pirate Chase, by Earl Schenk Miers, tells the story of Blackbeard's demise, written from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy who helps in the chase.
  • In Marvel Comics, Doctor Doom sends the Fantastic Four back in time to find Blackbeard's treasure, but events unfold in such a way that the Thing turns out to be Blackbeard.
  • In DC Comics, the immortal Vandal Savage took the alias Edward Teach and earned the nickname 'Blackbeard'. He later faked his own death.
  • A character named Blackbeard (Marshall D. Teach instead of Edward Teach) is one of the most powerful pirates in the world of One Piece.
  • Blackbeard appeared in one of the Time Warp Trio book series titled The Not-So-Jolly Roger.
  • Edward Teach is an important secondary character in Gregory Keyes' series The Age of Unreason.
  • In Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Master of Ballantrae" there is a pirate captain with a black beard called Teach, but he is distinguished from the Teach of this article.
  • According to Peter Pan, Captain Hook was Blackbeard's boatswain.

Films & Mini-series

  • Blackbeard appears in the movie Anne of the Indies (1951).
  • Blackbeard the Pirate (1952)
  • Peter Ustinov played the title role in the 1968 film comedy "Blackbeard's Ghost". [3] (1968)
  • Yellowbeard (1983), the title character played by Graham Chapman was based on Blackbeard, and strongly resembled him, save as a blond.
  • Blackbeard (2005): The Real Pirate Of The Caribbean, a mini-series by the BBC, starring James Purefoy as Blackbeard.
  • In June 2006, Hallmark Entertainment premiered a three-hour presentation of "Blackbeard", a fictional account of Edward Teach, starring Angus MacFadyen (from Braveheart) as the pirate. Originally filmed as a four-hour mini-series, the full version has been released abroad and on DVD. Shot entirely on location in Thailand, the film was directed by Kevin Connor and written by Bryce Zabel. Although many of the names and places are accurate, this Blackbeard is essentially a fictional story about the pirate's obsession to find the missing treasure of Captain Kidd. imdb.com

Music

TV

  • On the Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror IV: The Devil and Homer Simpson, the Devil summons a "Jury of the Damned" to determine whether Homer should go to hell for exchanging his soul for a doughnut (this was inspired by "The Devil and Daniel Webster"). One of those chosen to be on the jury is Blackbeard. After Marge informs him that the only chair left to sit on is a baby's high chair, Blackbeard responds in a tautology, "Arr! This chair be high, says I!"
  • Blackbeard is featured in Time Squad as a pirate who wants to save the mammals (or animals). There was an error in his second appearance (Repeat Offender) that he is said to be a pirate operating along the Caribbean. (July 6, 2001)
  • Blackbeard can be seen sitting next to a customer in the Krusty Krab in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, Sailor Mouth. (September 21, 2001)
  • Cartoon series Kids Next Door features a regular villain called "Stickybeard", a fearsome pirate captain whose long black beard is festooned with sticky lollipops and candies.
  • Blackbeard was among other infamous historical figures brought into the present time in an episode of Xiaolin Showdown.
  • Blackbeard is a traitor and deserter of The Whitebeard Pirates in the anime and manga series One Piece. His full name is Marshall D. Teach.
  • In Adventures in Odyssey episode 297: "Blackbeard's Treasure," two main characters discover Blackbeard's treasure while holidaying in Bath.
  • Snopes, a website that normally investigates and verifies the truth of urban legends, created a false rumour [4] that the rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence was used as a recruitment tool by Blackbeard. TLC (The Learning Channel) was taken in by this farce, and broadcast it as fact during one of their shows [5]. The board game urban myth also fell for the spoof [6]. Snopes claims they created the spoof to test readers' ability to use their common sense to judge for themselves the likelihood of urban legends [7]. (1999)
  • In the Time Warp Trio episode, "The Not so Jolly Roger", Fred, Sam, and Joe, are forced to join Blackbeard's crew.
  • National Geographic Channel "Blackbeard: Terror at Sea" 88 min. It is presented as a docu-drama. DVD release feature, "Fact vs. Folklore"
  • One of the artifacts on "Legends of the Hidden Temple" was "Blackbeard's Treasure Map".
  • Part of the History Channel's "True Caribbean Pirates" deals with Blackbeard.

Computer & Video games

  • In the computer game Sid Meier's Pirates!, Blackbeard plays a major role as a rival pirate and the 1st most notorious pirate in the Caribbean. (1987 and 2004)
  • In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, a card catalogue entry in the Phatt Island library mentions Blackbeard: "BIOGRAPHY: 'ME AND BLACKBEARD'" (1991)
  • In the computer role-playing game, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Edward Teach is the name of a famous pirate who transports the character to certain locations in the game world. (August 21, 2001)
  • 'Baltor the Blackbearded' appears in the Sega Dreamcast game Skies of Arcadia. His ship is called 'The Blackbeard', and Baltor himself resembles Blackbeard.
  • In the MMORPG, City of Villains, Blackbeard massacred the soldiers of a fort at the fictional location of Port Oakes, causing their ghosts to haunt the area. (2005)
  • In the adventure game Red Jack: The Revenge of the Brethren, Blackbeard is portrayed as one of the aforementioned brethren under Red Jack's command.
  • In 7 Studios' video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow a boss in the game makes an appearance named Black Smoke James, he bears quite a resemblance to BlackBeard and has some of his notable traits, he was voiced by Steven Jay Blum.
  • In the computer game Port Royale I&II {Ascaron Entertainment}, he appears as a marauding pirate that loots merchant fleets and Spannish treasure fleets.
  • In the video game Golden Sun, there is an extra boss named Deadbeard, on Crossbone Island, a takeoff of Blackbeard.

Other

Footnotes

  1. ^ Perry, Dan. Blackbeard: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-885-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |origdate= (help)
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. p. 198. ISBN 0-15-600549-2.

Other Sources

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