300th Anniversary of Blackbeard's Demise

[Powderhorn]

Just saw that today is the 300th Anniversary of Blackbeard's Death.  Attached is "Today in Naval History" from CAPT James Bloom:

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                                                                                                                 TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY

                                                                                   300th ANNIVERSARY

                       22 NOVEMBER 1718

 

                   DREAD PIRATE "BLACKBEARD"

 

The steady flow of valuable cargoes passing up the American seaboard in the early 18th century and the myriad of undisturbed coves and inlets along the coast attracted pirates.  One of these, Edward Drummond, had run away from his Bristol home at age 15 aboard Bristol Belle, a privateer then taking French prizes in Queen Anne's War.  Privateering often deteriorated into little more than government-sanctioned piracy, and as was common, at the close of this conflict in 1713 Belle's captain, Benjamin Hornigold, continued his lucrative raiding, now plundering ships of any nation.  Drummond had by then become Hornigold's lieutenant, adopting the nom de guerre "Teach" or "Thatch."  By 1716 he was operating his own captured ship which he renamed Queen Anne's Revenge.  He quickly developed a reputation for ruthlessness along the Carolina and Virginia coasts, where he earned the moniker "Blackbeard" for his long beard plaited in four pigtails.  By 1718 honest colonists oppressed by his marauding appealed to Virginia's royal governor Alexander Spotswood.  At the time the Royal Navy sloops HMS PEARL and HMS LYME were lying in the James River, and Spotswood charged PEARL's commander, LT Robert Maynard, with censuring Blackbeard.  Neither warship could negotiate the shallows around Blackbeard's hideout on North Carolina's Outer Banks, so Maynard employed two smaller sloops.  In one of these, RANGER, Maynard embarked 35 seamen, and on the other, 25 seamen were led by LT Baker of LYME.  On 21 November Maynard approached Ocracoke, Blackbeard being forewarned and confidently unconcerned.

This morning Maynard made his attack.  Blackbeard cut the cables on his ship, Adventure, in an attempt to flee but promptly ran aground.  Baker's boat approached from the flank and was raked mercilessly with a broadside that disabled 21 sailors.  Another broadside hit RANGER, but Maynard had kept his men protected below deck.  Ranger grappled Adventure and as the two ships pulled close the well-armed pirates threw grenades.  Seeing the deck clear and thinking the bombs had done their grizzly work Blackbeard ordered his 18 men across.  At this moment the British tars sprang from the hatches and a vicious hand-to-hand action ensued.  Blackbeard and Maynard immediately fell upon each other--the two lunged and parried, pistols cracked and cutlasses flashed.  In the struggle Blackbeard was hit with five balls and slashed some 20 times.  When the savage buccaneer finally fell the sword-handy Maynard had suffered only a cut on his fingers.  Ten pirates were killed; nine others were wounded and captured.  In keeping with tradition of the day, Maynard severed Blackbeard's head and displayed this trophy from the masthead upon his return to Norfolk.

 

Watch for more "Today in Naval History"  29 NOV 18

 

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

 

Gollomb, Joseph.  Pirates Old and New.  New York, NY: MaCaulay Company, 1928, pp. 35-53.

 

Gosse, Philip.  The Pirate's Who's Who.  Boston, MA: Charles E. Lauriat Co., 1924, pp. 291-95.

 

Mitchell, David.  Pirates.  London, England: Thames and Hudson, 1976, p. 91.

 

Sherry, Frank.  Raiders and Rebels:  The Golden Age of Piracy.  New York, NY: Quill William Morrow, 1986, pp. 235-252.

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Eleven Royal Navy sailors died as a result of this action (including LT Baker) and 25 were wounded.

Blackbeard usually carried at least three loaded matchlock pistols tucked under a belt across his shoulder.  In battle he kept several smoldering matches for these pistols conveniently perched on his cocked hat, hence the legend that he set his hair on fire to succor his terrifying image.  So much lore has grown around Blackbeard's demise in the subsequent centuries that the real details have probably been clouded.  It has been told for example that Blackbeard assigned a trusted mate, a black former slave named Julius Caesar, to fire Adventure's magazine in the event of Blackbeard's death--an action prevented only when a captive in Adventure's hold wrestled Caesar to the deck.  Less likely legend holds that Blackbeard's headless corpse, dumped overboard by Maynard, swam several times around RANGER in an apparent search for its lost member. 

It is suspected that Blackbeard's saga may have been in part an inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure novel Treasure Island.  One of Blackbeard's most trusted mates was Israel Hands, a name borrowed by Stevenson for a lieutenant of his fictional pirate "Long John Silver."  The real-life Hands survived to later receive a royal pardon but spend the last years of his life blind and penniless, begging on the streets of London.  He thus may have inspired Stevenson's character, "Blind Pew."