Blackbeard 1680?-1718 
Pirate and Proud of It

Blackbeard’s early life is shrouded in mystery.  Academics argue over his birth place, birth date and even his original name, which has at least three variations: Edward Teach, Edward Thatch or even Edward Drummond.  In Bristol his memory is a mixture of both denial and proud son but, despite this, local legend persists that he was born in Redcliffe.

Blackbeard casting his fearful eyes over Bristol’s hugely successful
‘Festival of the Sea’ in 1996.

What is known isn’t very savoury.  He was thought to have 14 wives, but how many were “port wives” isn’t clear.  He served with Benjamin Hornigold and was given command of one of his prizes, a French slave ship named La Concorde which he renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge (some pirates had Jacobite sympathies).  He made the Bahamas his home during its “Pirate Republic” heyday, two years prior to Woodes Rogers’ arrival. {Woodes Rogers’ first task as Royal Governor was to clear out the nest of pirates]
 
Captain Johnson enjoyed describing Blackbeard, and the following description originates in his “General History …”. 
Decency prevents me from using the anecdote regarding the pirate’s last wife, a fifteen year old plantation owner’s daughter.

“Teach, the most colourful and well-known of all the pirates is a never dying legend.  He was a massive man noted for his boldness, fiendish appearance and roguish ways.  With cutlasses and three brace of pistols slung about him, he resembled a walking arsenal.  His long black beard was twisted with brightly coloured ribbons and turned about his ears.  Slow burning fuses (or matches) tucked under his hat wreathed his head with demonic smoke.  All this, together with his fierce and wild eyes made him such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful.”

A rare, 1724, image of Blackbeard from Capt. Johnson’s book, note the infamous
‘3 brace of pistols’ and their early design (no proper handles).

One day at sea he said to a few of his men, “come, let us make a hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it.”  He took them below, closed up the hatches and set on fire several pots filled with brimstone and other acrid matter.  One by one, close to suffocation, the men were forced to seek the upper deck.  Blackbeard held out the longest and was quite pleased that he was better fitted to live in hell than the others.

Blackbeard’s  Jolly Roger – a death figure with devils’ horns,  an hour glass (with time running out), and a pierced heart.

On another cruise in the early 1700s Blackbeard punished a mutinous crew by marooning them on Dead Man’s Chest, a small remote island in the British Virgin Islands chain, without water or landing places.  Each was given a cutlass and a bottle of rum and Teach’s hope was that they would kill each other, but when he returned at the end of 30 days he found that 15 had survived.

This would explain in full the verse:
Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest,
Yo ho ho ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo ho ho ho, and a bottle of rum!
This of course was immortalised in Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

At the edge of the township in the Bahamas, Blackbeard held his court under a wild fig tree.  He used to sit in council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating and exercising the authority of a magistrate.  It is said that under the tree he kept a barrel of rum from which all who passed by were invited to drink.  Those who hesitated were given a choice of drinking or being shot.  Amazingly several wild fig trees grow today in Bristol, one of which is opposite the old Georges Brewery in Castle Park (actually growing out of the river wall).

Blackbeard holding court.

Hornigold took Rogers’ pardon in 1718, but Blackbeard carried on his reign of terror in Virginia.  There, with his ship’s master Israel Hands, they caused havoc all around: one of their more notorious acts was to blockade harbours for days on end to obtain goods and ransom money.  In the end Governor Spottiswood brought in the Royal Navy to finish Blackbeard off.

Immediately prior to this, Israel and Blackbeard’s pilot, Marshall, were drinking together, and without provocation Teach drew out a pair of pistols and cocked them under the table. When he was ready, he crossed them and fired. Hands was shot through the knee and so missed the last engagement.  When asked why he had done this, Teach said, “Damn you all! Unless I now and then kill one of my men, they will forget who I am”.

The man sent by the Royal Navy to terminate Blackbeard’s career was Lieutenant Robert Maynard in his sloop the Pearl, and on 22nd November 1718 Maynard tricked him into battle off  Ocracoke. After a savage encounter, in which he sustained over 20 cuts and at least 5 shots, he was killed and decapitated. His headless body was thrown overboard and allegedly swam round his ship 3 times before disappearing. Of Maynard’s men, 10 were killed and 24 were wounded.

Fight to the death – one of Maynard’s men saves him in the nick of time.

As was the custom with a pirate, his head was hung from the bowsprit, and the skull ended up as a drinking vessel in a tavern in Williamsburg. The authorities caught up with Hands and would have hanged him as well had he not been reprieved at the last minute by a proclamation prolonging the pirates’ pardon. He finished his days in London a poor lame beggar.

According to Captain Johnson, here are the names of the pirates killed in the engagement:-

Edward Teach, commander	Philip Morton, gunner
Garret Gibbens, boatswain	Owen Roberts, carpenter
Thomas Miller, quartermaster	John Husk
Joseph Curtice	Joseph Brookes (1)
Nathaniel Jackson

All the rest, except the two last, were wounded and afterwards hanged in Virginia.

John Carnes	Joseph Brooks (2)
James Blake	John Gills
Thomas Gates	James White
Richard Stiles	Caesar
Joseph Philips	James Robbins
John Martin	Edward Salter
Stephen Daniel	Richard Greensail
Samuel Odel, acquitted	Israel Hands, pardoned

The prize for Maynard’s brave men who risked life and limb was £2,500 divided equally amongst the companies of his two ships, the Lime and the Pearl. The money was the proceeds of Blackbeard’s ‘Treasure’ – 25 hogsheads of sugar, 11 tierces, 145 bags of cocoa, a barrel of Indigo, and a bale of cotton, along with the sale of  Blackbeard’s sloop and monies from the Governor and his Secretary (pursuant to their proclamation).

There have been calls for a statue of Blackbeard in his home town, but some have said that a cycle path named in his honour might be more appropriate.