Blackbeard is probably one of the most recognizable names in the history of pirates, but his career as a captain on a pirate ship was extremely short-lived.
Edward Thatch (or Teach) began his pirating career in 1716 when he joined Captain Benjamin Hornigold’s crew.
A few years later, after Blackbeard’s death, Captain Hornigold said that Blackbeard was his star pupil in the field of piracy, and for good reason. Blackbeard was an absolute beast of the seas.
In the winter of 1717 to 1718, Blackbeard fitted out his 40-gun ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. He cruised along the North American coast, attacking and plundering ships for their cargo.
By May of 1718, he titled himself the Commodore of a small fleet of ships that sailed under his authority.
The crews of cargo ships and small coastal towns feared him. His acts of piracy were well-known, but it was his appearance that most people remembered.
Blackbeard had a long, thick black beard. He wore his hair in braided pigtails and before he would attack another ship, he would take fuse cords that had been dipped in saltpeter and lime water, place the cords under the brim of his hat, and light them. The smoking cords made him look like a demon.
In Virginia, Governor Spotswood decided that ridding the colonies of Blackwood’s reign of terror would make him a more popular politician. He gathered a group of loyal men, led by a Lieutenant Maynard, and sent them off from Hampton, Virginia on November 17, 1718
The Lieutenant spotted Blackbeard’s ship on November 21. On that night, Blackbeard was on his ship, drinking rum, with a skeleton crew of 18 men.
Before sunrise the next day, the Lieutenant raised anchor and sailed closer to Blackbeard’s ship. At sunrise, the Lieutenant sent a rowboat out to signal the course.
Blackbeard saw the rowboat and fired on it and the battle was on.
Through trickery, Blackbeard led the Lieutenant’s sloops into a narrow channel where they got caught on a sand bar. Shouts were exchanged between Blackbeard and the Lieutenant. Blackbeard’s canons roared, killing about 20 of Maynard’s men.
After some struggle, the Lieutenant freed his sloop and again approached Blackbeard’s ship, but Blackbeard’s men were ready with homemade grenades. The crew threw these at the Lieutenant’s ship and when the smoke cleared, Blackbeard gave the order to board the lieutenant’s sloop.
Blackbeard thought that he had killed more men with the grenade attack, but Maynard had outsmarted him. He had what was left of his crew hide below deck and when Blackbeard and his men boarded the sloop, the crew ran up and met Blackbeard’s men with full force.
As the men fought for their lives, Blackbeard and Maynard fought their way towards each other. Both men fired upon each other, but only Maynard’s bullet made its mark.
Wounded, Blackbeard raised his cutlass and fought on as the Lieutenant’s men attacked him from behind, wounding him in the neck.
As the seamen saw Blackbeard weaken from blood loss, they began stabbing him.
It took 5 bullet wounds and over 20 cuts and stabs to kill Captain Blackbeard.
After Blackbeard died, Maynard ordered his head cut off. it was then hung from bowsprit of the sloop. The headless body was thrown overboard.
Maynard returned to Virginia and gave the prized head to Spotswood who displayed it on a pole near an intersection of the Hampton and James River.
What exactly happened to the head after it was displayed is uncertain, although legend states that pirates eventually stole the remaining skull and turned it into a drinking bowl.
