Almost anywhere you go on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, the spectre of Blackbeard looms. Just the name evokes mystery, danger and terror — much more than does “Edward Teach,” his real name. Who could be terrified of Edward? Though only active for a couple of years, he cut a swath down this seashore that resonates in story and legend to this day.
What’s the big deal? You have to see the coastline and contemplate the enormous number of wrecks to understand why piracy was so appealing to those who engaged in it. The larger ships lay lower in the water – their captains did not know the perilous shoals as thoroughly as the lighter, higher riding, pirates. So it was easy pickings for those willing to risk an encounter with the British Navy.
In one consequential encounter of November 22, 1718, Blackbeard tricked a British Navy lieutenant named Robert Maynard into chasing him across shallow water with sixty men in two boats, which Maynard promptly ran aground. That gave Blackbeard, with only 18 men on his sloop, the opportunity to train his guns on Maynard and, in one broadside, kill or wound half of Maynard’s crew. As far as the locals on Ocracoke know, Blackbeard had never killed anyone before that encounter, though he captured something like 40 ships in less than two years of piracy.
But that November day did not end happily, as it turns out, for Edward “Blackbeard” Teach because Maynard – though outgunned and out-foxed in the shallow waters of the Outer Banks – managed to lure Blackbeard’s crew onto one of his disabled sloops where he had secreted 20 men below decks with muskets and swords. Blackbeard’s boarding party was overwhelmed and Blackbeard himself suffered no less than five bullet and 20 sword wounds according to the official report of his death. To seal the deal, Maynard beheaded Blackbeard.
Legend has it that the headless body of Blackbeard – dead in his late 30s – swam seven times around lieutenant Maynard’s ship. But the locals doubt he could have managed more than two. In any event, Maynard carried the head back to the mouth of the Hampton River where he posted it as a warning to others contemplating a life of piracy.
Local schooner captain Rob Temple is an expert on Blackbeard and has been part of a History channel series as well as contributed to a National Geographic series on pirates.
