The Death of Blackbeard

Blackbeard, a name that has gone down in history. He has to be the most famous pirate who sailed during the Golden Age of Piracy and it's not because he plundered a lot of loot or captured many ships, not compared with other pirates of the age, He did manage to blockade Charlestown for over a week, taking hostages and demanding medicine. If they didn't receive the medicine, he threatened to execute each and every one of his prisoners. What Blackbeard was, however, was bloody scary. His epithet came from the big, black bushy beard that he sported and he was said to thread burning pieces of match beneath his hat simply to put the fear of God into his enemies. He did not last long as a pirate, sailing for just a few short years before meeting a gruesome end during a violent battle at the hands of man who had been sent to track the pirate down and capture him - dead or alive.

Not a huge amount is known about his early life, but we do know that he was named Edward Thatch (or Teach), and was born around 1680, The story goes that he was born and bred in Bristol, though there have been other arguments that he was born somewhere in the Carolina's. Wherever he was born, he clearly had some form of an education as he could read and write, and it is likely that he served on Privateering ships during Queen Anne's war. Privateering was an interesting career choice - it was, in essence, legal piracy. Equipped with a 'letter of marque' these sailors were able to loot the enemies ships as they saw fit, with absolutely no legal consequences. If Thatch had been a privateer then something must have turned him to pure piracy - many other pirates had taken that path because, as the war died down, the letters of marque were cancelled off leaving the men without a form of income. Knowing the sort of wealth they could get their hands on by capturing and stealing from ships, many of them decided to go off and do it on their own. Consequences be damned. Perhaps Blackbeard was the same.

Blackbeard in Ubisoft's 'Assassins Creed: Black Flag Resynced;'

Thatch made his way to Nassau, the pirate haven, where he met Benjamin Hornigold and the two worked together on various acts of piracy. After Hornigold retired from piracy, Blackbeard set off out on his own. He captured a French merchant vessel and took her as his flagship, naming her The Queen Anne's Revenge and fitting her with 40 guns. It was with this ship, and his frightening countenance, that Teach was able to subdue his marks with fear rather than any sort of lethal force. It was genius. And it gained him a lot of attention. After the blockade of Charlestown, though, he ran his flagship aground and took a royal pardon.

Not that his retirement lasted very long. He was back at it quickly and almost immediately had the beady eyes of Alexander Spotswood, the Governor of Virginia. Spotswood ended up being the man who authored Blackbeard's ultimate demise - he gathered together a group of navy men, headed by Robert Maynard, and ordered them to capture or kill Blackbeard and his men.

Maynard certainly did the job, and did it well. Him and his men cornered Thatch off the coast of Ocracoke island on 22 November, 1718 after fighting their way through shallow waters in vessels that carried barely any weaponry. A furious battle commenced between Thatch's men and Maynard's forces, right after the two men had squared off on the decks of their ships. According to Maynard's own account, Blackbeard raised a toast of damnation and cried out that he would neither give or take quarter. As the battle raged, Maynard ordered many of his men down below decks. Blackbeard thought that the day was his, and his broadside canons had decimated the enemy. - he took a few of his men on to the enemy ship only to be surprised when Maynard launched a surprise attack from below decks. The ensuing melee was over quickly.

It is said that Maynard was the one who fatally wounded Thatch, and that Thatch's last words were simply "well done, lad" - perhaps he was somewhat impressed, in his dying moments, that he had been taken in such a dramatic way. After this, Edward Thatch was decapitated and his head hanged from the ships bowsprit. Legend states that the headless body of Blackbeard was thrown overboard and swam three times around the ship. The reality was not quite that fanciful. Maynard later wrote that Blackbeard's body had five gunshot wounds and 20 cuts from a blade - the body was then thrown unceremoniously overboard, though it certainly did not swim around the ship!

While in reality, Blackbeard hadn't been all that great of a pirate, he managed to do something in life that his pirate colleagues could not and had not - he became memorable. He became notorious. People remembered that pirate with the black beard and burning match, who frightened his victims into giving him what he wanted. Unlike other pirates he had no need to put his victims to the sword. Oh no. All he had to do was scare them witless. And it was this notorious pirate who has inspired books, films and video games - in the modern day we still talk about Blackbeard, gaining excitement from the tales of his exploits. For myself, in particular, I was very taken with his portray in Assassins Creed; Black Sails. He was much more romanticised in the video game, but the ingredients were all there - he was a man who thrived on fear, but who respected his crew and his career immensely. Within the game his last words are different, somewhat romanticised, but they have stuck with me.

"In a world without gold, we might have been heroes'