Blackbeard Newsletter

Curious Dragonfly Monthly Science Newsletter
BLACKBEARD!
WHO ARRRRR YOU?
Blackbeard is one of the most well-known
pirates in history. But who was he? It's
hard to know his exact surname; records
at the time were uncertain, and pirates
often adopted fictitious names. Records,
however, have most often listed the famed
pirate as Edward Teach (numerous
variations identified his last name as
Thatch, Thack, Theach, and more). The
English pirate is most well known for his
short reign of terror in the Caribbean Sea
between the years 1716-1718.
Blackbeard the Pirate (General
History of the Pyrates, 1725)
Little is known about the early life of the colonial pirate
named Blackbeard. He is said to have been born in Bristol,
England around 1680. Some writers also claim his place of
birth could have been New York, California, Philadelphia, or
Denmark.Very few pirates wrote about either their exploits or
their family lives. Their goal was to simply acquire a vast fortune and return
home without tarnishing their family name.
Blackbeard's career began as a seaman on privateers (armed ships owned
by private individuals authorized for use in war) sailing out of Jamaica
during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713). When the war
ended, many privateers and sailors found themselves out of work. This is
when many turned to piracy. Sometime between 1714 and 1716, Blackbeard joined the crew of Benjamin Hornigold, the founder of the Flying
Gang's Bahamian pirate republic. And so, a legend was born.
What imagery comes to mind when you think of pirates? How do you
think this differs from reality?
A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME
Hornigold, one of the most feared pirates sailing
the Caribbean, saw potential in young Edward
Teach. Soon, Teach was promoted and given
his own ship to captain. Together, the two men
became a fearsome team, cornering their victims and wreaking havoc on their ships and
crew. Between 1716 and 1717, Hornigold and
Teach were the most vile pirates sailing the
seas.
Sometime in 1717, Hornigold had amassed
Blackbeard with Ship
enough treasure and wealth to give up his life
as a pirate. He accepted a pardon from the King (Hulton Archives)
of England. Without Hornigold by his side, Blackbeard's career as a pirate
soon took off.
What do you picture a typical day in the life of a pirate to be like?
Blackbeard knew the advantage of creating a dynamic appearance in battle.
And so he would always dress in black, strapping several pistols to his chest
and donning his large black captain's hat. Slow-burning fuses were lit in the
folds of his beard and in his hair, sparking and sputtering surrounding him in a
thick fog of smoke. Blackbeard looked like the Devil himself, stepping from
Hell to the deck of a ship.
This intimidating look was not just
about fear; upon seeing the smokeringed visage of Blackbeard, many
victims easil surrendered their cargo
instead of fighting him. This was good
business. If his victims gave up without
a fight, Blackbeard would both be able
to keep their ship undamaged, and
would lose fewer crew members than
he would in battle.
Blackbeard Attacks a Ship
Painting by Frank Schoonover
What other methods could a pirate
use to intimidate his victims?
BLACKBEARD'S FLEET
Soon, Blackbeard was in charge of not one but
two ships. His second ship, the Revenge, was
claimed in Nassau after its crew claimed the
captain could not maintain the ship, and urged
Blackbeard to take command. Together, the
two ships traveled from the Caribbean up to
North America and back. Blackbeard then
captured a third ship, La Concorde, a large
French slaving ship. The ship was mounted
The Queen Anne's Revenge
with 40 guns and renamed the Queen Anne's
Revenge. The renamed ship would soon become Blackbeard's flagship. By the
end of 1717, the famed pirate had a fleet of three ships and a crew of 150.
Blackbeard and Bonnet then sailed to Mexico and Central America to raid Spanish ships. The Spanish nicknamed Blackbeard 'The Great Devil.' The mission to
plunder was successful, and in the spring of 1718, when Blackbeard and his
crew arrived back in Nassau to split the cargo, they had four ships and over 500
men.
BATTLE TO THE DEATH!
Shortly after, Blackbeard traveled to
the shores of South Carolina, to rob
and capture sailors traveling through
the Charleston harbor. When he grew
weary of this, the pirates sailed to
North Carolina and grounded the
Queen Anne's Revenge. The pirate
and his men continued to rob without penalty, and the townspeople,
fed up with it, complained to the
governor of Virginia, Alexander SpotsThe Capture of Blackbeard
wood. Spotswood, knowing two British
warships were nearby, hired them and placed them under the command of Lt.
Robert Maynard.
A grand battle of hand-to-hand combat broke out between Blackbeard and Maynard. Blackbeard was shot at least 5 times and suffered no less than 20 sword
wounds before one of Maynard's men sliced his throat. Maynard then decapitated Blackbeard and threw his body overboard, where legend says it swam
around the ship several times before sinking to the ocean floor.
ED
D EB U N K
!
A common myth about Blackbeard (and many other
pirates) is that they left behind buried
treasure. However, there are no accounts
of Blackbeard burying his fortune, and
nothing that has been dug up can be
attributed to him. Many of the items he
stole were perishable and vulnerable
to weather and the elements. This
included fabrics, cocoa, and barrels of
sugar. The myth of Blackbeard's treasure most likely came from Robert
Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island,
where one of the characters was
named for Blackbeard's real-life
boatswain. A boatswain is the foreman of a ship's deck department,
and is charge of the ship's hull. Still,
though there is no record of buried treasure, this has
not stopped treasure hunters from seeking out Blackbeard's known haunts.
Blackbeard Approaching
Frank Schoonover
DISCOVERY
A cannon recovered
from the sunken ship
On November 21, 1996, a private
search team operating under a permit from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural
Resources, discovered a number of
cannons and anchors on the seabed
near Beaufort Inlet. The site was 25
feet underwater and only 1 1/2 miles
from the shore. Several artifacts
were recovered from the site, where
they were studied to see if they truly
came from the Queen Anne's
Revenge.
CONFIRMED!
For 15 years, the sunken ship near
Beaufort Inlet was only 'thought to be'
that of the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Then, in 2011, after a comprehensive
review of the evidence, the same
officials at the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources who found
the site confirmed the wreckage as that
of Blackbeard's ship.
Map highlighting the location of the
sunken Queen Anne's Revenge.
"There was no a-ha moment," Claire
Aubel, the public relations coordinator for
the North Carolina Maritime Museums
said. "There was a collection of moments
and a deduction based on the evidence."
Have you ever discovered anything of value? How did you determine its
authenticity and value?
Aubel continued, saying there were two main reasons for the team's certainty:
the size of the wreck and the number of weapons recovered from the site. No
other ship with the magnitude of the Queen Anne's Revenge was known to
have been in the area at the time, and a pirate ship would be well-armed.
Despite the initial disclaimer about
the wreck's identity, and Aubel's
concrete reasoning behind the
team's deductions, there was no
serious doubt about the ship's
authenticity. During the beginning stages of the excavation,
however, the responsible move
was to collect and gather data
and evidence. In order to
secure funding to continue the
excavation, a solid identification
An anchor found at
needed to be made.
the crash site.
FAST TRIVIA! Some historians believe Blackbeard ran his ship aground on
purpose, so he could keep the most valuable plunder for himself!
RECOVERED
Archeologists have been recovering historical artifacts from the Queen Anne's
Revenge since its discovery in 1995. The ship's exhibit in Beaufort contains
over 280,000 artifacts. Here are just a few items found amongst the wreckage.
A cast-iron cannon, one of over 20
recovered from the site. One such
cannon was over 8-feet long and
weighed a whopping 2,000 pounds.
A pair of hand grenades, cast iron
spheres that would have been packed
with gun powder and pierced for a
wooden fuse.
A thimbles-worth of gold bits, found
intermingled with lead shot.
Archeologists conclude it was hidden
the gold in an ammunition keg.
An apothecary weight featuring two
fleurs-de-lis (the royal symbol of
France). Queen Anne's Revenge was
once a French ship called La
Concorde.
A 12-foot anchor recovered from the site. A grapnel anchor (a
small anchor with hooks for grasping or holding) was also found.
BLACKBEARD'S EMPLOYEE HEALTHCARE PLAN
Treating the sick and injured aboard a seafaring
vessel was challenging even in the best of
conditions. Pirates aboard Blackbeard's fleet
faced many illnesses, from chronic and periodic
sicknesses to wounds to toothaches to amputations. Keeping his crew healthy was such a
concern that, when Blackbeard released most
of the French crew members of the La
Concorde, he forced the ship's three surgeons
to remain. Other workers with specialties, such
as carpenters and cooks, were also
commanded to stay.
A urethral syringe.
Pestle and mortar.
Though the captive surgeons
had medical equipment, a
steady supply of medicine
was needed. In one instance,
Blackbeard blockaded the
port of Charleston, South
Carolina, taking ships and
their crew and passengers
captive and demanding a
chest of medicine from the
state's governor. When the
chest was procured, the
prisoners were released.
It seems Blackbeard's passion
for piracy led him to care deeply
for the health of his crew. However, some of the items found
in the wreckage were more
gruesome to imagine. Among
them were a urethral syringe
(pictured above), which was used
to inject mercury as a way to cure
syphilis and an instrument called a Supplies used to measure medicine.
porringer, which was most likely
used in bloodletting treatments. Other items included a cast brass mortar and
pestle to grind medicine, silver needles and scissors, and two pairs of brass set
screws that were possibly used in the application of a tourniquet.
THE LEGEND OF BLACKBEARD
Blackbeard has been immortalized in legend and lore. Though he is known now
as the King of Pirates, and was surrounded by other famous pirates -- Benjamin
Hornigold, Stede Bonnet, and Charles Vane - Blackbeard was not the most
successful pirate. Famed pirate Henry Avery took a treasure ship worth
hundreds of thousands of pounds, more than Blackbeard amassed during his
entire career. And 'Black Bart' Roberts, a contemporary of Blackbeard, captured
hundreds of ships during his days. Still, Blackbeard was an outstanding pirate
and an above-average captain.
His iconic image and history has long been a rich source of material for
Hollywood to mine.
Robert Newton played the
titular role in the 1952 film
Blackbeard the Pirate.
Ian McShane played the
famed pirate in the 2011 film
Pirates of the Caribbean: On
Stranger Tides.
ENGAGING QUESTIONS!
In the Peter Pan reimagining/prequel, titled
Pan (2015) actor Hugh
Jackman portrayed
Blackbeard.
1. What do you imagine the daily life of a pirate would consist of?
2. How do you think pirates such as Blackbeard made a name for themselves?
3. Name three other wreck sites that archeologists have discovered at the bottom
of the ocean. How has each site furthered the knowledge of the sunken vessel?
4. What methods or indicators do archeologists use to verify artifacts?
Curious Dragonfly LLC
Trina Terrell
www.curiousdragonfly.com
303.903.5319