Blackbeard the Pirate
The infamous Mr. Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the Pirate, is back in the news.
A team of archeologists has been excavating the famed bandit’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge (a converted French merchant ship), since 1997, and Time Magazine is reporting that the team may have discovered Blackbeard’s sword.
National Geographic has pictures online of the recovered objects.
The Time Magazine article offers some interesting Blackbeard facts and a quick synopsis of the buccaneer’s final days:
- Blackbeard’s thick mass of facial hair was so menacing that it has been immortalized in history.
- Among the first pirates to fly the black flag with bones on it.
- Had a habit of lighting fuses under his hat to create a threatening halo of smoke around him.
- Abandoned the Queen Anne’s Revenge after blockading the port of Charleston, S.C. in 1717, where he and the crew successfully got ransom from the British colonial government for the town and the residents.
- British troops out of Virginia eventually found Blackbeard hiding out in Ocracoke Island along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and after a fierce battle, Blackbeard was beheaded.
At least one historian, Kevin Duffus, has a theory that these famed Blackbeard tales may be much exaggerated, and Blackbeard may not have been a pirate at all.
Blackbeard memorial celebrations still occur on Ocracoke Island.
