Edward (Blackbeard) Teach

Edward Teach or most commonly known as Blackbeard was one of the most fearsome and famous pirates of all time, even though he was only a pirate for 2 years. He was born in the 1680’s and died on the 22 of November 1718, so he was only 38 years of age. He was thought to be born in Bristol, England and was a sailor on the privateer’s ships during Queen Anne’s war. He battled Spain and France before stealing, murdering and living life on the sea as a pirate. He spent most of his time as a pirate raging up and down the coasts of the USA, looting cargo ships and attacking boats in the harbour. Blackbeard was ruthless and fearsome; anyone who was unwilling to give him a ring lost a finger as punishment. Not only did Blackbeard want to scare his victims, he wanted to scare his crew; he even shot his first mate in the knee just so they would remember who he was and so they wouldn’t commit mutiny (over throw the captain and steal his ship). He ended up wanting to scare his victims so much he had lighted fuse cords hanging from his hat to make it so he always had a cloud of smoke around him. He was so committed to being feared he had 6 pistols strapped to his chest. At some time during the 1716 Blackbeard joined the crew of Benjamin Hornigold and at that time he was one of the most feared pirates in the Caribbean. Benjamin saw great potential in Teach and in turn gave him his very own ship to command so they could capture and corner ships more easily. Then Hornigold retired and sailed the seas under his own command. Then between August and October in 1717 Stede Bonnet, who was at the time one of the worst pirates, sailed up to the harbour of Nassau and luckily Blackbeard was there at the same time they were. The crew then begged that Blackbeard take over and seeing that the revenge (the ship that Steede bonnet owned) was in good shape Blackbeard agreed....

... middle of paper ...

...Against intense training and numbers, the pirates were drawn back towards the front of the ship. Cornered Blackbeard desperately tried to attack but one of Maynard’s men stepped forward and slashed Teach across the neck, badly wounded. 7 more of Maynard’s crew stepped in and killed him, the remaining pirates the surrendered. Those left on Blackbeard’s ship were captured by Maynard’s crew, including the pirate that was planning to blow up the powder room and destroy the ship. Maynard reported that 8 of his men and 12 pirates were killed. Maynard then inspected Teaches body and found that he died with no more than 7 bullets in him and around 20 cutlass wounds Maynard then threw Teaches body into the inlet (a bay or lagoon) and his head was triumphantly hung from the bowsprit from one of Maynard’s sloops to be collected as a reward later.