WEBVTT - Blackbeard Update 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuffy missed in History Class from house works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.360 dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.439 Frog and I'm Tracy Wilson. Hey, you know what, I 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.680 know what. Everybody loves Piro, but he does love Pirates. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.480 We mentioned in our last episode that we're doing some 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.680 things a little bit different and doing several update episodes 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.520 in a row. It's my fault what trump Jacks is 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:32.159 a busy lady. I have a little time that I'm 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.239 taking off work, and so we are doing this that 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:37.960 we continue to have episodes. Well, I'm gone and listener 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.120 Andy pointed us to a story in Smithsonian Magazines February 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.640 fourteen issue which was called The Last Days of black Beard. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.639 It's by Colin Woodward, who has written four books, including 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.480 The Republic of Pirates, being the true and surprising story 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.760 of the Caribbean Pirates and the man who brought them down. 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.680 Uh And that one's also the basis for the NBC 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.040 show Crossbones, which stars John Malkovich's black Beard, and that 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:06.080 premiere short really uh So. In this article, which we 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:09.039 will link to in Shore Notes, Woodward writes about some 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.399 of the newest discoveries about black Beard. And these have 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.399 been gleaned from lots of archaeological and archival research. So 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.040 intrepid people crawling through archives, reading all kinds of shipping 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:24.920 documents and manifests and basically police reports from the eighteenth 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.520 century have discovered new things about the life and death 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.360 of black Beard. One of these stories is actually unearthed 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.039 in two thousand eight and it involves the last two prizes. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.679 Prizes is maybe a generous word, but the last two 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.520 ships that Blackbeard took before his final battle and death, 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.240 which took place on November seventeen eighteen, and these were 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:51.040 two French merchant ships, Latois d'Or and the rose Emilee, 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.480 and black Beard took them with a faint He and 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.840 his crew surprised and overwhelmed the crew of one. In 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.600 order to turn it against the other. He faked like 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.840 he was going at one of them and then speedily 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.240 made a turn and went to the other one instead, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.360 took it over, and then used both ships to go 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:13.320 back after the first one. This all happened in August eighteen, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.440 and that was about three months after the incident outside 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.440 Charleston that Katie and Sarah talk about in our original 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.400 episode on black Beard. At this point he had already 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.320 grounded the Queen Anne's Revenge and so he was doing 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.520 all of his rating in one of his sloops, and 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:32.000 so he did this, you know, two ships simultaneously. Heist 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.360 with a much smaller vessel than the ships that he 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.360 was taking over. And Woodwards article also supports the idea 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.000 that black Beard never actually killed anyone, which is a 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:47.560 much discussed element of this historical figures life, at least 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.160 not until that last bloody battle in which his throw 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.359 was cut. He also writes about how black Beard got 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:55.640 the Queen Anne's Revenge in the first place and what 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.800 happened to its original cargo of slaves, and he fills 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.440 in a three month gap in black beards known history, 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.720 which is just after King George the First declared a 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.640 pardon for all pirates who surrendered by September of seventeen eighteen. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.639 The two prevailing theories were that he made a name 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.919 for himself in the Gulf of Mexico as the Great Devil, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.240 and the heat just basically laid low for a while 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.520 to avoid capture. Woodward found handwritten papers in the British 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.840 archives confirming that it was the former uh probably he 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.040 was in pursuit of the Southeast Company's flagship, the Royal Prince. 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.000 And there's a lot more detail about black Beards last 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.560 Days in Woodward's article, and will link to that article 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.160 in the show notes. Yeah, we didn't want to just 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.840 basically summarize an article for your benefit in its entirety. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.240 Uh As this update. We also got an email from 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.360 a listener named Carry following the first of our Unearthed episodes, 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.960 and in that episode, we talked about the announcement from 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.560 the Underwater Archaeology branch of the North Carolina Department of 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.840 Cultural Resources, and they announced that they were intending to 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.240 salvage every single scrap of the Queen Anne's Revenge by 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.920 the end of which is this year. Carry let us 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:09.840 know that they had already brought up more than a 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.320 quarter of a million artifacts and a lot of them 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.880 are now preserved and on display at the North Carolina 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.200 Maritime Museum in Beaufort. And we'll take a little and 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:26.640 break here before we go to the original episode. So 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.359 now we're going to turn you over to Katie and 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.160 Sarah with our original episode about black Beard, which originally 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:39.520 came out in two thousand and nine. Hello, and Welcome 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.600 to the podcast. I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Downie. 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:45.960 So Katie, I've always really liked pirates in high school 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.719 and my friends and I eased to have kind of 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.520 good pirate jokes. I don't go to conventions or anything. No, no, no, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:55.240 I actually haven't even been a pirate for Halloween, but 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.080 I have. Really I do like them a lot, and 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.640 of course one of my favorites is Blackbeard. Well, I've 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.400 got you covered because the one Halloween I was a pirate, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.320 and then this past Halloween, I was Abraham Lincoln and 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.240 wore a big black Beard, but mine did not have 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.839 candlewicks in it, unlike black Beard. Blackbeard was one of 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.520 the most feared pirates in history, and it's no wonder 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.960 with the smoking fuses and the sashes full of pistols 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:30.240 and cutlasses, pistols across the chests. He definitely mastered the 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.960 art of intimidation, and he did a lot to keep 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.120 that reputation up. He wanted people fearing him, although we 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.280 don't have any evidence that he ever killed anyone who 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.200 wasn't trying to kill him. But when you're fearsome pirate, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:43.840 that's not exactly the kind of rumor you want to 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.280 spread around. The intimidation kind of saves you a lot 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.040 of work. You you just fire a few warning shots 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.760 and the ship gets handed over to you. You don't 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.440 have to go through the trouble of actually fighting and swashbuckling. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.919 So every story that spreads around, like black Beer slicing 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.240 off a passenger's finger when he wouldn't give him his ring, 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.520 that all builds up to the great Blackbeard legend. But 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.400 of course Blackbeard wasn't always a pirate, and he obviously 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.760 had another name. He was born probably in Bristol, England, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:21.359 although that's debated around sixteen ninety as Edward Teach or 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.280 possibly Edward Thatch. No one's quite sure, which will be 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.839 a theme in Blackbeard's life. Somebody who's so surrounded in legend, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.440 there's going to be a lot of conflicting information about him. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.320 So Teach enlisted as a privateer for the British in 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.320 the War of Spanish Succession, which went from seventeen o 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.560 one to seventeen thirteen. Privateers were right on the cusp 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:47.560 of legal The British government obviously wanted to have as 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.680 big of a navy as possible, but they could enhance 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.479 it a little bit with privateers, which were allowed to 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:59.320 sack French and Spanish ships and take a share of 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.920 the booty for themselves, which would help you develop your 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.400 pirrating fills. But of course the war comes to an 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:11.680 end eventually and privateers are no longer allowed to go 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.760 around sacking French and Spanish ships, and there are a 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.200 lot of people out of work, and some of them 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.400 end up turning to piracy. And the golden age of 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:24.040 piracy was the late seventeenth to the early eighteen centuries, 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.880 and as far as America goes, there have been a 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.480 bunch of laws passed by the British Parliament which had 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.360 made smuggling something that was a bit more desirable because 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.800 British imports were so expensive British taxes, right, you could 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.160 buy things so much cheaper from a pirate than you 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:46.760 could from them. So they would attack merchant ships carrying grain, molasses, rum, rope, tools, ammunition, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.520 pretty much everything, and go ahead and sell it to 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:54.480 the colonists. And because North Carolina's outer banks have shallow 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.720 sounds and inlets, it was a pirate's favorite hideout place, 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.880 which is where black Beard established his home base. But 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.000 that wasn't until seventeen eighteen, and before that he had 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.000 to get in some more pirate training. He did, and 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:12.520 he did that with Captain Benjamin Hornegal in the Caribbean. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.280 So in black Beard's sort of apprenticeship, almost with Hornegald, 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.840 they depart together and plunder a bunch of Spanish and 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:26.440 British ships of their coco and cordwood, sugar, rum, molasses, 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:31.960 all of these useful things. It's not so much the gold, 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.640 treasure and jewels, which of course is what you think 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.880 of when you think of black beard buried treasure, but 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.760 you might just be finding rum and sugar instead. Yeah, 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.559 and during this time, Teach gets his first captain c 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.360 of a small sloop and then the big guns come 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:53.160 out when Hornegal's fleet attacks a French slave ship called 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.280 the Concorde that was bound for Martinique, and Teach makes 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.400 this his flagship and renames it Queen NaN's Revenge. And 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.000 it only had fourteen guns to start with, so he 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.160 added a bunch to make it up to forty, because 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.000 you know you need your guns when you're a pirate. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.840 It's more than eighty feet long their three masts, and 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.240 he also installs a cannon, and Teach probably took this 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:19.200 ship with his classic intimidation methods. Rather than a bloody fight, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.199 It's likely he just fired some warning shots and hoisted 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.440 up the pirate flag and you know, the guy's surrender. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.760 They don't want any trouble with Blackbeard. But the captain 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.000 of the Concorde also reported when he got back to 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.559 France that Teach gave him a sloop to finish transporting 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:39.320 his cargo of slaves, which I was surprised to hear that. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.439 I always imagined pirates making you walk the plank, and 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.760 but that sounded very gentleman ling, we thought. And Horna 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.600 Gold couldn't be Blackbeard's teacher forever because after the war, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.280 the British government wanted to get rid of all their pirates, 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.280 so they got an officer named Wood's Rogers and hired 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.800 him as the governor of the Bahamas and told him 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.880 he'd better get rid of the pirates. So he said 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.720 he would grant pardons to pirates who agreed to walk 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.760 the straight and narrow, and Hornigold is one of the 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.640 ones who agreed, and he became a pirate hunter. But 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.320 that's okay with black Beard. By now because he's really 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.200 struck off on his own and starts patrolling the Virginia 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.920 and Carolina coast for his reign of terror from seventeen 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.800 sixteen seventeen eighteen. So we've already mentioned that the Outer 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.760 Banks is a fantastic place for pirates just because of 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.280 how it's designed, but it was also a great place 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.439 for black Beard himself because he met a lovely corrupt 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.000 politician by the name of Charles Eden there who would 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:42.719 allow him clemency in exchange for very generous bribes. So, 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.240 in addition to the excellent geography of North Carolina and 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.960 the corrupt governor um he's, black Beard actually ends up 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.239 being kind of a folk hero. The people of North Carolina. 0:10:54.480 --> 0:11:00.320 They're not the wealthy rice growers or tobacco grow ors 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:05.560 like South Carolina or Virginia, so they're more okay with 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.080 this deal where they get essentially duty free goods from 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.160 black Beard in exchange for sort of letting him letting 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.600 him hang in the Outer Banks. And the folk hero 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:21.760 stuff also comes from black Beard's challenge to the oppressive authority. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.640 He's lauded for sticking a hot poker into the eye 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.720 of a British official, which sounds pretty awful, but I 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.920 feel that that's a running theme and all the stuff 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.280 that we've done about gangsters and outlaws in any way, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.600 part of it is public opinion of them being the 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.800 hero who's the only one who's willing to go up 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.960 against corrupt authority. But it also assumes that that opinion 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:49.080 always turns at some point the the outlaw does something 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.200 which just pushes the reputation over the edge. And for 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.080 black Beard, this is in May seventeen eighteen in Charleston. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.520 So with four vessels and as many as four hundred 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.200 pyre its, black Beard captures eight or nine ships coming 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.480 into and out of Charleston over about a week, and 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.680 he holds the cruise of the ship's hostage along with 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:15.360 their passengers and passengers, their kids on board, women on board. 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:20.320 And Blackbeard demands a chest of medicine in exchange for 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.840 the lives of his passengers, but Charleston takes a while 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.640 the pony up yes, and in the meantime, the pirates 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.480 have decided they're not going to get it, and they've 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.000 set all the citizens up to be hanged. Like preparations 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.520 are underway. They're about to die and Charleston eventually comes 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.000 up with the ransom and gets their people back, but 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.319 not before the pirates have taken all of their clothing 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.440 and jewelry. Yeah, they returned to shore almost naked as 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:50.760 the outraged description is sent back to England. But all 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.600 office goes down pretty quickly, and within a week of 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:59.199 the Charleston hostage situation, the Queen Ann's Revenge is grounded. 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:04.480 Honestly and bar near the entrance to present day Beaufort Inlet, 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.480 and it's likely that Blackbeard beached this on purpose. He 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.840 knew how to sail a ship and how to scurry 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.880 around through the outer bank, so it's unlikely that he 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:19.720 would accidentally ground his ship. Um, it's possible he was 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:24.600 considering some kind of retirement, or at least at least 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.120 trying to dismand this group of four pirates and break 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.280 him up a little bit. Some people say he ma 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:32.600 ruined a bunch of pirates on one of the sand 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.240 bars when he left, and then took provisions from one 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.320 of the other ships and got out of there. In 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.640 addition to the black hate at Charleston, black Beard by 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.600 this point had captured something like fifty ships and he 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.480 was also charging tolls for other people ships to make 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.440 it through Pamlico Sound. So things were beginning to come 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.679 to a head. And while North Carolina and Charles Eden 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.160 were pretty okay with the pirateing money off the whole 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.360 situation right to the rich, Virginia planters and South Carolina 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:07.120 planters were not, and they appealed to the Governor of Virginia, 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.120 Alexander spots Would to do something about it, and he 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.120 engages Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to hunt 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:19.480 down black Beard. And it's not as hard as it 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:23.120 sounds to find black Beard. You know, you'd think it 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.120 would be difficult to find a pirate, right, not if 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.440 he's throwing the biggest pirate party known to man on 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.920 Ocracoke Island, which I would kind of like to be 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.440 invited to. I don't know, it might sound worth fun 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:40.280 than it really was. Drinking, womanizing, and pirates from all 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.120 over the world were invited to come, and come they 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.080 did and made a complete spectacle out of themselves. So 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.560 during this drunken pirate shindig, Maynard shows up with his 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:57.680 loops intending to kill or capture Blackbeard, and the pirates 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.320 are aware that Maynard is there, but they're trapped between 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.640 this island and a sandbar. So they prepare themselves over 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.920 the night, and well accounts they Blackbeard was very calm. 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.600 His pirates were starting to get worried. Yeah, they were 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.920 freaking out a little bit. He kept drinking everyone else 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.040 went out and put sand on the decks in case 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.600 there was blood, and so blankets and water in case 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.960 there were fires, and began preparations for battle. And Teach 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.920 only has twenty men too, while Mannard has about sixty. 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.800 But Teach his man advantage here is mounted weapons on 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.520 his sloop, which is called the Adventure. So in the morning, 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.240 everyone's kind of expecting Teach to try to make a getaway. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:47.480 Instead he waits and maynards men start to approach, and 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.600 then at the last minute, Teach just shoots off to 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.680 a little winding channel that which no one else saw. Yes, 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.000 it's right by a sandbar, and manners men all get stuck. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:03.080 But Mannard pretty good captain, and he tells everybody to 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.680 start throwing extra supplies overboard, and so they lighten the 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.640 ships enough that they're able to sail free. And Mannard 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.000 recounts that Teach drank damnation to me and my men, 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.760 whom he styled cowardly puppies an insult. I am just 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:23.720 going to be your new insults beware. And at this point, 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.160 Blackbeard's crew is bombarding a Maynard's ship with iron scraps 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.280 and nails from the guns, basically everything they've got, and 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.960 so Maynard and his men go and hide below deck, 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.760 all tricky like, and because the ship is so quiet 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.280 after this bombardment they're even grenades involved, Teach things that 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:46.400 they're dead, and the pirates board the ship, black Beard included, 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:51.040 and all of a sudden, Maynard's men rush out their 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:56.640 lives pride the gotcha moment, and Teach and Maynard go 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.080 to a face to face battle that actually gets written 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:06.320 about in the London papers, and it's really it looks 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.480 like it should be in an action movie. Maynards still 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.200 be if it hasn't already managed sort of is spent. 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:19.520 He shoots black Beard. Um. Black Beard survived after being shot, 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.280 and obviously guns are they put a big hole in 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.360 you at this point, and Um, one of Maynard's men 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:32.120 jumps in at the last minute of this brutal fight 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:36.719 between these two men and slashes black Beard's neck, and um, 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.080 I don't know how he did this with a with 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.879 a bloody slash neck, but black Beard apparently says, well done, 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.640 lad are maybe apocryphal, but it's still a good detail. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.199 But when he died, he'd been shot multiple times and 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.960 stabbed multiple times and kept fighting until the very very end. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.960 And Maynard's man actually cuts off black Beard's head, which 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.080 is strung up on the ship as a warning to 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.280 other pirates. And Maynards searched and searched for black beards treasure, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.119 as people have been doing for years, but all he 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.359 found were supplies and letters. And during the fight eight 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.399 of the other pirates were killed, some cred for mercy 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.240 and some were arrested and they were brought to trial, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:24.040 and all but two were hanged. So the pirates didn't 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.360 get off so easily either. And this was pretty much 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.480 the end of piracy, or at least the golden age 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.120 of piracy. That was November twenty, seventeen eighteen, when black 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.879 Beard was killed. So in addition to the legend about 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.240 the treasure, there's another pretty amazing one about Blackbeard's skull. 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.840 So his head is hung up on the ship, But 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.720 what happens to the skull. Maybe it went to the 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:53.240 University of Virginia. There's a legend that says the skull 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.800 was dipped in silver and kept by the university, where 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.400 fraternity members were once required to drink upon their initiation. 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.240 As a great grandfather who went to the University of Virginia, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.199 and now I'm starting to wonder was he in a 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.840 fraternity as a former member of the Greek system. I 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.399 salute you U v A for a great rumor. You 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.640 can actually go visit black Beard Island. It was acquired 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.359 by the Navy Department and then in nineteen twenty four 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.520 was made a preserve and breeding ground for wildlife and birds. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:25.760 You can only go there by boat, which I feel 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:33.560 is sitting quaint now, is it is? If you would 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.679 like to write to us, you can do so at 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.280 History Podcast at Discovery dot com. You can visit us 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.199 at Facebook dot com slash mist in History, on Twitter 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.959 at mist in History, at mist in History dot tumbler 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.080 dot com, and on pinterest dot com slash mist in 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.240 History or we Love to Pin. You can also visit 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.600 us at our website, which is missed in History dot com. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:56.719 And if you would like to learn a little bit 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.919 more about pirates, You can go to House of works 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.200 dot com and type in the word pirates in the 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.120 search bar, and you will get an article called how 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.119 Pirates work, which is quite a fun read, uh And 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.600 you can learn about that as well as almost anything 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:10.680 else you can think of at how works dot com 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:17.640 and we hopefully you do for more onness and thousands 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:32.520 of other topics. Does it has to work? Staff? Netflix 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.719 streams TV shows and movies directly to your home, saving 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.199 you time, money, and hassle. 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