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QMR - The Quest for Morgan's Rum
Blackbeard was the most notorious pirate in the history of seafaring. With a beard that almost covered his face, he would strike terror into the hearts of his victims, according to one early account, by sticking cannon fuses under his hat, and lighting them during battle. Reportedly a tall man, he added to his menacing appearance by wearing a crimson coat, two swords at his waist, and bandoleers stuffed with numerous pistols and knives across his chest.
The sight of Blackbeard was enough to make most of his victims surrender without a fight. If they gave up peacefully, he would usually take their valuables, navigational instruments, weapons, and rum before allowing them to sail away. If they resisted, he would often maroon the crews and burn their ship. Blackbeard worked hard at establishing his devilish image, but there is no archival evidence to indicate that he ever killed anyone who was not trying to kill him.
Blackbeard's lawless career lasted only a few years, but his fearsome reputation has long outlived him. Thought to have been a native of England, he was using the name Edward Thatch when he began his pirating sometime after 1713.
Sometime during the summerof 1717, Blackbeard encountered another vessel flying the black flag. She was the ten-gun pirate sloop Revenge from Barbados, commanded by Stede Bonnet, "The Gentleman Pirate." Bonnet had been an educated and wealthy landowner before turning to piracy. After inviting the Revenge to sail along with him, Blackbeard soon realized that Bonnet was a poor leader and an incompetent sailor. He appointed another pirate to command Revenge, and forced Bonnet to become a "guest" aboard his ship, where he remained a virtual prisoner, until the pirate company was split up some months later.
In November 1717, in the eastern Caribbean, Thatch took a 14-gun, richly laden French slaveship called Concorde Thatch decided to make Concorde his flagship, increased her armament to 40 guns, and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge (or QAR).
During the winter of 1717-1718, QAR and Revenge cruised the Caribbean, taking prizes. Along the way, Blackbeard decided to keep two more smaller captured vessels. When he sailed northward up the American coast in the spring of 1718, he was in command of four vessels and over 300 pirates.
Blackbeard's reign of terror climaxed in a week-long blockade of the port of Charleston, S.C. in May 1718. One week later, tQAR was lost at Beaufort Inlet. One of the smaller vessels in Blackbeard's flotilla, the ten-gun sloop Adventure, was lost the same day while purportedly trying to assist the stranded flagship.
Before leaving Beaufort Inlet, Blackbeard marooned disgruntled pirates on a deserted sandbar, stripped Bonnet's sloop Revenge of her provisions, and absconded with much of the accumulated plunder aboard another smaller vessel. Bonnet rescued the marooned men and, with them, resumed his lawless ways aboard the Revenge, which he re-named the Royal James.
In October 1718, Bonnet and his crew were captured near present-day Wilmington, North Carolina, and taken to Charleston, where they were tried for piracy. All except four were found guilty. All of the rest except Bonnet were hanged that November 8th. (The record of that trial, published in London in 1719, provided researchers with important clues to the location of the QAR site.) Bonnet escaped briefly, but was recaptured and then hanged on December 10, 1718.
Meanwhile, Blackbeard and his confidants had sailed to Bath Town, then the capital of North Carolina, where they received pardons from Governor Charles Eden. In November 1718, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, knowing that Blackbeard and his men had continued taking ships long after the period of amnesty had expired, sent a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where Blackbeard was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke Inlet on November 22, 1718. During the action, Blackbeard received a reported five musketball wounds and more than 20 sword lacerations before dying. Blackbeard had captured over 50 ships during his piratical career, and his death virtually represented the end of an era in the history of piracy in the New World.
Many thanks to Mandarin Lake for placing the original cache.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre snyyra oenapu