Welcome to the Pieces of 8 Challenge!
Some of the world’s most famous pirates have visited the North Country and left behind a large treasure chest of their richest valuables. Each of the notorious pirates then left behind a separate cache with a hint for you to find the motherload. There are 8 caches for each of the 8 pirates, plus the motherload. The pirates left a part of the coordinates for the motherload in each of their caches. They don’t need to be found in order, but they all need to be found to get the final coordinates for the motherload.
Blackbeard was born Edward Teach around 1680 in England. Not much is known about his early life, but it is believed he was a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne’s War in the early 1700s. Around 1716, he joined the crew of pirate Benjamin Hornigold. By the end of 1717, Teach possibly forced the demotion of Hornigold and took over control of his ships. Teach captured his flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, just a few weeks later in November 1717. In May 1718, Teach’s fleet blockaded the port of Charles Town in the province of South Carolina and it was shortly after that he received a pardon from the king and moved to Okracoke Island. However, by the end of 1718, the Governor of Virginia began to realize that England might benefit from Teach’s capture and pursued him to Okracoke Island, where Teach was ambushed on November 21, 1718. When Teach moved in to form a counter-attack, he was hit by the enemy’s blade in the throat, and seeing he was wounded, the enemy quickly attacked and killed Teach. His body was thrown into Okracoke Inlet and his head was suspended from the enemy’s ship so that a reward could be collected from the government. Teach became known as Blackbeard during his infamous reign of terror in the Caribbean because of his appearance; he had a long black beard and would tuck pieces of hemp soaked in saltpeter into his beard, which would smoke and give him the appearance of being a living demon.