Cache placed for Hike and Seek 2021
Blackbeard’s (c. 1680 – November 22, 1718) real name was either William Thatch or William Teach depending on the source. For this article I will refer to him as William Teach because I think it’s the most well-known version of his birth name. Little is known about his early life until he became one of Captain Benjamin Hornigold’s lieutenants in 1716. Teach got his famous monicker from his long black beard that he wove into braids.
Edward Teach was in command of his own crew by 1717. At the end of that year, he captured a slave ship that he refitted and renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge – the most prized ship in his fleet.
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Teach and his crew continued to rob vessels that sailed to and from the Chesapeake Bay. They would then anchor near Ocracroke Inlet, in the Outer Banks, to repackage the loot to help conceal their illicit activities.
Blackbeard’s return to piracy seems to have been the worst kept secret in the region. In “The Last Days of Blackbeard,” Colin Woodward, historian and author of The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, Governor Eden may have known about his illegal escapades and looked the other way. But the lieutenant governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, kept track of him and was determined to capture the unrepentant criminal. Since Spotswood did not have legal authority to arrest anyone in another colony, he hired two British naval commanders to do his dirty work. One of those commanders was Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
Because of Spotswood’s reconnaissance, Maynard knew about Blackbeard’s hide out on Ocracoke. He sailed with two sloops to the Outerbanks on November 21, 1718. Although he spotted the pirate captain and his men on the 21st, he did not attack until the next morning.
Early November 22nd, Maynard and his two ships ambushed Blackbeard and twenty of his men. Blackbeard’s ship broadsided one of Maynard’s sloops and headed to open water, but his escape was hindered by a damaged sail. Maynard’s second ship, the one the lieutenant was aboard, soon caught up to Blackbeard. Blackbeard and his crew, thinking perhaps they had the upper hand, boarded the naval vessel.
The pirates and naval sailors clashed with swords, guns, and fists. The outlaws were soon overcome by Maynard and his men. Blackbeard was fatally wounded during the battle and he succumbed to his injuries. The fourteen surviving pirates were taken prisoner.
Maynard inspected Edward Teach’s corpse and noted that he had “five shot in him, and 20 dismal cuts in several parts of his body.”
Maynard then chose a pretty gruesome way of broadcasting the success of his mission. The lieutenant beheaded Teach’s corpse and dangled it from the front of his sloop. The rest of his body was dumped into the Pamlico Sound.
Maynard gave Blackbeard’s head to Spotswood when he sailed to back to Virginia. Spotswood in turn mounted the head on a pole and displayed it near Hampton Roads at a location that became known as Blackbeard’s Point. The stories of the skull do not end here but they are little more than folklore.
According local legend, the pirate’s skull became the property of a tavern owner in Williamsburg, VA, who had it lined with silver and dared his patrons to drink from it. Then it showed up at another bar in the 19th century in Alexandria, VA.
In the early 1950’s, Edward Rowe Snow, a maritime historian and author, claimed to be in possession of Blackbeard’s skull. Whenever Snow gave lectures or made public appearances he brought the skull along to show his audience. At some point after Snow died in 1982, his widow gifted his entire collection, including the silver-plated skull, to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.
I’m not sure where Snow got the skull or if there is any evidence to support his claims that the skull in his collection belonged to the legendary pirate captain. Without records of ownership or a forensic examination, it’s tough to say if William Teach’s skull was ever turned into a goblet by a tavern-owner or ended up in the basement of the Peabody Essex Museum
Although the Peabody Essex Museum did lend it out at least once for an exhibit, the museum no longer displays the silver-plated skull legend says belonged to Blackbeard.
Info from wikipedia.com