Edward "Blackbeard' Teach
Blackbeard was born Edward Teach and won his nickname by his long beard and flowing black locks. He was a skillful navigator and a feared naval tactician. By the early years of the 18th century, Blackbeard had become the best known and most feared of all the rogues of the high seas. In 1718 he sailed a fleet of pirate ships, terrorizing and wreaking havoc up and down the east coast of Florida in his ship the Queen Ann’s Revenge. Blackbeard’s best-known incursion into U.S. history was in May 1718 when he sailed his fleet of pirate ships into Charleston Harbor. He blockaded the harbor, captured and plundered nine ships and took several hostages including a member of the South Carolina Legislature. He held the prisoners for ransom, which the city gladly paid to get back their citizens, and to see the stern of his ship, Queen Ann’s Revenge, sailing away.
The ruthless pirate met his demise just a few months later when the governor of Virginia dispatched a small fleet to Blackbeard’s stronghold on Ocracoke Island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. After a fierce battle, Blackbeard and many of his men were killed or captured. Lt. Robert Maynard, commander of the Virginia contingent, executed Blackbeard on the deck of his ship. He chopped off Blackbeard’s head and attached it to his mast. Legend has it that when they threw Blackbeard’s body over, it swam around the boat seven times before sinking. The specter of Blackbeard’s head hanging on the mast of Maynard’s ship made quite a sensation when Maynard sailed his ship into the harbor at Norfolk.
Blackbeards flagship, the Queen Annes Revenge, was found in 1996 off the coast of Beaufort, North Carolina. One of the cannons the Queen Annes Revenge carried was a Robinette Cannon, now displayed in the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort North Caroline. Very few of these cannons have been found. In the Antilles Trading Company museum you will find a shipwreck Robinette cannon found off the Delaware Bay.