Blackbeard

by Craig Cabell

  As the sloop came closer he saw the black flag. So they were pirates after all. At this time most pirates relied on creating fear rather than actually fighting in order to induce their victims into surrender, but Wyer was not a man to be easily swayed and his ship outgunned the little sloop. Wyer ordered the cannons to be loaded and made ready to engage the approaching vessel.

  It was around nine o’clock that evening when the sloop moved in under the stern of the Protestant Caesar ‘and fired Several Cannon in upon the said Ship and a Volley of small Shot, unto which he returned two of his Stern Chase Guns, and a like Volley of small Shot’.

  A verbal warning, in English, came from the sloop. If the Protestant Caesar dared fire another shot, the pirates would not even consider the option of their surrender once the ship had been boarded. This sloop is most likely the Revenge, which was now under the command of a man with the rather obscure name of Captain Richard Richards. Nothing much is known about Richards at all, so it is likely that this was an alias.

  The warning fell on deaf ears: ‘Captain Wyer continued Fighting them till twelve a clock at Night when she left the Ship, and so he continued his Course to the Bay of Honduras.’ Clearly, both vessels were close enough for shouts from one to be heard by those aboard the other, so how no damage ensued from this engagement is not known, but if there was any damage it wasn’t reported in the Boston News Letter.

  Some might say that this was a brave act on the part of Wyer and his crew, but if we take the report seriously then the sloop was completely outgunned and would very likely have been completely destroyed had the fight continued. The reason we say this is because of a line in the report and a line that Johnson uses later, ‘which said Sloop came under Captain Wyer’s Stern’. This implies that the sloop was small compared with the Protestant Caesar. The sloop had ten guns, the Protestant Caesar had twenty-six, and her crew was trained to use them so the sloop had no chance.

  However, if Wyer had known he was being attacked by one of Blackbeard’s fleet he might have thought twice about resisting, but as we have seen the battle raged for three hours, then the sloop withdrew and sailed away. The most likely reason for this withdrawal is that it had exhausted its ammunition supply or Richards simply realised they were outgunned and outclassed so withdrew to call in the big guns – the Queen Anne’ s Revenge.

  The withdrawal of the Revenge from the battle showed that a pirate could be beaten, even one operating together with the most notorious and feared pirate on the high seas. The Protestant Caesar had scored a victory that few could match and had resumed its journey to the Bay of Honduras. Having been attacked on 28 March 1718, Captain Wyer made good time and arrived at his destination on 1 April 1718. He planned on remaining in port for around a week, loading logwood into the hold. Wyer must have felt on top of the world.

  However, that would soon change.

  Chapter 8

  The Adventure Continues

  Meanwhile, beyond the horizon but still in the vicinity, a sloop was making its way around the Turneffe Islands. This little cluster, just off the coast of what is now Belize, is made up of around 200 tiny islands surrounded by coral reefs.

  The Turneffe Islands lay in the Bay of Honduras, home to part of the second-largest coral reef in the world. The sloop that was heading into these waters had managed the crossing all the way from Jamaica. It had traversed some of the most pirate-ridden waters in the world and was within just a few miles of its destination when disaster struck. The captain, one David Herriot, was sailing his 80-ton sloop, the Adventure, along the coastal waters, searching for a way into the cluster of logwood areas known to be thereabouts.

  The Revenge appeared from around the islands and headed straight for the Adventure:

  At Turniff [sic], ten leagues short of the Bay of Honduras, the pirates took in fresh water. While they were at anchor there they saw a sloop coming in, whereupon Richards in the sloop Revenge, slipped his cable, and ran out to meet her, who upon seeing the black flag hoisted, struck sail and came to under the stern of Teach the commodore. She was called the Adventure, from Jamaica, with David Herriot master.127

  Blackbeard took a liking to this 80-ton sloop. There was something special about it that fitted his requirements and he claimed the vessel as his own. Captain Herriot and his crew became prisoners and Herriot was forced into joining Blackbeard, a claim borne out by subsequent sighting and events, and by claims that Herriot would subsequently make.

  Quite how this enforced recruitment was achieved has never really been established. Perhaps Herriot saw this as the only opportunity he would ever have of some day reclaiming his vessel, and when he later found himself accused of being a pirate by association, the enforced nature of his conspiracy was his only defence.

  To all intents and purposes, Herriot was now like Bonnet, a prisoner on his own ship, under the command of Israel Hands, the former ship’s master of the Queen Anne’ s Revenge and second-in-command, who had been sent over to take command of the Adventure by Blackbeard. This gave Blackbeard a flotilla including his flagship and a couple of sloops under his command, along with roughly 300 pirates.

  What happened to the crew of the Adventure isn’t known but it is likely that Blackbeard continued in his tradition of selecting the best men from among them who had specific skills he needed to man the new ship alongside his own comrades, thus ensuring that the conquered crew remained loyal and obedient.

  Remember how Richards had failed to capture the Protestant Caesar? While there are no records of what actually took place between Blackbeard and Richards when the latter reported his failure in taking the vessel, his action to slip his cable and go out to take the Adventure was probably his way of making amends for it. We’ll never know. Based on Blackbeard’s reputation and his treatment of people who defied him or failed him it is unlikely that Blackbeard took Richards’ failure with grace and a polite wish that Richards experience better luck next time. More than likely the pirate threatened Richards with his life; he may even have hit him or pointed a pistol at him giving him one more chance before he killed him. We can never know. At some point, Richards might have wondered whether he was going to walk out of Blackbeard’s cabin with all his limbs, and his head, still attached to the rest of his body.

  The Boston News Letter provides an example of Blackbeard’s reaction to Richards’ failure to take the Protestant Caesar, through the deposition of the master of the Land of Promise, Thomas Newton. Newton’s ship had been taken by Blackbeard and he stated in his report that the tall, intimidating and powerful English pirate with his black flowing beard had decided on a course of action. There was no way he was going to allow anyone to reach any port with news that he could be beaten. He had a reputation to uphold. He had worked tirelessly to build it up; and he was not going to let some worthless ship’s captain destroy it by claiming that they had beaten a ship under his command. Other captains may start to believe the same and the fear factor he relied upon so heavily would diminish even more rapidly than it had grown. That ship, he decided, had to be destroyed and he would divert all his resources to this very important task: ‘Captain Teach told Captain Newton after he had taken him, that he was bound to the Bay of Honduras to Burn the Ship Protestant Caesar.’128

  The Queen Anne’s Revenge set sail, escorted by its flotilla of sloops. The mission was simple, to destroy the Protestant Caesar. If plunder could be added into that, all well and good, but it was a low priority. The Protestant Caesar had defied him. The Protestant Caesar was doomed.

  Captain Newton reported seeing only two ships, the Queen Anne’s Revenge commanded by Blackbeard and alongside it a sloop, tiny by comparison, of ten guns and most likely the Revenge. Where then was the Adventure? It was either tucked away on the far side of the Queen Anne’ s Revenge or hidden from Captain Newton’s sight at that time or it was elsewhere. We know already that Blackbeard told Captain Newton of his intentions, so this must mean that he must have gone aboard the Queen Anne’ s Revenge. Based on Bl
ackbeard’s behaviour so far it is likely that Newton was summoned to appear before the pirate captain.

  Back in the Bay of Honduras Captain Wyer in command of the Protestant Caesar was overseeing the loading of logwood into the hold. The ship had so far taken onboard about 50 tons of logwood with the remainder still to be loaded. Suddenly, there was a shout. On the horizon a sail was spotted, then a few minutes later another, then another and then another. The first sail was from a large ex-slaver bristling with guns and around this formidable ship were four small sloops. Wyer stared at the horizon. As the ships came closer he thought one of the sloops looked familiar.

  Earlier we established that there were three ships in Blackbeard’s flotilla, his own flagship and two sloops; now we have five ships. He had the Revenge, the Adventure and the Land of Promise with him. Where did the others come from? We believe that Blackbeard had attacked some more shipping but it is not clear what he kept and what he sent away. Perhaps there was a discrepancy in the stories from the two captains – Wyer and Newton – or perhaps there was a discrepancy in the reporting? More than likely the other ship joined Blackbeard at some point between the pirate taking the Land of Promise and this meeting with the Protestant Caesar.

  Wyer’s heart must have sunk when he saw the black flags boasting the death-heads. He knew they were pirates. He had battled pirates before and won; perhaps he could do it again? Calling his officers and crew together on the deck of the Protestant Caesar he asked them if they would stand by him and defend the ship: ‘They answered if they were Spaniards they would stand by him as long as they had Life, but if they were Pirates they would not Fight.’129

  So what was the problem with fighting? They’d resisted before and won. However, that had been a small sloop that they outgunned, and this was entirely different. The largest ship alone outgunned the Protestant Caesar, but with four other sloops also firing at them and then the musket shot from hundreds of pirates they wouldn’t stand a chance.

  However, if they were Spanish then they had a possibility of survival if they were taken prisoner. The reputation of many pirates was that resistance by those captured meant almost certain death in battle, or torture then death later.

  Captain Wyer decided a parlay was in order so he ordered his second mate to row across in the pinnace and find out who they were. Wyer already knew the ships belonged to pirates, so as he watched the pinnace row across to the flagship he must have been playing for time.

  He didn’t get the parlay and didn’t have to wait long to find out which pirate he was facing. It could only be one man. The second mate discovered the identity of the larger ship and of one of the sloops and hurried back to his captain. Of course the large ship was the Queen Anne’ s Revenge and one of the sloops was indeed the one that had attacked them several days before. The first stage of the battle had been to Wyer, but the second stage was going to be very different indeed.

  When the second mate returned and told Wyer and his crew who he was facing, Wyer’s crew panicked. They must have been convinced they would be tortured and murdered so with this news they jumped ship and fled to the shore to hide. Wyer had no alternative. His crew wouldn’t fight and he couldn’t resist as one man, so he was compelled to join his crew in hiding in the jungle that covered most of the area. From their hiding places among the trees they would have watched in safety as the pirates poured over their ship taking whatever they wanted.

  This rampage took three days as the report in the Boston News Letter tells us: ‘And on the 11th of April three days after Captain Wyer’s ship Protestant Caesar was taken, Captain Teach the Pirate sent word on shore to Captain Wyer, that if he came on Board he would do him no hurt.’

  Wyer accepted the invitation likely because he knew he had no choice. He was on a fairly desolate island with his ship, his only means of returning to civilisation, in the hands of pirates who, if they wanted to, could start swarming the area in search of himself and his crew.

  He met with the pirate captain, who informed him that he was pleased that Captain Wyer had vacated the Protestant Caesar before his arrival. Even Blackbeard himself would not have been able to hold his own men back and deny them their desire for revenge if Captain Wyer and any of his crew had remained on board. Judging by Blackbeard’s reputation and actions, it seems doubtful that he would even try to restrain them.

  The fact that Captain Wyer even survived this meeting also gives us a little more insight into Blackbeard’s character. Again we see him as a man in complete control. The lives of Wyer and his crew are in Blackbeard’s hands. Imagine the scene: Blackbeard calmly telling Wyer that if he or his crew tried to resist he wouldn’t be able to stop his men from killing them all. Very likely Blackbeard could have snapped his fingers and Wyer would have had his throat slit by one of the crew or by Blackbeard himself. His reputation as a ruthless man had been carefully built up over the years. Yet here he was, allowing someone who had stood up to his crew and humiliated him to leave with his life and all his body parts intact. Perhaps, under the surface, the pirate harboured a certain degree of admiration for his fellow captain?

  Much to the surprise of his crew Captain Wyer returned to dry land unharmed. The following day on 12 April 1718, Wyer and his crew witnessed the final chapter in the life of the Protestant Caesar. We can only speculate on how Wyer must have felt – completely powerless as the pirates scrambled over his ship setting a series of fires. Within minutes the flames were licking the deck and reaching up into the air and the ship was soon engulfed, the wooden hull and the wood in the hold fuelling the inferno. By the time the flames exhausted themselves, there was nothing left of the ship to see above the water line.

  Earlier Blackbeard had taken the Land of Promise and held its captain, Thomas Newton and the crew under guard, putting his own people in command. Now Blackbeard must have decided to cut the Land of Promise loose and let Newton go because the March edition of the Boston News Letter tells us that Wyer arrived in Boston on board the Land of Promise under the command of Thomas Newton. So Newton must have rescued Wyer from the island after being freed by Blackbeard. Was this another calculated action by the pirate to ensure his activities were known to as many people as possible to keep building his reputation?

  We know Blackbeard was an educated man, so it is unlikely he wouldn’t know that Wyer and Newton would report what had happened to the authorities. It is very probable that this is exactly what Blackbeard wanted. The burning of the Great Allen and the Protestant Caesar would send ripples of fear throughout the region to the authorities who had recently executed pirates, but what of his compassionate treatment of the crews of these ships? Perhaps he was thinking ahead that if he was ever caught he could point to these events as part of a defence? Or, as we have stated before, was this part of the Blackbeard control over the lives of his victims?

  With his work in the Caribbean completed, ships taken and plundered, his crew and flotilla established, it was time for Blackbeard to head north. The weather along the North American Atlantic coast was improving and for the next few months, those waters would be his next hunting ground until he headed south again into the Caribbean for the winter, but he was destined to never sail into those waters again.

  Chapter 9

  Charles Town

  The unspeakable calamity this poor Province suffers

  from pyrates obliges me to inform your Lordships of it in order

  that his Majestie may know it and be induced to afford us the

  assistance of a frigate or two to cruse hereabouts upon them for we are

  continually alarmed and our ships taken to the utter ruin of our trade ...130

  Robert Johnson Governor, South Carolina, June 1718

  Like many settlements in North America, Charles Town (Charleston) was, in the early eighteenth century, a vibrant, small bustling settlement of around 5,000 inhabitants. Its large accommodating harbour located behind the marshy Cummins Point ran for 3 miles inland to the point on the headland where the Ashley Ri
ver and the Cooper River joined.

  The European influence in the area came in 1663. After the English Civil War had ended with the reign of Oliver Cromwell and the subsequent restoration of the monarchy after his death, King Charles II granted several of his friends and supporters portions of land in the territories that would become South Carolina. However, it was several years before the first settlement, Charles Town (named after the King), would start to appear, some miles from the location of the present city.131

  The concerns about attack were always foremost in the minds of the early population. There was the possibility of attack from the French, the Spanish, the various tribes of Native Americans and, of course, pirates.

  The town was situated on the peninsula between the two rivers. Because of its close proximity to Spanish-held Florida, defences were hugely important so a wall was built on the Cooper River banks running north to south, with another wall on the landward side of the peninsula that connected to the walls along the Cooper River. Along the walls were a series of triangular bastions designed to lay down defensive crossfire on any attacking army at any point along the defensive walls. Although it would suffer a series of attacks and blockades during its history, few were as infamous as the one that occurred in May 1718.

  Most of the walls were built of earth and a ditch had been dug in front of them. However, the city planners realised that the most likely place for an enemy to attack would be from the sea, so the wall along the Cooper River was made of brick, with five bastions and one semi-circular battery housing cannon that were aimed out over the harbour, but their range was extremely limited.

  By this time the town was the fifth-largest settlement in North America and many of the inhabitants were growing wealthy in the booming economy, based initially on rice. The import of slaves, while it existed, was not as extensive here as it was in some of the more southerly areas like the Caribbean. Other trades that soon became prominent were indigo, a dye used in the textile industry in Britain, and timber.