Blackbeard

by Craig Cabell

  What then, does all this have to do with Blackbeard? Did he have any intention of accepting the King’s Pardon? We know he couldn’t remain in New Providence, so when he sailed north he was likely going to accept the pardon from another governor up the coast of America. However, why he even thought about this is something we will never really know. Some believe it was because he had simply had enough of plundering. Others believe it was because he could see so many pirates turning to the other side of the law that he may have felt that if he didn’t, more of the Royal Navy’s resources would be directed against him, increasing the chances that a more successful hunt for him would take place and lead to capture. Others believe that he was tired of the life and simply wanted a rest.

  Chapter 12

  The Beginning of the End

  A Royal Pardon could only be issued to a pirate through a colonial governor, and for Blackbeard his choices were extremely limited. Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood was out of the question because he believed that the pirates were hampering trade along the entire Atlantic coast of America. Giving a pardon to Blackbeard would have been highly improbable. He probably would have had the pirate arrested, tried and executed the moment he set foot in the colony.

  In South Carolina, Governor Robert Johnson viewed Blackbeard as Public Enemy Number One since the blockade of Charles Town, so there was no chance of obtaining a pardon from there. Johnson was just as likely to have the pirate arrested and dragged to prison before he had even managed to say the words ‘Royal Pardon’.

  Down in New Providence it was possible that Rogers might give him a pardon but if the theory that the two men knew each other is correct then Blackbeard could either have played on that knowledge or, if there was animosity there, then he would have no hope of a pardon from Rogers. Then there was the distance. After ridding himself of his flagship and the hundreds of pirates under his command, he was now in the New Adventure cruising off the coast of North Carolina, so to get to New Providence before the deadline he would have to head south down into waters where more and more warships were gathering as tensions increased in the run-up to war. There was also the deadline on the pardon – 5 September 1718. If he headed south for the Bahamas he might be able to make it as long as he didn’t have to take any detours to avoid Royal Navy warships. If he did he’d never get there in time.

  The same was true if he headed for New York. He’d never get there in time, so his only real practical choice was to accept the King’s Pardon from Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina, and there are other reasons why he might choose Eden. There has always been mystery and doubt about Eden’s complicity with the pirates in many accounts of Blackbeard. Most of these come from Captain Johnson’s narrative, on which many others have based their accounts.

  The problem is there is no concrete evidence to support the claims of complicity but there is circumstantial evidence. North Carolina was poorer than its neighbours, especially Virginia. It lacked the deep-water access for ports and the natural resources that its wealthier cousin had and it was nowhere near as well-developed, which limited its ability to carry out international trade. Its trade with other North American colonies was also limited to coastal shipping. At the time it was far easier to move goods by sea than it was by land, so the colony lacked the wealth enjoyed by other American colonies and lacked the industrial and agricultural development it needed in order to grow.

  The complicity claims are based on Charles Johnson’s account, ‘Having in the Time cultivated a very good Understanding with Charles Eden.’ This understanding is so good that Johnson tells us Blackbeard married Mary Ormond and Eden conducted the ceremony! ‘Before he sailed upon his Adventure, he married a young Creature of about sixteen Years of Age, the governor performing the Ceremony.’

  However, at the time of writing no marriage certificate had yet surfaced to prove that this marriage ever took place. While many historians point to various examples of Eden’s collusion with Blackbeard, most of them cannot really be looked at as concrete, confirmed evidence. Yet, the circumstantial evidence is persuasive.

  If Blackbeard was going to accept the offer of amnesty, he had very few alternatives other than Governor Charles Eden, who, for his part, may have been happy to be the one to issue a King’s Pardon to a man as infamous as Blackbeard.

  If we compare the positions of Governor Eden in North Carolina with Governor Spotswood in Virginia we can draw some interesting conclusions. Virginia had a much larger trading capability and more valuable produce that it could trade with than North Carolina. It had deep-water ports that could accommodate ships from around the world and certainly the large merchant ships from England. Much of North Carolina’s trade was coastal and its main export of tobacco was banned from Virginia to ensure it didn’t dilute the excellent Virginia tobacco that went across the ocean to England and the rest of Europe. This meant that tobacco from North Carolina had to travel further up and down the coast to trade with other colonies, which meant the coastal vessels carrying tobacco were at sea longer than if they were trading with Virginia, and the longer they were at sea the more vulnerable to attacks by pirates they were. Many of Blackbeard’s victims were coastal merchant vessels.

  Virginia also had a militia which Spotswood used on occasion to put down insurrection by some of the native tribes on his borders, and he had two warships that were stationed in Virginia to protect its shores and trade routes. On the other hand, North Carolina could only raise a militia to provide a partial defence against attacks from the local native tribes. We have seen in earlier chapters that Spotswood had to intervene in North Carolina to put down an insurrection that the North Carolina militia was unable to do. There were simply not enough men in arms to form a defensive line against land attacks and also defend against and hunt down pirates. Indeed, North Carolina did not have a large enough force to mount offensive operations against well-armed pirates in the way that Virginia did. So when Blackbeard accepted the King’s Pardon from Governor Eden the entire colony must have breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, that relief would not last.

  While other pirates had taken the King’s Pardon as an opportunity to clear all their previous crimes (and escape the gallows) and to start a new life, albeit with the wealth from their piracy, Blackbeard’s acceptance was something different.

  By the time Blackbeard arrived in North Carolina he’d disposed of his flagship, rid himself of Stede Bonnet and his crew and downsized into the Spanish sloop renamed New Adventure and, having accepted the King’s Pardon from Governor Eden, settled into a land-based life in Bath Town. His ship remained anchored around the shores of Ocracoke Inlet. He had plenty of treasure because he’d taken it from the flagship and the Adventure and transferred it all over to his new vessel, but the question is why was this reduction necessary? He’d been at the height of his power when he’d deliberately grounded his flagship, so what was he up to?

  To find the answers we will have to turn to Johnson and other sources as well as speculate to some degree. The first thing we need to look at is his crew. Johnson states: ‘Teach goes up to the governor of North Carolina with about twenty of his men.’ By implication these men would have been men he could trust; men such as Israel Hands. For him to have pulled off such a large betrayal as he did these men would likely have been involved in some of his plan. Does that make them friends, mates or just men who were devoted to him and would follow him no matter what?

  There is another very simple reason why Blackbeard decided to downsize. The cargo/treasure they’d plundered over the course of their voyages must have been considerable, so by drastically cutting the number of men with whom to share it he was ensuring that those remaining with him got a much bigger slice of the pie, as would he. Most pirate ships and pirate crews had their own set of regulations that helped to provide some sort of discipline and ensured that every pirate had an equal share of the loot. The smaller the crew numbers were, the higher the value of each share. Even in the eighteenth century, when
many people could not even write their own name, this would have been well understood by everyone; it concerned the one thing that was closest to every pirate’s heart – money.

  In addition there was also perception. If Blackbeard had presented himself to Eden with more than 300 pirates in tow, the perception would have been as if the pirates were invading which would have spread panic throughout the colony and very likely have caused Eden to send messengers in all directions asking for help. This, of course, would have given away Blackbeard’s location and forced him to move on somewhere else. He stood a far greater chance of being received favourably if he only had a small band of followers.

  What seems confusing is the number of people Blackbeard had actually selected to take with him. Some historians place the figure at 100, made up of forty white sailors and sixty black men. Others place the size of crew at far smaller; somewhere around thirty, while Captain Johnson states it was forty.

  For the sake of clarity we will continue to refer to the sloop that Blackbeard sailed from Topsail Inlet – the Spanish sloop – as the New Adventure to avoid confusing it with the vessel of the same name that went aground under the command of Israel Hands. The reality is that Blackbeard renamed this Spanish sloop the Adventure. So while Blackbeard and his most trusted men went to see Eden to accept the pardon and then stayed in town, the vessel remained anchored in Ocracoke Inlet. We know from history that, while most pirates accepted this as the end of their pirate lives, for Blackbeard it was to be nothing more than an interlude.

  According to Johnson, the first thing that Eden did for Blackbeard that could be construed as collusion was:

  ...To give him a right to the vessel he had taken when he was a-pirating in the great ship called the Queen Anne’s Revenge, for which purpose a court of vice-admiralty was held at Bath Town. Though Teach had never any commission in his life, and the sloop belonged to the English merchants and was taken in time of peace, she was condemned as a prize taken from the Spaniards by the said Teach. These proceedings show that governors are but men.

  In other words, Eden convened a court of vice-admiralty and gave Blackbeard the right to own the sloop now known as the New Adventure.

  Captain Ellis Brand, commanding HMS Lyme, whom we have already looked at, declared that the grounding of Queen Anne’ s Revenge at Topsail Inlet took place on 10 June, and Konstam states it took not more than two weeks to salvage everything from the flagship and the grounded Adventure and transfer it all over to the Spanish sloop (New Adventure) before Blackbeard made his escape and betrayed his crew. Then there was the voyage to Ocracoke Inlet, some 90 miles north-east by sea which could have been done in a day’s sailing around Cape Lookout and then north up through the Outer Banks, and a few weeks where Blackbeard, upon accepting the pardon, would settle into the new life ashore long enough to convince the authorities that he was a changed man, all bringing us to the early part of September 1718 for the end of this interlude.

  There are a variety of local stories of how he spent his time during this interlude. If his supposed weakness for women is true then likely he would have frequented bars, taverns and high society such as it was in the colony at the time. He was rich, famous and exciting, and to many of the women who would have captured his attention, the combination of these factors would have been hard to resist.

  His supposed marriage to Mary Ormond took place around this time as well. There is a claim that he became interested in Charles Eden’s daughter; yet, there is no official record of Eden having a daughter. However, some local legends suggest he had a mansion built for himself, but no such buildings or foundations or remains of such a building have ever been found. Some local stories also state that he took a house just outside of Bath Town on Plum Point. As for Johnson’s account of him marrying a girl of 16 and having some of his crew abuse her, that is more than likely Johnson’s attempt to spice up the narrative during this interlude in Blackbeard’s life. However, as there is no record of such a marriage taking place we can assume that he did take up with a woman who would have been a mistress rather than his wife. Again, local tradition has it that this house where they lived sat on top of a hill above Plum Point and was a good point from which to see Bath Town harbour, as well as being able to see any vessels travelling up the southward approaches to the town via the Old Town Creek. Also, the plantations of Charles Eden and his deputy Tobias Knight on the far side of the creek were easily accessible from Blackbeard’s location by rowboat.179 It is likewise probable that Blackbeard would have spent some of this time mixing with the local high society; introduced to them, no doubt, by his new benefactor, Governor Eden.

  While Blackbeard was living the quiet life in Bath Town, back in Virginia his old quartermaster, William Howard arrived in Williamsburg in the company of two negro slaves:

  I gave your Lordships an account that one Capt. Tach a noted pyrate in a ship of 40 guns run ashore in June ... and that he and his crew had surrendered to the Governor of that Province. Since which one Howard, Tach’s Quartermaster, came into this Colony, with two negros which he owned to have been piratically taken, the one from a French ship and the other from an English brigantine.180

  In addition to the pardon, Spotswood had issued a proclamation that all pirates arriving in his colony were to register with the authorities. Once Spotswood heard of Howard’s arrival he ‘caused them [Howard and the slaves] to be seized pursuant to H.M. Instructions’, but Howard did not surrender meekly. Instead he

  commenced a suit against the officer who made the seizure, and his insolence became so intolerable, without applying himself to any lawful business, that the Justices of the Peace where he resided thought fit to send him on board one of the King’s ships as a vagrant seaman.181

  Blackbeard had betrayed Stede Bonnet who had originally gone to see Governor Eden to obtain a pardon and permission to sail to St Thomas in order to get a privateering commission. Of course, once he returned to Topsail Inlet to tell Blackbeard the coast was clear for getting a pardon from Eden, he found the pirate had betrayed him. Bonnet was left in something of a quandary: to head to St Thomas as a privateer, or to hunt down Blackbeard? History shows that Bonnet returned to piracy in his quest to find Blackbeard and seek his revenge.182

  Captain Johnson, in his History, takes up the story of Bonnet in a separate narrative of the gentleman pirate. He writes that the point at which Bonnet abandoned all hope of becoming a privateer took place while he was preparing to sail to St Thomas when, ‘a bumboat, that brought apples and cider to sell to the sloop’s men, informed them, that Captain Teach lay at Ocracoke Inlet, with only eighteen or twenty hands’.

  With this news, Bonnet immediately set sail for Ocracoke in the hopes of finding Blackbeard but when he arrived there was no sign of his quarry. Indeed, Blackbeard had sailed into Bath Town and Bonnet, who did not know that Blackbeard was only a few miles away, didn’t venture any further than the Inlet. Captain Johnson confirms this: ‘It happened too late, for he missed him there, and after four days cruise, hearing no farther news of him, they steered their course towards Virginia.’

  Whether Bonnet decided to turn to piracy or his crew decided it for him isn’t known but turn to piracy they did after being unable to locate Blackbeard. At first their efforts were half-hearted, largely because it seems Bonnet’s heart wasn’t in it. Captain Johnson describes some of the action:

  Meeting with a pink with a stock of provisions on board, which they happened to be in want of; they took out of her ten or twelve barrels of pork, and about four hundredweight of bread; but because they would not have this set down to the account of piracy, they gave them eight or ten casks of rice and an old cable, in lieu thereof.

  We can see that Bonnet is still at sixes and sevens over whether or not he was a bona fide pirate. Such was the state of affairs that Bonnet lost a part of his crew after they’d taken a 60-ton sloop off Cape Henry in July 1718. This sloop carried a large cargo of liquor and molasses, both of which they needed and as Johnson sa
ys: ‘they bought two hogshead of rum and as many of molasses, which, it seems they had need of, though they had not ready money to purchase them.’ Instead, Bonnet sent some men over to the new prize sloop to take command of her and they immediately deserted.

  Over the next few days they took four outward-bound ships from Virginia and then later, cruising in the Delaware Bay, they took another vessel out of North Carolina bound for Boston. However, all of this activity was according to Johnson,

  but small game, and seemed as if they designed only to make provision for their sloop after they arrived at St Thomas; for they hitherto had dealt favourably with all those that were so unhappy to fall into their hands.

  Suddenly, however, Bonnet changed and decided to become a full-blown pirate. What changed him we shall never know. Perhaps it was his crew threatening mutiny, but whatever it was things changed. Cruising in the Delaware Bay they captured two snows in the mouth of the Delaware River, then the Francis, a 50-ton sloop bound for Barbados out of Philadelphia. This time the vessels were plundered and then cast free with no indication of buying or handing the crews anything back. Another 50-ton vessel was captured by the Revenge on its way to Barbados and this time Bonnet kept the vessel, sending a skeleton crew across to man it.

  A few days later the Fortune, a sloop out of Antigua bound for Philadelphia, was captured and completely plundered of her cargo of sugar and mostly rum. Bonnet decided to keep this sloop as well, and as soon as they had secured her cargo and the vessel, the little fleet set sail heading for Cape Fear River where he planned on cleaning and repairing the Revenge which was now badly in need of attention. Once there, the two sloops anchored in the river while the Revenge was beached inside the river mouth away from prying eyes. Of course what Bonnet didn’t know was that by staying in Cape Fear River he was putting himself and his pirate crew in danger of capture. Captain Johnson takes up the story: ‘They stayed too long for their safety, for the pirate sloop which they now new named the Royal James, proved very leaky, so that they were obliged to remain here almost two months, to refit and repair the vessel.’