Blackbeard

by Craig Cabell

  During this time they captured a small coastal vessel and used the wood from her hull to replace the damaged and rotten timber on the Revenge, now renamed the Royal James.

  Bonnet had taken the captain and crew of the Fortune prisoner and they were now also stranded while the Royal James underwent repairs. Later, in his report to the South Carolina authorities Captain Mainwaring, commanding the Fortune, stated the pirates had treated him and his crew with some civility and it is partly from him and other witnesses that the facts in the narrative of Stede Bonnet are derived.

  So Bonnet remained in the mouth of Cape Fear River, South Carolina, for two months making repairs while not far away, Governor Robert Johnson in Charles Town had become aware of their presence and was making plans to capture the pirates.

  The capture of Bonnet had actually started with a second blockade of Charles Town by Charles Vane. In August 1718 Vane, commanding two vessels, cruised off Charles Town Bar for several days taking as many ships as they could. Still smarting from the blockade by Blackbeard back in June, Governor Johnson was in no mood to just lie down in the face of Vane’s blockade. In one day, Vane captured an outbound slave ship and a couple of inbound sloops. The following day he attacked another four vessels and plundered them. Governor Johnson met with the Council of South Carolina and decided to take the fight to the pirates. The colony was in dire financial straits largely because of the disruption of trade caused by piracy, yet they decided to create their own naval squadron to protect them from piracy and to get Vane.

  The decision was not a quick one. The politicians argued over the cost and as they did, one of the colony’s most prominent citizens offered his help. He was Colonel William Rhett, a British-born rice baron who had first arrived with his wife Sarah in South Carolina in 1698. He was something of a hero as well, having led a small naval force that had stopped a Spanish-Franco raid on Charles Town in 1706.

  Rhett offered the use of two of his ships for anti-piracy work. All the Governor had to do was pay for fitting them out, which he readily agreed to and also made Rhett the colony’s only official pirate-hunter. Captain Johnson goes into detail about the preparations:

  In a few days two sloops were equipped and manned: the Henry with 8 guns and seventy men, commanded by Captain John Masters, and the Sea Nymph, with 8 guns and sixty men, commanded by Captain Fayrer Hall, both under the entire direction and command of the aforesaid Colonel Rhett, who, on the 14th September, went on board the Henry, and, with the other sloop, sailed from Charles Town to Sullivants Island, to put themselves in order for the cruise.

  They were too late to attack Vane, but Rhett knew that Bonnet was still at the mouth of Cape Fear River and he set his little fleet on a course for him.

  By 26 September the two South Carolina sloops arrived at Oak Island which lay at the narrow entrance to the river. The whole area was filled with shoals and sand bars and still is today; these change with every winter storm. ‘In the evening, the colonel with his small squadron, entered the river, and saw, over a point of land, three sloops at an anchor, which were Major Bonnet and his prizes,’ Captain Johnson writes in his narrative of Bonnet.

  In the meantime, Bonnet’s sentries had discovered the two sloops and as Captain Johnson states the pirates ‘manned three canoes, and sent them down to take them, but they quickly found their mistake, and returned to the sloop, with the unwelcome news’.

  Both sides now prepared for a dawn attack. Bonnet moved first while it was still dark. As the sun came up the two South Carolina sloops saw the Royal James (which had now been put back in the water) moving towards them, gun ports open, guns primed and the gunners ready. However, just as they came within range of musket fire, the pirate ship ran aground, a sitting duck for the two South Carolina sloops. Under way, the Henry and the Sea Nymph headed straight for the Royal James and as they came within pistol-shot range, both sloops ran aground so all three ships were now stuck and could only wait for the tide to come in to float them out of harm’s way. The three ships lay on opposite sides of the main channel; the Royal Fortune lay on her starboard side, the other two sloops on their port sides. The decks of the two sloops lay exposed to the pirates who were protected by the hull of the Royal James, so the South Carolinians would get the worst of the fire, which they did.

  A gun battle that lasted for five hours ensued, with both sides peppering each other with pistol and musket fire. Rhett’s expedition had lost twelve men dead and eighteen wounded, while there were only nine casualties on the pirate side.183 Finally, the tide returned and it was the Henry that moved first and managed to get into position where it could fire a broadside across the bows of the pirate vessel. The end of the road had arrived for Bonnet and he had no choice but to surrender. He soon found himself in jail awaiting trial and very probably the noose.184

  Buoyed by this success the hunt for Blackbeard was moved up a notch. The Governor of South Carolina had managed to capture a noted pirate. The Governor of New Providence had managed to successfully turn one of the most well-known pirates, Benjamin Hornigold, into a pirate-hunter. However, in North Carolina perhaps the most notorious pirate of the time was leading the life of Riley with Governor Eden appearing to look the other way when it came to Blackbeard breaking the pardon. It was now down to Spotswood to bag his own pirate. There were a couple on offer: Blackbeard and Charles Vane. The latter had refused a pardon and the former had taken one and then chose to ignore it. Both were fair game but Vane was apparently far away. Blackbeard was nearby.

  According to Captain Johnson, Blackbeard was throwing a party while Bonnet was battling Rhett and his men. Indeed, Blackbeard’s guest of honour was none other than Charles Vane who had sailed north to the Outer Banks and met up with Blackbeard at Ocracoke Inlet:

  Captain Vane went into an inlet to the northward, where he met with Captain Thatch or Teach, otherwise called Blackbeard, who he saluted (when he found who he was) with his great guns, loaded with shot (as is the custom among pirates when they meet) which are fired wide, or up into the air. Blackbeard answered the salute in the same manner, and civilities passed for some days, when about the beginning of October, Vane took leave and sailed further to the northward.185

  There is some doubt if this meeting ever took place, largely because it only appears in Captain Johnson’s narrative concerning Vane. If such a meeting between two famous and powerful pirates did take place it would have had serious repercussions throughout the colonies. While Governor Eden in North Carolina seems to have had little influence over Blackbeard, to have a meeting of this magnitude on his doorstep would have been difficult for him to ignore. Vane would have been known and it is possible that Eden had got wind of Vane refusing the pardon offered when Rogers arrived in New Providence. If the two were meeting, he would have to take note and investigate what was transpiring, especially if, as Johnson says, the meeting lasted ‘some days’.

  Conversely, this meeting could have been the catalyst that gave Governor Spotswood the excuse to act and go after Blackbeard. Here is a man who hated everything that Blackbeard represented and having the beginnings of another pirate haven right on his doorstep, the governor of the colony in which this haven was located unable to do anything about it was just too much. In Virginia, Spotswood was under great political strain and was keenly aware that any attempt to hunt and capture or kill Blackbeard while he was under the protection of another governor in a neighbouring colony could cause his political downfall. He also had a low opinion of Governor Eden and even went as far as to make a claim of ‘... the insolence of that gang of pyrates and the weakness of that Government to restrain them’.186

  Spotswood’s career was in the balance. One way to salvage it would be to go after a notorious pirate but he would need as much justification as possible to mount an expedition. However, if he failed he could at least salvage something by claiming that, with the gathering of so many pirates in one place, he was both compelled into urgent action before he had completed full preparations and te
rrified that any lack of action would mean that the pirates, having been expelled from New Providence, could regroup and become stronger off the coast of North Carolina. However, in his papers Spotswood does not mention this meeting between Blackbeard and Vane, so there is some doubt as to whether the meeting took place.

  The reason why Spotswood decided to act, according to Johnson, was because of the complaints from traders: ‘... having at the same time received complaints from divers of the trading people of that Province [North Carolina] of the insolence of that gang of pyrates ...’187

  Sometime around September 1718 Johnson tells us that Blackbeard broke the conditions of the pardon and returned to piracy. He had sailed towards Bermuda when a chance encounter brought him into the company of two or three English vessels that he plundered in full violation of the restrictions he’d accepted under the King’s Pardon.188

  He then attacked two French vessels sailing together for Martinique. One was laden with sugar and cocoa and the other was apparently empty. His own sloop laden with the cargo from the two English vessels, Blackbeard ordered the crew of the French vessel carrying the goods to transfer to the empty one and then he let them go on their way. The fully-loaded French vessel he kept and now, once again, Blackbeard was in command of a tiny fleet. The two ships headed back for North Carolina, the New Adventure leading with the newly-captured French vessel, loaded with sugar and cocoa, in its wake.189

  Back in North Carolina Blackbeard managed to convince Charles Eden that he had found the vessel adrift, loaded with cargo and without a crew, so he’d claimed it. Such a claim, if true, or believed to be true, was acceptable. Under maritime salvage laws, a vessel found adrift could become the property of the salvager providing no-one came forward with a legal claim to that ship and to protest that it had been taken from them:190

  When Teach and his prize arrived, he and four of his crew went to his Excellency and made affidavit that they found the French ship at sea, without a soul on board her; and then a court was called and the ship condemned.

  Because an illegal act could not be proved, and Charles Eden could only proceed on the evidence presented before him, or rather the lack of evidence, Blackbeard had to be assumed to be telling the truth. The fact that both Eden and Tobias Knight presided over the court was no coincidence because it was part of their jobs. However, Captain Johnson says ‘the governor and the pirates shared the plunder’. It is from this account and others by Johnson and accusations from Spotswood that the charges of complicity by Eden spring. Johnson states, ‘the governor had sixty hogshead of sugar for his dividend, and one Mr. Knight, who was his secretary and collector for the province, twenty’. The fact that Eden could claim a portion of the cargo was a fact of maritime and colonial law at the time. The remainder of the cargo was divided between the captain and his crew.

  Once the ship had been stripped of its cargo it had to be destroyed, as Johnson states: ‘It is possible one or other might come into the river that might be acquainted with her, and so discover the roguery.’ Blackbeard then went back to Eden, claiming the ship was leaking and no longer fit for sailing. If it sank in the river it could become a hazard to shipping and removal would be far more difficult and expensive than removing it while it was still afloat. As the colony had no deep-water ports and relied on whatever shipping could navigate its shallow waterways and inlets, the Governor did not want to risk having something blocking a trading lifeline. He issued an order for the vessel to be taken out into the river and burnt.191 ‘She was burnt down to the water’s edge, her bottom sunk, and with it their fears of her ever rising in judgement against them.’192

  Blackbeard had returned to piracy. He was settled at Ocracoke Inlet which was an ideal place to build a pirate base. Perhaps this was Blackbeard’s ultimate goal: to build a pirate haven, larger than the one that had been in New Providence before Rogers arrived, one where Blackbeard was king over all the pirates.

  Ocracoke had a number of advantages as a pirate base for Blackbeard to have used to build his new pirate empire. There is the close proximity to Bath Town, providing a land base where sloops could be moored. It was ideally placed for attacking the busy and lucrative trade routes running up and down the Atlantic coast. From here, Blackbeard could monitor all the shipping leaving the northern coast of North Carolina, as every vessel would have to pass Ocracoke Island. He could also sail out to intercept shipping from either South Carolina or Virginia. The latter terrified Spotswood. Also, the shallow waters, shoals and tight confines meant that in sloops the pirates could slip in and out unmolested as Royal Navy warships would never be able to navigate through the area.

  Exactly where on Ocracoke Island Blackbeard moored his sloop and where he lost his life is debatable. We do know he was moored in shallow water, since this provided him with greater protection from larger vessels. He made a point of anchoring where he knew that Royal Navy warships could not reach him. This is why, once his location had been found, the attacking force used sloops, lightly-armed so they rode high in the water. Local legends put the mooring site at either Springer’s Point, Silver Lake or what has become known as Thatch’s Hole (or Teach’s Hole) on the sound side of the island, shielded from the Atlantic.

  Ocracoke Island is around 18 miles long and no more than 2 miles across at its widest point. Covered with sand dunes and low grass and being uninhabited, it was the perfect site for a new pirate base.

  It was an ideal spot where Blackbeard and his crew could keep an eye on shipping emerging through the inlets, where he could sail out at almost a moment’s notice to plunder ships in the open ocean, and then scurry back into hiding at the first signs of pursuit. The accepting of the pardon was merely a ruse to buy himself more time. He’d decided to ignore it and in Virginia, so had Alexander Spotswood.193

  Chapter 13

  Lies, Damn Lies and Politics

  ... the several rewards ... for Edward Teach,

  commonly known as Captain Teach or Blackbeard,

  one hundred pounds, for every other commander

  of a pirate ship, sloop or vessel, forty pounds ...194

  Alexander Spotswood, 24 November 1718

  Spotswood had problems. As Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Virginia he was the man in charge and it was going badly. The colony was originally named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I, the so-called Virgin Queen. It boasted the very first permanent English settlement of all the American colonies that had been established in 1607 – Jamestown.195 During Spotswood’s time in office the colony was a relatively affluent and prosperous place to live, unlike the Carolinas.196 It had deep-water ports and a thriving transatlantic trade which set it apart from the southern provinces.

  Spotswood was determined to ensure the colony remained prosperous and thriving but he faced growing political problems within the Council. Blackbeard was certainly part of these problems – a symbol of the growing anxiety from the plantation-owners over the security of their trade routes. He was facing a serious political crisis that wasn’t just to do with security. However, the capture of a villain as notorious as Blackbeard would go a long way to restoring his social and political standing. Of course, if it all went wrong, he would be finished and would simply disappear into political obscurity, never to re-surface.197

  In late 1718 Spotswood wrote to the Earl of Orkney, the Governor of Virginia, a man who had never set foot in the colony, regarding the unrest in the government. He wished to ‘lay open the unreasonable conduct of my adversaries ... what single instance do they give of the many hardships which they say I daily exercise upon the people?’ His chief accusers were Commissary James Blair, Philip Ludwell and the Deputy Auditor, Mr Grymes. He goes on to say:

  I asked whether Mr Commissary [Blair] whether he would declare himself to be so much your enemy as to vote for paying a solicitor to get your Lordship removed, nevertheless he violently argued, and gave his vote for paying that sum [£300].198

  However, Spotswood was not a man to allow himself to be bull
ied. The gauntlet had been thrown down by his accusers and so Spotswood, a military man at heart, was not prepared to turn away from a fight:

  Having long struggled with a sett of men here, whose designs for many years have been to engross into their own hands the whole power of the Government and to forme a new plan thereof according to their own caprice, but directly opposite to the interest of their Sovereign, as well as their Mother Country.199

  In 1716 Spotswood had dissolved the House of Burgesses, determined to show their true colours to the world:

  ... everyone expected the Burgesses had nothing else to do, but to call for the few bills which remained unfinished at their former Session, and to lay the levy for discharging the publick creditors; but instead of proceeding on any of their bills that lay before them, the first business they went upon was to re-enact a law which H.M. had very lately repealed, that declaring who shall not bear office in this country.200

  And further:

  All petitions brought before them, were immediately referred to the next Assembly, and the Grand Committee converted into a trifling Office of Enquiry into the Capitol furniture; in which they spent five or six days at the expense of £400 to their country to examine into the state of a few old chairs and sconces of less than £50 value. When many of the more sensible members of that House, tired out with these amusements were returned home, as apprehending no business of moment would be brought in, and others believing their presence unnecessary, were gone to take the diversion of a horse race near the town, the Party managers watched that opportunity to bring in an address to the King, with a long roll of Articles; in the first charging me in general with subverting the Constitution of their Government, depriving them of their ancient rights and privileges, and daily exercising hardships on H.M. good subjects, and in the second with divers particulars facts to prove their pretended accusation.201