by Craig Cabell
Whatever the real figure, the mission had been a success. The most feared pirate on the high seas at the time was now dead. He’d suffered twenty-five separate wounds according to the sources. However, this cannot be fully verified since the body was subsequently thrown overboard and would have quickly decomposed in the sea, so there is no way of proving otherwise beyond the claims of those involved.237
At some point, Blackbeard’s head was removed from the body. Johnson states that ‘the lieutenant caused Blackbeard’s head to be severed from his body, and hung up at the bowsprit end, and then he sailed to Bath Town, to get relief for his wounded men.’
This sounds as if Maynard ordered the head to be removed, although the Boston News Letter account states it was the unknown Highlander who gave Blackbeard the final blow that cut off his head. It would be virtually impossible in such close quarters to achieve a single slice across the neck, accurate and powerful enough to sever the head. This means the assailant would have had to swing back his blade, exposing the upper body to attack from either a gunshot or another blade from elsewhere. Most of the sailors were carrying cutlasses and with their short blades the assailant would probably have stood almost shoulder to shoulder with Blackbeard and would need to use more strength than he would have had to achieve anything more than a few hacking movements, exposing himself to further counter-attack.
The scenario is more likely as Johnson described, that the head was removed after the battle. Whoever did it would have had more time and room to make a single cut with enough power to do the job. In those days, the removal of a victim’s head was standard practice to prove that the victim was indeed dead. The entire body would not be needed. The head was sufficient for identification, hence the well-known command throughout history of ‘bring me his head’. In his proclamation, Spotswood also declared ‘... upon the conviction, or making due proof of the killing ...’238
In addition, the removal of a victim’s head displayed an utter contempt for that person’s life. It was an execution and nothing more. It took away the dignity and honour of the individual who would not even be afforded a proper burial. By causing Blackbeard’s head to be severed Maynard was not only providing proof that the pirate was dead, he was also displaying contempt for the man when he ordered it to be lashed and hung from the bowsprit of the sloop Jane.
With the head severed, Blackbeard’s body was no longer needed and so without ceremony it was heaved overboard. As it splashed into the water we can only imaging the cheering from the King’s men that the scourge of this pirate was over and they had won. Legend has it that the body floated around the sloop up to seven times before it finally sank. This can be discounted as nothing more than gossip and is best left to fiction. It shows perhaps, the fact that the body was not used to being separated from the head and so swam around the Jane in some attempt to reconnect, or some might believe it was a last display of defiance and so as a fictional tool is effective in illustrating the character and defiance of Blackbeard.
Shortly after the battle, Maynard set sail for Bath Town, the head of Blackbeard dangling from the Jane’s bowsprit; a symbol of the complete victory over piracy. Once back in Bath Town Maynard reported to his commanding officer and remained there long enough for the wounded men to recover before setting sail back to Virginia, the pirate’s head still on the Jane’s bowsprit for all to see.
Chapter 16
Trials and Tribulations
If this finds you yet in harbour I would have
you make the best of your way up as soon as
possible your affairs will let you. I have something
more to say to you than at present I can write ... 239
Tobias Knight, 17 November 1718
Blackbeard’s death was not the end of the story. To follow were the trials and executions of many of his crew, the claims of collusion against Charles Eden and Tobias Knight. There was also the issue of Blackbeard’s treasure, if indeed it existed.
Just two days after Blackbeard’s death Spotswood issued his proclamation. It was 24 November 1718 and it was here that Spotswood offered the reward for the death or capture of pirates, specifically Blackbeard. The questions of whether Spotswood by now knew of the pirate’s demise or whether Maynard knew of the reward on offer are not at all certain. Perhaps it would be a little naive to believe that Maynard did not know of the reward and acted purely because it was his duty as an officer of the Royal Navy, or perhaps not.
It is perfectly possible that he knew there would be a reward waiting for him on his return and so he fought that much harder. Indeed, before his departure the reward may have been offered to encourage him to create that extra desire for success that devotion to duty alone may not have achieved. The actual reward, which was promised to be ‘punctually and justly paid’, took three years to be paid, longer than the entire time Blackbeard was a pirate.
According to the narrative of Captain Johnson, those who perished alongside their captain were the gunner Philip Morton, the boatswain Garrat Gibbens, the carpenter Owen Roberts, the quartermaster Thomas Miller, and crewmen John Husk, Joseph Curtice, Joseph Brooks and Nath (probably short for Nathaniel) Jackson.
The pirates wounded and subsequently taken prisoner were John Carnes, another Joseph Brooks, James Blake, John Gills, Thomas Gates, James White, Richard Stiles, Black Caesar, Joseph Phillips, James Robbins, John Martin, Edward Salter, Stephen Daniel, Richard Greensail, Israel Hands and Samuel Odell. They were all put on trial and sadly the trial records do not exist, or they have yet to be found. If they are found at some point in the future they will very likely shed some new light on the life of Blackbeard and hopefully might reveal some new facts.
Most of the information about the trial that follows comes from North Carolina Colonial Records, Volume 2 and from Robert E. Lee’s book on Blackbeard. However, because there are no original transcripts there must still be an element of speculation here. The pirates were taken to Williamsburg in Virginia where they were to be tried. For three months they rotted in the cells in Williamsburg waiting. All the while Spotswood was building his case against them. Certainly, Alexander Spotswood would have been present and would more than likely have been watching over the entire proceedings, ensuring that the only decision possible was made. Guilty.
Whether legal advisers would have been on hand to ensure that the pirates were provided with a ‘fair’ trial is debatable. Many other trials for piracy have left it up to the person accused of the crime to defend themselves. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries you were guilty until proven innocent and most criminals in those days had to build their own defence for there was nothing like legal aid then.
Some of the accused were black and under the social conditions of the day they were considered as slaves. However, as they were not owned by anyone and had escaped their bonds, the question was whether they should be treated as slaves or as pirates. Since the crime of being an escaped slave held a lesser penalty, it was finally decided to put them on trial for piracy.
Each pirate would have in turn been escorted to the stand. There, alone, he would have been told what he was guilty of and then be given an opportunity to try to prove his innocence. Once the decision had been made that he was indeed guilty, he would have been escorted to the cells and followed by the next pirate in the chain.
If we look back at the King’s Pardon, discussed in earlier chapters, we know that pirates who accepted the pardon were officially excused of any previous acts of piracy. The case for the Crown then had to hinge on the acts of piracy that took place after the pirates had accepted the King’s Pardon. These acts would include the taking of the French and British vessels and the burning of the French vessel. Blackbeard claimed to Eden that this was a salvage operation and Eden approved the burning of the vessel but the prosecution at the trial claimed this was theft and an act of piracy.
Spotswood could also use this claim to throw doubt on Charles Eden’s governorship of North Carolina, since he had approved Bl
ackbeard’s pardon and the salvage rights to the vessel that the pirate subsequently burnt. That meant the legal receipt that Blackbeard had given to Eden for the hogsheads of sugar could be turned by the prosecution into an illegal receipt for stolen goods.
Out of those who stood trial, all except Israel Hands and Samuel Odell were sentenced to be hung. Perhaps Spotswood could be content with this. In his authority as a colonial governor, he’d managed to condemn the pirates to death for their crimes. Both Israel Hands and Samuel Odell had been able to convince their accusers of their innocence and so were spared the gallows.
Hands had been in Bath Town at the time of the attack and battle aboard the Jane, and while that would not have been sufficient to secure his innocence, the fact that he had been shot by Blackbeard before the acts of piracy his fellows were accused of and, as a result, was no longer capable of carrying out much in the way of activity would have been enough. He also testified against his fellow pirates.
Samuel Odell’s defence was robust as well. He must have proved to the court that he was just a trader who happened to be aboard Blackbeard’s sloop for an evening of drinking and was still there when the attack took place the following morning. He proved that he was not a pirate and took no part in the fighting except in self-defence. He was simply a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without the transcripts of the trial we can’t be sure how his statements were corroborated but we must assume that witnesses such as the men from the Royal Navy were able to testify, as far as they could tell, that his claims were accurate. Whatever happened in the trial and however he was believed, Samuel Odell was acquitted.
The battle of Ocracoke that ended Blackbeard’s life took place on 22 November 1718. Once the battle was over there would have been the task of attending to the wounded and burying the dead. The two battle-scarred sloops, Jane and Ranger originally sailed to Bath Town for treatment of the wounded, and then sometime later they set sail again and arrived back in Virginia on 1 December 1718. The trial of the pirates is known to have taken place sometime in the middle of March 1719 which gives us the three-month gap before the trial.
Presumably, this gap was the time that Spotswood needed to ensure the case against the pirates was as comprehensive as it could be. From the moment the pirates surrendered they were destined to be executed and, apart from Hands, no amount of delay was going to save them.
From Spotswood’s point of view, that gave him three months of questioning the prisoners, to pit each one of them against the other and see what information he could use to build his case. Of the five African American pirate prisoners, four agreed to testify against the rest of the pirates, as did Israel Hands. Their testimony would have been damning indeed. While this was taking place, Spotswood was also trying to build a case against the North Carolina government, to prove there was collusion and conspiracy right at the very top. He was also ensuring that he set up a proper, legal trial with ‘fair’ people he’d appointed as Vice Admiral Commissioners to sit with him in judgement.240
The only evidence against Eden was the pardon awarded to Blackbeard and the sugar found in his barn, which he was entitled to under the salvage rights of the day. The incursion into North Carolina and the battle at Ocracoke also revealed a pirate stash of 25 hogsheads of sugar, 11 barrels weighing between 304 and 330lbs, 145 bags of cocoa, a barrel of indigo and a bale of cotton. These items, along with the sale of the sloop, presumably New Adventure, realised a sum of £2,238.241
The revenue from these sales went towards the costs of the expedition which included the cost of hiring the sloops, repairing them, the costs of feeding and housing the prisoners for three months, the cost of storing the plunder on the New Adventure and keeping it for three months while it was examined. There were also legal costs involved, the costs of the trial and whatever costs were incurred for the mass execution of the pirates – the rope, perhaps?
In his letters to their Lordships at the Council of Trade and Plantations Spotswood maintained that he did not communicate his plan to attack Blackbeard to Governor Eden because he was afraid the plans would be leaked to the pirate. From Tobias Knight’s letter to Blackbeard we know that this very nearly did take place but why Blackbeard chose to ignore Knight’s letter is something we shall never really know. This letter by Knight to Blackbeard was found among Blackbeard’s papers on his sloop.
Despite the political battles that were to take place between the two colonies, the fate of the pirates who had been captured at Bath Town and after the battle at Ocracoke Island was never in doubt. The Vice Admiralty Court ruled that the prisoners were guilty of piracy and so were sentenced to be hung by the neck. Only one man was found innocent and that was Samuel Odell. Israel Hands, as we know, was given a pardon which Captain Johnson claims that:
just as he was about to be executed a ship arrived at Virginia with a proclamation for prolonging the time of His Majesty’s pardon to such of the pirates as should surrender by a limited time therein expressed. Notwithstanding the sentence, Hands pleaded the pardon and was allowed the benefit of it.
This could be Johnson again adding a dramatic twist to the truth, which is more likely that this extension to the pardon had been issued on 23 July 1718 in order for Britain to strengthen its weak naval forces in the colonies and allow any pirates to turn privateer and fight the Spanish. So this extension likely already existed and was given to Hands in reward for him turning state’s evidence against his own shipmates. Perhaps this was his way of getting back at Blackbeard for shooting him.
Once the sentence was passed, the execution took place only a few days later, beginning with a procession of the prisoners down the Jamestown road (the same road they had travelled on to their captivity three months before). The prisoners would have been accompanied by members of the militia to guard them and the clergy, along with representatives of the Virginia legislature. No doubt the road would have been lined with crowds of people shouting and jeering at the pirates.
When they reached the place of execution, one by one each man stood on a cart (they would have had no option), his hands bound behind him and a noose tightened around his neck. They were each given the chance to say some last words, the clergy said a quick prayer and then the horse tied to the cart was quickly pulled away leaving the pirate hanging by his neck, dancing in mid-air as the rope bit into his throat until his legs finally went limp. This same procedure happened over and over for each pirate in this mass execution.242
The last of Blackbeard’s most trusted crew were gone but the saga was not yet over.
Chapter 17
Fate and Collusion
Blackbeard was gone. Those of his crew who had been captured were all dead. All that remained of this intimidating pirate were the many different versions of his stories and the equal number of mysteries surrounding him that persist to this day.
During the short period of his pirate career Blackbeard never became the leader or king of the pirates as was Roberts. At one point, Hornigold held that lofty position among all the other pirates operating out of the pirate haven of New Providence who were plundering vessels throughout the West Indies and along the coast of the American colonies. That stopped when Woodes Rogers arrived as Governor of the Bahamas. He brought with him the King’s Pardon.
One of the most well-known pirates who were using this base at the time, alongside Blackbeard before Woodes Rogers arrived to try to rid New Providence of the pirates, was Charles Vane. He started his career at sea as a member of Henry Jennings’ crew and in 1716 he was part of a group of sailors who seized the ship on which they were serving and turned to piracy. Vane took command of his own sloop, the Ranger and became famous for his cruelty to the crews of vessels he captured. He showed little remorse in torturing them.243
After his dramatic escape from New Providence, Charles Vane continued his pirating activities. According to Woodes Rogers, Vane seized two ships leaving Carolina (he does not specify North or South) which were both bound for London. One wa
s the Neptune of around 400 tons commanded by Captain King, and the other was the Emperour of 200 tons commanded by Captain Arnold Gowers. Both ships carried cargo of rice, pitch, tar and skins. After plundering the Neptune Vane sank her and then deprived the second one of all her cargo and provisions. Vane also traded with a merchant who was arrested for dealing in stolen property and awaited transportation to England.244
When he refused to attack a warship, Vane was overthrown by the crew of his own vessel and Jack Rackham, another famous pirate replaced him. Known as Calico Jack, he was later to be linked to female pirate Anne Bonny. Vane was later captured when his ship was wrecked in the Bay of Honduras and he was tried for piracy and hung.
Blackbeard’s mentor, Benjamin Hornigold accepted the King’s Pardon through Woodes Rogers and turned pirate-hunter. Before he’d been a pirate he was a privateer and then resorted to piracy after the War of Spanish Succession was over. He reverted back to being a privateer the moment the King’s Pardon became available. With Hornigold effectively at his side, Rogers set about ridding New Providence of pirates and turned it into a law-abiding colony of the Crown. Rogers commissioned Hornigold to capture Charles Vane which he never succeeded in doing but he did capture and bring to justice other pirates, including Nicholas Woodall, John Auger and several others. Most of these men were executed.
Once Rogers settled in he set about giving the pardon to as many pirates that would take it and most of them did. Vane was one of the few who didn’t. So with most of the pirates now living off the wealth they’d made as pirates and Hornigold acting as pirate-hunter for Rogers, the wild lawless haven was soon a thing of the past. The period when New Providence was at its height as a pirate haven and the pirates plundered vessels, attacked coastal settlements and blockaded towns throughout the West Indies, up and down the Atlantic coast has been referred to as the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’. However, once Rogers arrived and Hornigold, the most influential pirate at the time, turned pirate-hunter that age ended. Indeed, Hornigold was one of the chief architects for the downfall of this golden age. He captured more than thirteen pirates and, according to Rogers, ‘Captain Hornigold has given the world to wipe off the infamous name he has hitherto been known by, tho in the very acts of piracy he committed most people spoke well of his generosity.’245