by Craig Cabell
64 Johnson, A General History, p. 47.
65 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 62.
66 Captain Charles Johnson informs us that Blackbeard and Hornigold served together.
67 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 11 where Lee states that Hornigold was considered ‘the dean of the school of pirates’ infesting the West Indies.
68 Wordsworth Encyclopaedia, reference Privateer.
69 If March 1717 is accurate as Johnson states and according to CSPCS, Volume 29, Section 635, it provides some indication that Hornigold and Blackbeard had sailed together for some time.
70 Captain Mathew Musson, letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations, CSPCS, Volume 29, Section 635, British History Online.
71 Johnson implies that Blackbeard took the Revenge after the Queen Anne’s Revenge; however, most other sources suggest the vessels were taken in the opposite order. See the Boston News Letter, Issue 708, concerning Teach being in command of the Revenge a full month prior to the capture of the Queen Anne’ s Revenge.
72 See Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 102.
73 Boston News Letter, Issue 708, report filed in Philadelphia on 24 October 1717.
74 Johnson, A General History, p. 47.
75 Boston News Letter, Issue 708, 24 October 1717, Philadelphia.
76 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 69.
77 Ibid.
78 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 31.
79 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 84.
80 Wikipedia (reference Queen Anne’s Revenge) and North Carolina Maritime Museum.
81 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 80.
82 Until its abolition some years later, the slave trade was considered an acceptable form of business at the time.
83 The Royal African Company was created by the British monarch and a consortium of London-based merchants. The company also dealt in gold, some of which was sold to the English Mint and used to press the coin that would later become the guinea.
84 Much of the future prosperity of the eastern Americas and the Caribbean Islands had been built upon the undervalued and hard work of thousands of slaves and the often brutal treatment they received at the hands of their wealthy owners.
85 Salt was widely used as a method of preserving food, and as such was a valuable commodity. Some cultures used it as a form of currency, providing the origin of the term that someone may not be worth his salt.
86 Scurvy was brought on by the lack of citrus fruits in the diet of a sailor and one of the initial signs was the decaying of teeth.
87 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 82.
88 At the time, Britain and France were using different calendars and did not agree until almost half a century later.
89 In his letter regarding the capture of La Concorde, Charles Mesnier described the event in as much detail as he could from the report by Captain Pierre Dosset. The reference for this is Aix-en-Provence Centre des Archives d’Outre-Mer, AN Col C8A 22 (1717) f447.
90 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 14. Lee cites the captain’s name as D’Ocier rather than Dosset, as Konstam does.
91 See Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 83.
92 Spotswood, CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800, letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations where he states Blackbeard had some blacks in his crew who were likely freed slaves or men he had chosen because of their overall fitness.
93 In his letter regarding the capture of La Concorde, Charles Mesnier mentions the figure of 455 negroes.
94 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 84.
95 The excavation of the site believed to be the wreck of Blackbeard’s flagship is ongoing and much information and advice on this has been received from David Moore of the North Carolina Maritime Museum.
96 For all the reasons stated for the discrepancies in the number of cannons, we have decided to go with forty since this is what many reports claim.
97 The method of placing cannons facing to either side was well-established. Despite the military advantage of placing some guns forward and aft in a battle against ships that could only fire broadsides, it would take navies a further century to wise up to the concept. A classic example of broadside firing being a restriction to effectiveness can be seen in the battle that took the life of Admiral Nelson, but which the smaller British force ultimately won.
98 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 81.
99 See Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, pp. 14 – 5. While Konstam suggests that Hornigold was removed by his crew as pirate, Lee states that Hornigold decided to retire from piracy and that it was he who gave Blackbeard command of La Concorde.
100 Taken from the report of Lieutenant Ernaut of La Concorde.
101 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 87.
102 Ibid., p. 85.
103 In Search Of Blackbeard: Historical and Archaeological Research at Shipwreck Site 0003BUI by Richard W. Lawrence and Mark Wilde-Ramsing, 1 February 2001.
104 The Betty features in the Articles issued against William Howard, Blackbeard’s quartermaster for Pyracy and Robbery found in Lee’s Blackbeard the Pirate, pp. 94 – 105.
105 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 69.
106 Boston News Letter, Issue 708, dated 4 – 11 November 1717 from a report filed in Philadelphia on 24 October 1717.
107 Ibid.
108 Ibid.
109 Boston News Letter, Issue 708, dated 4 – 11 November 1717 from a report filed in New York on 28 October 1717.
110 Ibid.
111 Ibid.
112 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, pp. 94 – 105.
113 Boston News Letter, Issue 716, dated 30 December 1717 – 6 January 1718 from a report filed in Philadelphia on 10 December 1717.
114 A brigantine is a vessel that has two masts. At least one of these, usually the foremast, is square-rigged. However, during the early eighteenth century, brigantine referred to the type of rigging rather than the type of vessel.
115 Boston News Letter, Issue 725, dated 3 – 10 March 1718 from a report filed in New York on 24 February 1718.
116 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, Part III, deposition from Henry Bostock.
117 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, Part II, deposition of Thomas Knight.
118 Some believe that Captain Kentish was an alias used by Teach, but there is no clear understanding one way or the other.
119 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, Part I, deposition of Richard Joy.
120 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, Part III, from a deposition by Henry Bostock.
121 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298, letter from Governor Hamilton, dated 6 January 1718.
122 Konstam, Blackbeard, pp. 125 – 6.
123 HMS Scarborough is mentioned in a letter by Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 298 where it states that the warship ‘did last year destroy a pirate ship’.
124 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 90.
125 By the end of 1717 only a few territories remained in Spanish hands, one of which was the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti, and much of its ownership was transferred to France. However, in 1606 the King of Spain ordered the entire populace to move close to Santo Domingo in the south to avoid the pirates, which resulted in pirates setting up bases in the north and west of the island unhindered by the local population or the authorities.
126 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 126, citing report filed by Captain Hume commanding HMS Scarborough.
127 Johnson, A General History, pp. 47 – 62.
128 Boston News Letter, Issue 739, June 9 – 16 1719.
129 Ibid.
130 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 556, letter of Governor Robert Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations.
131 The town’s original name was actually spelled Charles Towne, in keeping with the English custom at the time of adding an ‘e’ to many words that have since dispensed with it.
132 David Herriot does provide us with a clue when he writes that this vessel was a Spanish sloop captured off Havana. He describes it as having been found empty.
133 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 556, letter from Govern
or Robert Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations.
134 Ibid.
135 Ibid.
136 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 136.
137 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 39.
138 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 660, letter extracts 19 August 1718.
139 Johnson, A General History, p. 48.
140 See Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 144.
141 Ibid., p. 143.
142 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 660; this quote and much of the information for this chapter has been taken from a variety of letters written by South Carolina residents around 19 August 1718.
143 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 143.
144 Interestingly, Lee supports this theory but Konstam does not. Johnson makes no mention of it.
145 Johnson tells us the booty was worth £1,500, which would be worth around a quarter of a million pounds today.
146 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 556, letter from Governor Johnson to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 18 June 1718.
147 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 660.
148 Johnson, A General History, p. 49.
149 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 150.
150 Taken from a letter from Captain Ellis Brand of HMS Lyme to the Admiralty, dated 12 July 1718.
151 Lee, Blackbeard the Pirate, p. 51. Both Lee and Konstam mention this important event, though Konstam goes into greater detail.
152 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 183.
153 It is unlikely that anyone without special equipment could have plundered the vessels after they had sunk, so it is reasonable to assume that there was ample time for these items to be removed.
154 Benjamin Cowse, The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates (London, Benjamin Cowse, 1719, held at The National Archives, Kew, CSPC 1710, Volume 31), Herriot’s deposition.
155 We mentioned this previously as the extra sloop involved in the blockade of Charles Town.
156 Konstam, Blackbeard, pp. 184 – 5.
157 Ibid., pp. 184 – 5.
158 Ibid., pp. 186 – 7.
159 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
160 See CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 305.
161 Wordsworth Encyclopaedia, reference Nassau.
162 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
163 The period covered by the ‘Golden Age of Piracy’ has been hotly debated and for the purposes of this book we will go with between 1713 (the end of the War of Spanish Succession) to around 1720. This period encompasses the whole of Blackbeard’s known activities of piracy.
164 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
165 This other governor is, of course, Alexander Spotswood. From the arrival of Woodes Rogers in Nassau onwards, the net was tightening around Blackbeard and other pirates like him.
166 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
167 We saw this sequence with the working relationship between Hornigold and Blackbeard.
168 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, Part I; information concerning Rising Sun is from a deposition of John Brown, Commander of the John. The information about the tender was taken from the deposition of Robert Leathers, Commander of the Upton Pink and filed at CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, Part V. The calculation on the crew was made by simply adding together the crew estimates from both depositions. CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, letter from Governor Hamilton to the Council of Trade and Plantations, dated 19 December 1718, refers to the sloop in the flotilla.
169 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, Part IV, deposition of Jonathan Bull, Commander of the Christiana; and CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, Part VI, deposition of Robert Leonard, Commander of the Eagle. The reference to the larger crew and firepower figures comes from the deposition by John Bois, a carpenter on board the frigate Wade, filed at CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 797, Part II. The reference to Edward England’s death comes from Pirates by David Pickering, published by Collins.
170 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
171 Ibid.
172 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, Part III, deposition by Thomas Bowlin and four others, dated 8 September 1718.
173 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, Part IV, deposition by William Dewick of Kingston, Jamaica, dated 15 September 1718.
174 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, Part VII, deposition by Richard Taylor, Captain of the sloop Elizabeth and Mary and three others, dated 4 August 1718.
175 This quote comes from the Royal Pardon issued by King George I on 5 September 1717.
176 Ibid.
177 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800, letter from Alexander Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations stating that: ‘I am therefore in doubt as, whether by the remitting all forteitures, H.M. intends only to restore the pyrates to the estates they had before the committing their pyracies, or to grant them a property also in the effects which they have piratically taken.’
178 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 737, letter from Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council for Trade and Plantations, dated 31 October 1718.
179 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 199.
180 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800, letter from Alexander Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations, dated 22 December 1718.
181 Ibid.
182 Ibid.
183 Konstam, Blackbeard, p. 195.
184 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 730, letter from Governor Robert Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations, dated 21 October 1718, referring to attack on and capture of Stede Bonnet.
185 Johnson, A General History, pp. 106 – 7.
186 CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800, letter from Alexander Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations, dated 22 December 1718.
187 Ibid.
188 It would be more accurate at this point to refer to these vessels as British, since Great Britain as a combined Kingdom and nationality had by now existed for a decade.
189 Information on these activities was provided by Captain Charles Johnson in his narrative and by Alexander Spotswood in letters to the Council of Trade and Plantations. In the case of the narrative, we have discounted various parts already, so may wonder about the accuracy of this. In the case of the letters, Spotswood was by this time building a case against Blackbeard, both for any possible trial and to justify his actions if he were to hunt and attack the pirate in the territorial waters of another colony. Their accuracy could be open to speculation, but since they are the only documents available and there is nothing to contradict the accuracy, we have very little reason to dispute the contents.
190 The more astute readers might wonder at why Blackbeard then allowed the crew to continue on its way. Surely they would report the incident the moment they reached a port, thus nullifying Blackbeard’s claim to the vessel and effectively destroying the protection he was enjoying under the King’s Pardon. So far, no evidence has surfaced that the crews ever arrived on land to lodge a report, so Blackbeard was legally safe in his claim and Eden was legally safe in believing it.
191 Johnson, A General History, p. 51.
192 Ibid.
193 In his book, Captain Charles Johnson alludes to the idea that Blackbeard did not make much of a pause in his ways of piracy and continued, even during this quiet time, to bother shipping, albeit restricting himself mostly to a very local area. Alexander Spotswood also makes a brief mention of this continued activity in his letter filed at CSPCS, Volume 30, Section 800.
194 Johnson, A General History, pp. 53 – 4.
195 Wordsworth Encyclopaedia, reference Virginia.
196 At the time, the areas of the eastern coast of North America that eventually became the thirteen original states, ea
ch represented by a stripe on the current US flag, were not referred to as states. They were colonies and the current borders between each only represent a passing resemblance to the original lines. Virginia was much larger than it is now and there were several ongoing border disputes with North Carolina.