Blackbeard Falls: The Pirate King's Last Battle
Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy cornered the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, at Ocracoke Inlet off the North Carolina coast on November 22, 1718. Maynard sailed two sloops into the shallow waters where Blackbeard's ship Adventure was anchored. A fierce boarding action followed. According to Maynard's account, Blackbeard received five musket ball wounds and twenty sword cuts before he finally fell. His head was severed and hung from the bowsprit of Maynard's sloop for the return voyage to Williamsburg. Blackbeard had terrorized Atlantic shipping for two years, blockading Charleston and capturing merchant vessels from the Caribbean to Virginia. His fearsome reputation was carefully cultivated: he wove slow-burning fuses into his beard and lit them during battle, creating a demonic halo of smoke around his face.
November 22, 1718
308 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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