196. Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror

Summary

Empire Podcast: Episode 196 – Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror

Release Date: October 21, 2024

Hosts: William Dalrymple and Anita Anand
Guest Historian: David Wilson

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Introduction

In Episode 196 of Empire, titled "Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror," hosts William Dalrymple and Anita Anand delve deep into the tumultuous life and legacy of one of history’s most notorious pirates, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. Joined by historian David Wilson, the trio navigates through Blackbeard’s rise to infamy, his strategic maneuvers against the British Empire, and his enduring impact on pirate mythology.

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Recap of Edward Teach’s Early Life and Career

Timestamp: [01:09]

William Dalrymple begins by connecting this episode to the preceding one, where listeners were introduced to Edward Teach's early years. It was revealed that Teach became Blackbeard due to a typographical error, a nickname that would soon etch itself into pirate lore. Teaching listeners about his transformation into the most feared pirate of his era, Dalrymple emphasizes the authenticity of Empire's historical sources compared to popular fictional portrayals.

William Durrimple: "We started off with Blackbeard as a disembodied voice on Pirates of the Caribbean... Only the purest historical sources here on Empire."

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The Ouidah and Early Piracy

Timestamp: [02:17]

David Wilson recounts the events of April 1717, focusing on the capture of the slaving vessel Ouidah by fellow pirate Samuel Bellamy. This significant acquisition highlighted the strategic prowess of pirates exploiting the rise of trading companies like the East India Company.

David Wilson: "The Ouidah is a substantial prize. One of the biggest pirate vessels of the time."

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Blackbeard’s Response to Pirate Executions

Timestamp: [03:30] – [05:19]

Following the shipwreck of the Ouidah and the subsequent execution of Bellamy and several crew members by Governor Shute of Massachusetts, Blackbeard’s fury sets the stage for his reign of terror. David Wilson explains that these executions galvanized Blackbeard to retaliate violently against the British Empire.

Anita Arnand: "Blackbeard declares war on the British Empire. Go for it David."

David Wilson: "Blackbeard really does start to terrorize the eastern seaboard in response to the execution of pirates in Boston."

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Declaring War and the Eastern Seaboard Turmoil

Timestamp: [05:19] – [09:19]

Blackbeard’s strategy involved not just piracy but psychological warfare. By terrorizing the eastern seaboard, attacking merchant vessels, and destroying property, he aimed to intimidate both merchants and colonial authorities. Despite the constant threat, efforts by New England to combat these pirates were largely reactive and ineffective due to the pirates' mobility and the formidable reputation Blackbeard cultivated.

William Durrimple: "If you take one of ours, we'll take ten of yours kind of thing."

The hosts discuss how Blackbeard’s actions, such as dumping unwanted cargo and burning ships, were designed to disrupt economic activities severely, forcing colonial ports like Boston into a defensive stance.

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Blockade of Charleston

Timestamp: [16:09] – [21:09]

In a bold move in 1718, Blackbeard and his flotilla of six ships set sail for Charleston, South Carolina, establishing a formal blockade. Contrary to expectations, Blackbeard’s demands were not for gold or jewels but for a chest of medicines essential for his crew’s survival.

David Wilson: "Blackbeard wants to demand a chest of medicines for his crew."

This act of desperation underscored the dire circumstances aboard pirate ships, where scurvy, dysentery, and other ailments were rampant. Governor Robert Johnson, unable to counter Blackbeard’s naval superiority, reluctantly acquiesced to the demand to avoid further devastation.

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The Queen Anne’s Revenge and Fleet Expansion

Timestamp: [10:53] – [16:00]

David Wilson narrates the acquisition of La Concorde, a large slaving vessel, by Blackbeard. Renamed to Queen Anne’s Revenge, it became Blackbeard’s flagship, symbolizing his dominance and enhancing his fleet’s capabilities.

David Wilson: "They renamed La Concorde to the Queen Anne's Revenge, which becomes Blackbeard's iconic ship."

The strategic renaming served both practical and psychological purposes, reinforcing Blackbeard's rebellious image against the British Crown while enabling larger-scale piracy operations.

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Challenges of Maintaining a Large Fleet

Timestamp: [17:30] – [24:20]

Maintaining a flotilla of six ships with approximately 400 men posed significant logistical challenges. David Wilson highlights the difficulties in sustaining such a large crew, including the constant need for supplies and the inevitable toll of prolonged sea voyages on the pirates' health and morale.

David Wilson: "There's a desperation for that chest of medicine. On the flip side, Johnson isn't able to really do anything about this."

Despite these challenges, Blackbeard persisted, demonstrating remarkable resilience and adaptability in his piratical endeavors.

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The Final Battle and Blackbeard’s Death

Timestamp: [27:40] – [31:03]

As the legend of Blackbeard grew, so did the determination to end his reign. In November 1718, Lieutenant Robert Maynard led a naval force from Virginia to hunt down Blackbeard. The ensuing battle near Ocracoke Island was fierce and brutal. David Wilson recounts Maynard’s firsthand account, revealing the intense combat that ultimately led to Blackbeard’s demise.

David Wilson: "I have cut Blackbeard's head off, which I have put on my bowsprit in order to carry it to Virginia."

The gruesome display of Blackbeard’s severed head aboard Maynard’s ship was intended to serve as a stark warning to other pirates, cementing Blackbeard's infamous legacy.

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Legacy and Mythology of Blackbeard

Timestamp: [32:35] – [34:26]

The hosts explore how Blackbeard’s death marked the decline of the Golden Age of Piracy, though piracy itself continued in various forms into the 19th century. David Wilson emphasizes that while Blackbeard's real-life actions were ruthless, the mythologized version of him has been romanticized over time, contributing to the enduring fascination with pirate lore.

William Durrimple: "If I don't kill a man every now and then, they forget who I am."

Anita Anand adds anecdotes about Blackbeard’s lasting cultural impact, including local legends and modern-day reverence in places like Reunion, where Blackbeard remains a symbol of virility and passion.

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Archaeological Discoveries: Queen Anne’s Revenge

Timestamp: [34:26] – [35:06]

The episode concludes with a discussion on the archaeological efforts to locate and excavate the wreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge. Discovered off the coast of North Carolina in the 1990s, the shipwreck has become a focal point for understanding pirate life and the broader context of the Atlantic slave trade.

David Wilson: "They found the Queen Anne's Revenge... They keep talking about the Queen of Revenge as being Blackbeard's vessel."

The ongoing excavation continues to unearth artifacts that shed light not only on piracy but also on the grim realities of the slave trade, offering a more nuanced perspective of Blackbeard’s operations.

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Conclusion

In this comprehensive exploration of Blackbeard’s life, Episode 196 of Empire dismantles the romanticized image of pirates, revealing the harsh and often desperate reality behind their notorious actions. Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, William Dalrymple, Anita Anand, and David Wilson provide listeners with a vivid portrayal of Blackbeard’s impact on history, highlighting his strategic brilliance, brutal tactics, and the enduring myth that continues to captivate the imagination.

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Notable Quotes:

• Blackbeard’s Defiance:

  "I would neither give nor take quarter."
  [28:27] David Wilson

• Maynard’s Determination:

  "I attacked him... forcing him ashore."
  [28:23] David Wilson

• Pirate Philosophy:

  "If I don't kill a man every now and then, they forget who I am."
  [32:59] William Durrimple

---

This episode not only chronicles Blackbeard’s notorious exploits but also challenges listeners to reconsider the blurred lines between myth and reality in the annals of piracy.

Transcript

[Anita Arnand]

If you want access to bonus episodes, reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast ad, free listening and a weekly newsletter, Sign up to empire [e-mail]. dead men tell no tal, but they do tell tales. So says I, Blackbeard.

[William Durrimple]

Dead men tell no tales.

[Anita Arnand]

Take heed, wretched curs. Your fate is sealed. We're getting into this.

[William Durrimple]

Gosh, should we do fake pirate accents? Hello and welcome to Empire with me.

[Anita Arnand]

Anita Arnand and me, William Durrimple.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, here we are. Can I just say, we started off with Blackbeard as a disembodied voice on Pirates of the Caribbean. Just in case you were wondering where that epic drama came from. Only the purest historical sources here on Empire.

[David Wilson]

No.

[William Durrimple]

We're continuing on from the last episode where we discuss the early life and career of Edward Thatch, otherwise known as Edward Teach because of a typo. We learned Blackbeard, as he later became known, the most feared pirate of his time. And we're delighted to be joined again by a historian and specialist in all things piratey to discuss the height of reign and terror. Big drumroll in your best pirate accent.

[Anita Arnand]

Go on, David Wilson.

[David Wilson]

Thank you very much.

[William Durrimple]

Does it make your toes, Carl? David? Does it?

[David Wilson]

You would think I'd be used to it by now.

[William Durrimple]

Sorry. I can only say sorry. Look, in the last episode, we were talking about the golden age of pirates, and that was the 17th and 18th centuries, where pirates were capitalizing on the rise of trading companies like the East India Company.

[Anita Arnand]

And it is the enemy in pirates of the Caribbean.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, exactly. Like the East India Company. So let's sort of hold hands with. With where we left off. And we'd sort of left you around about April 1717, where Blackbeard's close friend and pirate comrade had died when his ship was caught by a storm and sunk. I mean, first of all, let me just double check with our fact checking czar here. Any of that.

[Anita Arnand]

Not bollocks, the need to make that all up?

[David Wilson]

No, that was great, actually. Not bollocks at all. So in April 1717, you have the Ouidah. So the Ouidah is captained by, at this point, Samuel Bellamy, who was another pirate who had been operating in New Providence. But he had captured the slaving vessel, the Ouidah, as it passed through the Windward Passage on the way to the Bahamas. And it was a large vessel that he armed with guns and had room for more crew members and room for more cargo and for more plunder as well. So it was a substantial prize. One of the biggest pirate vessels of the time, the leader.

[Anita Arnand]

And what happened to the enslaved cargo?

[David Wilson]

It's a good question. So we're not sure. When it comes to the Ouidah itself, we don't know what happened to the enslaved cargo, but what would tend to happen is either the pirates would hand the enslaved cargo back to the slavers themselves.

[William Durrimple]

Oh, no. Really? Yeah.

[David Wilson]

So we have this image of pirates sort of freeing enslaved persons.

[Anita Arnand]

Exactly. And sort of colorblind pirate crews that are kind of measure of multiethnic heaven. No, all rubbish, huh?

[David Wilson]

Unfortunately, all rubbish. Yeah. So there were definitely black pirates. There were definitely three black mariners on board pirate vessels, but they were just as likely to be enslaved laborers as well. Just as there was throughout the Atlantic world, there was free black mariners and enslaved laborers on board vessels.

[William Durrimple]

Oh. So handing back your cargo to the slaver, that is just. I'm not liking them at all very much.

[David Wilson]

Lightboard does the same as we'll come to.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, well, the Weeder, then, it's wrecked by a storm. It sinks, and all of those on board, I mean, it's thanks to Governor Shute of Massachusetts. Are they fished out of the water or just plucked off the wreck or what happens to the pirates that he captures?

[David Wilson]

Most on board the Weedle actually die. So in the shipwreck itself, most die, including Samuel Bellamy. But there's another vessel alongside them, the Mary Ann, and a few of those crew members survive. There's seven in total who survived. And they're quickly captured and taken to Boston and imprisoned there.

[Anita Arnand]

There's a quote, under strong guard and sufficiently bound from county to county sheriff to sheriff. So these are high security risks, these guys.

[William Durrimple]

And also, I mean, you know, the image that's painted is of these beleaguered pirates who've survived the death of their comrades. They're put in prison cages, and they are destined for the noose. And this news reaches Blackbeard, and he is furious. How dare you treat my pirate brothers like this? And it sets a light up under him.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. So what seems to happen from this point on is Thatch really does start to terrorize the eastern seaboard at this point, really in response, it seems, to this attack, to this execution of pirates in Boston, because it's either this is a sort of pirate brethren, it doesn't want them to be executed, but actually, I think it's more. This is what happens if you capture us and you execute us. This is what's going to happen is that we will terrorize the coast.

[William Durrimple]

So you take one of ours, we'll take 10 of yours kind of thing.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. And what they also start to do, which is even worse than just taking the vessel and attacking these mariners, is they take the property of these merchants, particularly from Boston, and they just start to turn it overboard. So anything they don't want, they just start to dump it into the ocean. So that they are completely ruining these voyages as well. So they're hitting them with a hurts.

[William Durrimple]

So I mean Boston is not, as we know from tea parties of yore, you know, they don't take this kind of thing lying down. Is there not a response from New England?

[David Wilson]

Yeah. So these six pirates who are captured, well, the seven captured, but six of them are found guilty and executed not too long thereafter. But also Boston starts to become one of these more prominent anti piracy ports and they do start to outfit even their own vessels to go out and try to hunt pirates and to try to capture any who are operating nearby.

[Anita Arnand]

Is there an awareness that New Providence is the centre of the hornet's nest, so to speak, that all these vessels are operating out of this archipelago?

[David Wilson]

It's really well known. So by this point everyone knows what's happened to New Providence. Everyone knows that this is now a pirate nest. The problem is that no one has the strength or the resources to attack it. They're all extremely scared of going up against these pirates because they do have large vessels, large cannons and large crews. So no one can quite coordinate against them.

[William Durrimple]

And they have the reputation for being nutters as well, you know. So people are slightly scared of taking them on the.

[David Wilson]

Well cultivated image.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, well cultivated nutter image.

[Anita Arnand]

So in response, this is the bit I like best. In response to the execution of the crew, Blackbeard declares war on the British Empire. Go for it David. Tell us what happens next.

[David Wilson]

Yeah, so he declares war on at least the eastern seaboard. And they do start to terrorize this region. They take lots of vessels, they're dumping property into the, into the water. They're even burning vessels as well. So any vessels they don't want, they start to burn. Some of them as well, set them alight. And they do this for a good few months. But then it gets to winter time and no one wants to be on the eastern seaboard in winter. So they go back to the Caribbean and start to terrorize the Caribbean at this point in time.

[Anita Arnand]

I love it. They go back for a sunny winter break in the Bahamas.

[William Durrimple]

No, no, it's not A break, because they're going to do some more terrorizing where it's warmer, where they can wear the short sleeve as opposed to the anorak. You the dumping the stuff over the side. I love this story. You know, there's one merchant aboard one of the ships that Blackbeard's taken, and he just stands there and watches. There's about £1,000 worth of his personal cargo. Gets tipped over the side, and he's begging, please, no, not that box. No, leave me that. Oh, God, not that box.

[Anita Arnand]

And finally begs to be allowed to keep enough cloth to make just one suit of clothes.

[William Durrimple]

Yes, just that. And you know what? And Blackbeard looks at him and goes, nah. And just tips it all over.

[Anita Arnand]

Throws the last bolt of textiles overboard.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah.

[David Wilson]

And when you thank the prior to this point, when he was operating with Hornigolds, they were actually quite nice, but they were more sort of pleasant pirates, like, say they would take goods from merchant vessels, but often they would leave a lot of the cargo with these individuals as well.

[Anita Arnand]

So no more Robin Hood.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. No more nice Blackbeard.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, so they've gone off for their summer. Not vacation, but summer pillaging in sunnier climes is the reason that they are so hard to catch, because everybody wants to catch them. Everybody hates their guts at this point is that they never stay more than 48 hours in a single place. You know, there is that discipline among the pirates that you are always moving, and if you're always moving, they can't catch you.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. So they do move up the coast to the eastern seaboard and they migate sort of further north. They will then start to move elsewhere because you can't stay in the same place for too long because that's when people find you.

[William Durrimple]

And this is when all of the survivors reports start coming back as well to the press, I guess, because they don't kill everybody. You know, the poor man with no suit to wear, I don't think he dies because he lives to tell that.

[Anita Arnand]

Story, but he's only one of 15 vessels that he captures that year. I mean, it's quite a successful hit rate.

[David Wilson]

Yeah, exactly. And what's interesting is they don't actually. They don't murder very much many people. So there's a lot of violence against these individuals, but they don't ever go quite as far as murder. They try to stop that because again, it's just another sort of capital crime that they could be punished for.

[Anita Arnand]

So you've got some traumatized sea captains pouring into New York, Boston, Philadelphia, telling their tales and presumably agitating for a proper response.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. So you start to get a lot of pressure coming into the governors about, you know, you have to respond to pirates, you have to respond to these attacks, which they can do, but they can only do it in a reactive way. So pirates attack for 48 hours and then they send out an anti piracy voyage against these individuals. But they're already away, they're already up to the next colony.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah. There is, you know, sort of among these interesting reports of what was done, these tales of woe, as William put it. You know, you've got the unimaginatively named Captain Peter Peters, who talks about how, you know, when Blackbeard's pirates took his ship, they stole 27 bottles of his Madeira, they hacked away his mask and then let him run aground. And there was something in that, you know, you my wine and you take my mast. What a bunch of bastards. You know, it's like, I love the order of woe that he expresses. It's very, very funny.

[David Wilson]

But it's quite an effective strategy. Just cut down the mast and they can't get anywhere. So you can sort of continue to attack for a while before the news gets back to port that you're nearby.

[Anita Arnand]

So you're not killing someone. You're not likely to be down for murder, but you're stopping them coming after you or raising the alarm.

[David Wilson]

Exactly, yes. You need to kind of stop the news circulating too fast.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah. Was Blackbeard leading a flotilla of pirate ships or is he doing all of this in just on one sh.

[Anita Arnand]

Yes. How many ships are on this raid now, really?

[David Wilson]

It's mostly just Thatch and Bonnet at this point in time.

[Anita Arnand]

So you've got two vessels, Thatch and Bonnet. Sounds like a sort of comedy double act, doesn't it?

[William Durrimple]

It's like two Edwardian ladies telling jokes by a piano at the Edinburgh fringe of an August.

[David Wilson]

But yeah, they have a sort of small two vessels that they are operating with at this point in time.

[William Durrimple]

Okay. So they're back to the Caribbean. And now the next chapter in the Blackbeard story is, I suppose you could title it La Concorde, which is the name of a slave ship which is sailing to trade with the African princes of Benin. How does this ship matter to Blackbeard's mythology and story?

[David Wilson]

This is really where his name starts to get made because it becomes one of the largest flagships in the pirate fleet overall. So really what Blackbeard wants at this point in time is a larger vessel, this sort Of a flagship for his fleet. And what he's looking for is a slaving vessel, because these are much larger vessels Than anything else that's operating in this region. But they're also quite fast vessels, because they are for slaving voyages. So they lie in way off the eastern coast of the caribbean, Waiting for vessels to return from west Africa to the caribbean.

[Anita Arnand]

What year is this now?

[David Wilson]

This is in late 1717.

[William Durrimple]

Really, really active year for blackbeard. Yeah. Okay.

[David Wilson]

We have very active year. So late 1717, he is operating off the coast of the eastern caribbean, and the la concorde arrives. This is a slaving vessel which is owned by a merchant. By a french merchant in nantes, which becomes the preeminent port of the french slave trade later on. It has already been on two slaving voyages to west africa, Then selling enslaved persons in martinique and saint domingue. But this is its third voyage, and it has purchased 516 enslaved persons at ouidah on the west african coast, and that includes women and children. And in november, they arrive off the coast of the lesser antilles of the eastern caribbean, and it's here that they encounter blackbeard and bonaparte, who are in.

[Anita Arnand]

Two ships, or have they got a fleet at this point?

[David Wilson]

The account says that Blackbeard has two vessels at this point, one of 12 cannon and 120 men, and the other of eight cannon and 30 men. So two vessels that are quite easily able to overcome the slaving vessel, because also at this point, the crew on the slaving vessel Are sick with scurvy and dysentery and are unable to defend the vessel. So they take it relatively easily, to be honest. However, after they take this la concorde, they then give the french One of their vessels, and again, they transfer the majority of enslaved persons on board this vessel. And so the french captain Is able to sail to martinique and then sell the enslaved persons. They are still.

[William Durrimple]

So here's your cargo. We're only interested in the ship. And, you know, these poor, poor people who have been kept in hideous conditions Under Carry on with their ordeal. I don't like pirates. I used to think I did like pirates. I don't like pirates at all. Okay, so, right. He's got his whopping great battleship la concorde. Does he carry on calling it la concorde? Does he keep the name, or does he rename it?

[David Wilson]

No, this one gets renamed to the queen Anne's revenge, which becomes sort of blackbeard's iconic ship.

[Anita Arnand]

He's quite cinematic himself. I mean, he's aware of his sort of image, isn't he?

[David Wilson]

Exactly. He knows what he's doing. He knows why he's calling it the Queen Anne's Revenge. He knows that that will capture the imagination of others.

[William Durrimple]

Is that anything to do with the Jacobites? And we've talked about the Jacobites a lot in the recent past. You know, the last Stuart monarch. Are they paying homage to her, or is that just a. It's just a name plucked out of a pirate hat.

[David Wilson]

It's definitely a play on this Jacobite era. So the reason they call it this, some historians would claim, is because they do have these Jacobite tendencies, and some might have that.

[Anita Arnand]

But he's an Englishman. He's from Bristol, isn't he?

[David Wilson]

Yeah. So supposedly from Bristol.

[Anita Arnand]

Hence the Western accent, though. Har.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. Exactly. Well, this is why I question it. I actually think that really what they're doing is they are trying to capture the imagination. They call it the Queen Anne's Revenge because they know it will basically get on the right side of annoying people like the Royal Navy, like the Crown. I think there's a bit of humor in it as well, to be honest. So it will become notorious. But I do think there is a wee bit of humor in these pirates calling their vessels things like the Queen Anne's Revenge or the King James. There's also maybe an element of pragmatism whereby if they can pretend or at least claim that they are rebelling against King George I and sort of on behalf of the Stuarts, then they can claim some form of legitimacy, sort of flying a flag of convenience, if you will. But it doesn't ever work out that way, and I do think it is just out of cheek, basically.

[William Durrimple]

So, I mean, getting the Queen Anne's Revenge, hitherto known as La Concorde, does it make him the most already flexing pirate in the Caribbean, or are there bigger pirates than him at this time?

[David Wilson]

No, at this time. Now that the Ouidah has been shipwrecked, this is definitely one of the largest vessels of the time.

[William Durrimple]

Right, okay. So that in itself, I'm guessing, will attract more crew and more people who want to be under your Jolly Roger. Is he flying the Jolly Roger? We said that the Jolly Roger was an actual thing, but is he flying it, or does it matter to other pirates?

[David Wilson]

He's definitely flying some sort of black flag, really, in the record, what comes up is they say they're flying either a black flag or a death's head, so some sort of skull icon, but we don't actually know Again, what the flag looks like, but we know it's black and we know it has a.

[Anita Arnand]

Skull on it for all the demythologizing. I'm impressed by how much of the legend actually is there in the reality of this.

[David Wilson]

There's always a kernel of truth.

[William Durrimple]

I love the way you still insist on fishing in the Book of Dep. I like it. It's good.

[Anita Arnand]

It's good.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, so look, as we were saying, you become more popular, people want to be with you if you're successful. And by 1718, Blackbeard has a flotilla of about six ships under his command, with the magnificent Queen Anne's Revenge sort of leading this flotilla. Is that enough to set up a blockade? Because, I mean, if you really want the big money, what you do is you blockade a port and you extort for, you know, as much as you can to all the pipsqueak.

[David Wilson]

So at this point. Exactly. He arrives back in the North American coast with the Queen Anne's Revenge now, and he immediately blockades Charleston in South Carolina.

[William Durrimple]

Right.

[Anita Arnand]

Which is the biggest port of all, isn't it? I mean, he's going for the jackpot straight away.

[David Wilson]

It's one of the larger ports and certainly one of the most undefended as well, on the coast. So they don't actually have a Royal Naval vessel in this port either. So it's quite a strategic choice also.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, well, let's take a break there. Join us after the break where we find out what happens after the blockade.

[Anita Arnand]

Welcome back. Well, we are now reaching the climax of Blackbeard's incredible story, which, as I said before, is far closer to the truth than anyone might have imagined. It's extraordinary.

[William Durrimple]

Yes. Pirates of the Caribbean fact. That's right.

[David Wilson]

Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Anita Arnand]

David's gonna regret coming on here anyway. Anyway, let's have a look at the Blackbird legend already. Will. People up and down the coast all have heard of him. Is he in every newspaper or is it just reports of attacks and is there a name behind them by this time?

[David Wilson]

There are starting to be. The sort of. The elements of the myth are starting to develop. You can see that he is becoming quite notorious in the written records, particularly in newspapers. He will become more notorious with his next attacks in North America, but certainly merchants would have known of him and some governors as well, so more around the sort of seafaring elite, I think his name was starting to become more known.

[Anita Arnand]

And as we said, he actually now has, what, six ships? It's somewhere between a flotilla and a fleet now.

[David Wilson]

Yeah, exactly. So he's got multiple vessels and around 400 men on these vessels as well. So a significant fleet and a significant crew.

[Anita Arnand]

But it also means, presumably, if you've got 400 men, you have 400 mouths to feed. You need to keep the tempo up. There's no question of him going back and backing down.

[William Durrimple]

And also, you've been at sea for a long time, and people get sick at sea. You know, you're not having fruit and veg.

[Anita Arnand]

Yeah.

[William Durrimple]

As we know, flour is a really expensive commodity because you don't have that, you know, growing on their little archipelago, pirate archipelago. You haven't got crop farming. Okay. So, I mean, let's go back to the blockade.

[Anita Arnand]

1718, Blackbeard and four ships sail up to Charleston. He arrives in the harbor, fires on the city with all his ships. And then, in what is considered to be one of the kind of bravest and boldest acts of his career, he sets up a formal blockade. David, take us from there.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. So we say something. This blockade of Charleston, not allowing any vessels to come in or out without him basically raiding these vessels. But it actually comes back to Anita's point on having that many crew members and then trying to take care of them and trying to have the supplies to be able to have that many men. Because what he's really doing with this blockade is he wants to demand a chest of medicines for his crew.

[William Durrimple]

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Because, you know, you'd think if you blockade a port, you know, this is just me speaking. Gold, jewels, you know, doubloons, pieces of oat.

[Anita Arnand]

And Charleston is famously a rich port. It's a fantastically rich Southern plantation place.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, exactly. But he doesn't. He's just one chest of medicine. That's really all he asks for.

[David Wilson]

So it shows you a little bit about the desperation of these figures as well. Even though Blackbeard is formidable at this point in time, he still has to blockade this port just to get access to this chest of medicines, which shows how desperate they must have been for this medicine.

[William Durrimple]

What kind of medicines are we talking about in 1718? What's he after?

[David Wilson]

Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what it is he gets, but it will be some sort of medicine to respond to scurvy, to dysentery, to typhus. Actually, it is wrecked, so we'll come to the fact that the vessel gets wrecked, but in the wreck, they have now surfaced that wreck, and one of the artifacts they also found was a urethral syringe. So I'll leave that for your imagination.

[William Durrimple]

Wait a minute. No, we're going to go into that on Empire podcast. A urethral syringe is something rather appalling that goes up the bloke's hoo. Ha. Isn't it? To unblock and allow you to pee. Is that what it's for? Or for infections or something to administer?

[David Wilson]

Yeah. Mercury to cure cephalosp.

[Anita Arnand]

Yeah. So they've all got syphilis. That's what it is.

[William Durrimple]

That's what it is.

[Anita Arnand]

I've come across this a lot in my 18th century readings, and everyone is taking mercury and having to rub this thing into them.

[William Durrimple]

Rubbed or injected up.

[Anita Arnand]

You rub?

[William Durrimple]

Well, no, this is an injection.

[Anita Arnand]

The ones in India are rubbing themselves with. And this isn't just the pirates. I've been reading the diaries of Mountstuart Elphinstone, who's as establishment character as any, and in Hyderabad, he gets a terrific case of the cloud. And he describes in great detail his symptoms and his treatment.

[William Durrimple]

But isn't the treatment going to kill you?

[Anita Arnand]

Well, we know that more than they did. We know that mercury gives you mercury.

[William Durrimple]

They might have known it when they died.

[Anita Arnand]

We can see that it has an effect on the cloud, on the infection.

[William Durrimple]

Okay. We dwelt on that far too much and far too long. I'm sorry about that. Sorry, not sorry.

[Anita Arnand]

But, you know, it's like it figures so prominently in 18th century letters.

[William Durrimple]

Yes.

[Anita Arnand]

If you read any man's letters or journals, mercury will turn up sooner or later at this period.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, so they're demanding the medicine. So Governor Robert Johnson of Charleston, he says, yes. And does he throw in a couple of lemons for the scurvy as well? I mean. Or do they just go with the very bare minimum?

[David Wilson]

It seems that they really go with the bare minimum of the chest of medicines. But what Blackbeard says is that if you don't give me this, then he threatens to burn all of the ships in the harbor, but also to kill all of the captives that he has as well. So it shows you the desperation for that chest of medicine. On the flip side of that, Johnson isn't able to really do anything about this. He has to exchange this chest of medicines. He doesn't have a choice because he has no way to combat Blackbeard's blockades.

[Anita Arnand]

Is there a feeling that he's sold himself cheap? That he could have asked for half the tax revenues of South Carolina?

[William Durrimple]

Am I imagining this, or is he a bit of a crap pirate?

[David Wilson]

You said it, not me. The people that we know about are all the pirates that got caught and executed.

[William Durrimple]

Well, it's not leaper head yet because he's still at large. But he's clutching his, clutching his, clutching his lem, clutching his bits and clutching his aspirin, and he's off again. Okay, so then where now does his mercury addled crew go next?

[David Wilson]

So they don't go very far. They actually move from South Carolina up to North Carolina. And then Blackbeard runs the Queen Anne's Revenge aground at Beaufort Inlet. And it's thought that he does this intentionally. It's unsure how intentional this is. But at this point, it seems like Blackbeard's ready to break up the crew.

[William Durrimple]

Crew.

[David Wilson]

And apparently what happens here is he breaks with Bonnet and most of Bonnet's crew and actually only a small portion of Blackbeard's crew, around 20 men plus him, then leave with most of the plunder as well. So again, with this large flotilla, they'd already been operating elsewhere in the Caribbean and South America, so they seem to have made some riches and then decided actually now was the time to cheat them out of the crew.

[William Durrimple]

So one of the ways that I read that they made some money before he gives up and runs his ship aground is that they do this sort of toll collection from North Carolina. They take over an inlet and they say, right, you know, if anyone wants to pass here, you're going to have to give us some money to go past. I mean, how long does that last? Or not really very long at all.

[David Wilson]

So it's only a few days where they do have this blockade. But while that's happening, they are taking vessels in and out and seizing the goods from those vessels. So they will gather a lot of plunder from those as well.

[Anita Arnand]

And David, give us an impression of the crews. Are they all ne'er do wells from the Bahamas? Are they people that have been captured and somehow made their pe with their captors? Who are these people? Is he ruling by fear or is it a sort of democracy of rogues? What's going on?

[David Wilson]

It's an interesting mix of all of the above. So there are some members of his crew who are the sort of die hard pirates, the volunteer pirates who make up the core part of his crew and who are really in it for the riches. But also following Blackbeard as well, following his command. But there's also a lot of other individuals who have been forced on board, who have been forced recruitment. When they take a merchant vessel, they'll force a few of the crew to join the pirate vessel. Just to help the day to day running of the ships. So there's a bit of a mix of these core voluntary pirates and then some more force pirates and then some people in between who sort of move from being forced to becoming more voluntary.

[Anita Arnand]

But from what you've told us, David, it doesn't sound like there's any great strategy. He's not trying to build up a fleet or conquer somewhere or become the king of the Caribbean.

[William Durrimple]

Where's the plan, David? Where's the plan here?

[David Wilson]

It's a really good question and we know the plan. So once he takes this slave investment, he is operating elsewhere. And it seems like he's made his riches in areas that we don't really know because we don't have a lot of records of it. But when he blockades Charleston, that really is his last great act as this sort of captain of this flotilla. So it seemed like that was what he was leading up to, was to attack Charleston, to take the currency and then leave.

[Anita Arnand]

Okay, and does it look, when he runs his vessel ashore and he breaks up the flotilla and presumably pays off off everyone that needs to be paid off, is there any sense that he wants now to, you know, change his identity, shave his beard and become a.

[William Durrimple]

Thoroughly respectable geography teacher, buy a nicest.

[Anita Arnand]

State on the west coast of Scotland or something?

[David Wilson]

Yeah, it seems like that might be the case, actually. So what happens is in North Carolina, Blackbeard arrives in Bath, the capital of North Carolina, and takes a pardon. So at this point in time, King George I has offered a pardon to all pirate between September 1717 and September 1718. They offer this pardon basically as a means to try to deter these pirates. Now to get them back into the fold. They can't seem to hunt them down. So instead they offer them a general pardon if they come into port and accept it. So Blackbeard does that in North Carolina with 20 of his crew.

[William Durrimple]

What month are we talking about, though?

[David Wilson]

June 1718.

[William Durrimple]

Okay, but later he's back at it. Don't we find him on. Now he's on the adventure because he's, you know, sunk Queen Anne's Revenge. And he again goes back to North Carolina, but he's, you know, answered in kind because the people of Carolina are so sick and tired of him and they don't trust that he's gone away for good, that they beg, they beg the Lieutenant Robert Maynard to hunt him down. They don't believe the pardon's worth of paper it's written on. They don't believe he's given up his wave. Even though he's proved himself to be rather a crap pirate. And so Maynard goes a hunting. And tries to hunt him down.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. So yes, when Blackbeard arrives in North Carolina, he does take the pardon, but he does continue his piratical life regardless.

[William Durrimple]

Sure, it's okay.

[Anita Arnand]

That's having a cake and eat it worse than Boris Johnson.

[David Wilson]

Exactly. And actually he is colluding. It seems like he's colluding at least with the Chief justice and the Collector of the Customs in North Carolina. So there's politicians involved here as well.

[Anita Arnand]

Surprise, surprise.

[David Wilson]

Yeah, surprise, surprise. What happens here though is when Blackbeard goes out once again. He says he's going out on a trading voyage. He actually leaves with little tradable cargo. So that's. That's already questionable. But he says he's going on a trading expedition and he returns with a vessel laden with sugar and other goods that he claims is found as a wreck.

[Anita Arnand]

It fell off the back of a lorry.

[David Wilson]

Exactly.

[Anita Arnand]

Boris. Governor. Yeah.

[William Durrimple]

You'll never guess what. I bumped into a galley and no one wanted it. Just, you know, just sitting there.

[David Wilson]

Unsurprisingly. Later on, it turns out it's a friendship that he's piratically taken and seized and brings it back to North Carolina. But this does get to Virginia. The news starts to circulate to Virginia because there are merchants and the public in North Carolina are sick of this and they are being treated horribly by Blackbeard and his crew, it seems. So they write to Virginia and request support and requested the Navy stationed in Virginia come to their rescue.

[Anita Arnand]

So, David, take us to November 1718. The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spottiswood, dispatches this naval force that you've talked about under Lieutenant Robert Maynard. And his job is to hunt Blackbeard down. Blackbeard has appeared with all his sugar that he found off the back of lorry and he's on the adventure. And on the 21st of November, he anchors off an island off North Carolina. Now tell us what happens Exactly.

[David Wilson]

So in November 1718, two sloop set sail from Virginia under the command of these naval officers. So the first lieutenant of the HMS Peril, Robert Maynard, is in charge and they are directing to a place called Okracook Inlet, which is where Blackbeard is stationed. At this point in time is where they have reports that Blackbeard is operating from. At the same time, however, the naval captain Aylis Brand travels over land to Bath, just in case Blackbeard's in Bath instead. So they sort of do A two pronged attack here. But these two sloops then enter into the area around Ocracock Island. I now have an account actually written by Robert Maynard that was printed in one of the newspapers that explains what happened. If it's okay if I read that out.

[William Durrimple]

Yes, please do.

[Anita Arnand]

So this is the kind of the moment the Pinkerton Agency finally corner Butch Cassidy.

[David Wilson]

Exactly it. So Maynard writes, I attacked him in Oak in North Carolina when he had on board 21 men and nine guns mounted. At our first salutation, he drank damnation to me and my men, whom he styled cowardly puppies, saying he would neither give nor take quarter.

[Anita Arnand]

That's the attitude. We love it. Go on.

[David Wilson]

Immediately we engaged, and one of our captains was unfortunately killed, as well as five of his men who were wounded. That means that one of the slopes then sort of falls off. In the meantime, continuing the fight. At being a perfect calm, I shot away Teach's Gib, forcing him ashore. I boarded his sloop and had 20 men killed and wounded immediately. Thereupon he entered me with 10 men, but 12 stout men I left there fought like heroes, sword in hand, and they killed every one of them that entered without the loss of one man on their side in the hole. I had eight men killed and 18 wounded. We killed 12 besides Blackbeard, who fell with five shot and him and 20 dismal cuts in several parts of his body. And Maynard then goes on to say, I should never have taken him if I had not got him in such a hole whence he could not get out. For we had no guns on board, so that the engagement on our side was the more bloody and desperate.

[William Durrimple]

That's amazing that they didn't have guns. I mean, that surprises me. You'd think, you know, you've been sent out, you've been charged with getting a deadly pirate. Here, have some toothpicks.

[Anita Arnand]

The least you could do is bring along some firearms.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, well, why were they not armed?

[David Wilson]

So they were unable to send the naval vessels themselves that were stationed at Virginia because they were too large to get into Ocracoke Island. So instead, Sportswood outfit these two vessels with the naval commanders on board. And basically they don't have time to also mount guns. Oh, God.

[William Durrimple]

Oh, God.

[David Wilson]

So they just have to send them out. But you can kind of see the desperation in Maynard's letter. Yeah, I think you can tell he's probably a little bit annoyed about the fact he's been sent out with no guns to attack this individual.

[William Durrimple]

Well, I would be, too. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

[Anita Arnand]

And, David, just to give our nation the glory it deserves, the final blow comes from a score Scots Highlander who decapitated Blackbeard with a powerful swing of his sword. That's more like it. There's the final moment of the film.

[David Wilson]

Yeah. So apparently, yeah. Scottish Highlander on board Maynard's vessel. He attacks Blackbeard with his broadsword and cuts off his head.

[Anita Arnand]

It's a broadsword. It's a claymore. It's better still.

[David Wilson]

It's a claymore. Yeah. It's supposedly a claymore.

[Anita Arnand]

Oh, God, I want to make this film now. Love it.

[William Durrimple]

What happens to his head? Do they pick it up and mount it on a spike or something? I mean, they did that sort of thing in those days, didn't they?

[David Wilson]

Well, this is quite interesting is that Maynard also says, I have cut Blackbeard's head off, which I have put on my bowsprit in order to carry it to Virginia. So they hang it off the front of the ship.

[William Durrimple]

Oh, so it's just dangling there like a. Like a fairy dice on a Ford Cortina.

[David Wilson]

Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. So they arrive back in Virginia victorious, with this. Yeah. This head hanging from the vessel.

[William Durrimple]

God, these were tough times. It's true. Okay, and is it a hero's welcome? And are people just sort of thronging the street saying, blackbeard's dead. Thank God, Blackbeard's dead.

[Anita Arnand]

Yeah. What happens in Virginia when they land?

[David Wilson]

There's a lot of celebration and the naval captains are also very celebrated. And then news of this feat gets circulated throughout the Empire back in London as well. Because what they really want to show is that if you're a pirate, this is what happens, because actually, it's quite rare that the Navy ever engage pirates and capture them in this way. So because it's such a spectacle, they want to share that information and to distribute, to circulate it as much as possible.

[William Durrimple]

So I read that they then, after sort of, you know, parading the head around, that it goes on what was the equivalent of E at the time? And it's auctioned off. I mean, is that true that it was auctioned off? And I think, what, £100 to anyone who wanted to buy? I mean, this is all just arrant nonsense. We have no record of this.

[David Wilson]

What's interesting is actually the Virginian House of Burgesses, which is like their Houses of Commons, they provide a reward for anyone who would bring them Blackbeard's head for £100. So I think that's where that's taken from.

[William Durrimple]

That's where it's conflated to. So it wasn't actually the bloodied head of Blackbeard had sold off off by an enterprising naval. Naval sailor? No. Okay.

[David Wilson]

Not quite. But I think they do mount it on a spike though, when they bring it back to Virginia. So they do put it on display.

[Anita Arnand]

And how quickly does the myth of Blackbeard grow into the one we've all grown up with? How quickly does he become the archetypal pirate?

[David Wilson]

I think it's really from this point onwards. So that you can see that because this account is circulated so widely, actually, this is where Blackbeard's name gets made. This is where we start to really see people talk about Blackbeard until, remember Blackbeard, because of the fact that he gets caught in this spectacle, this is where his name starts to get made. And then you get Charles Johnson, 1724, the General History of the pirates.

[Anita Arnand]

What's that? That's another six years later.

[David Wilson]

Another six years later. But he takes this story and just.

[William Durrimple]

Runs with it and we're left with this kind of, you know, legacy. If I don't kill a man every now and then, they forget who I am. Where's that from, William?

[Anita Arnand]

That is from pirates. Caribbean. Stranger Tides.

[William Durrimple]

It is the book of Depp. Okay. Yes, that's right. Right. The world according to Depp.

[Anita Arnand]

Poor David's gonna have a coroner if you carry me.

[William Durrimple]

That poor man, you can't see this, but his face is in his hands.

[Anita Arnand]

This is a man that spent his whole life unmuddying the water. We've just put our welly boot in there and stirred it all up.

[William Durrimple]

I know. So look, is the end of Blackbeard, Is that the end of the golden age of the pirates? This is it. After this, people just think, ah, don't do it. Cause, you know, you turn into a hood ornament.

[Anita Arnand]

No, it carries on for a bit, doesn't it?

[David Wilson]

It carries on for at least another six years after this point. So although this is quite the spect, actually, Blackbeard's death and shortly thereafter there's also an anti piracy voyage against Stede Bonnet. So he also gets captured and executed. But then you get this new movement of other pirates who start to move to the West African coast, to the Indian Ocean and to Brazil.

[Anita Arnand]

The last place where you have pirates still carrying on is the South Seas, isn't it? You still get quite a lot going up the coast and ambushing vessels coming out of Goa and so on.

[David Wilson]

Right.

[Anita Arnand]

Up until the 1740s. Am I right about that?

[William Durrimple]

Yeah.

[David Wilson]

So although we talk about the golden age of piracy, it ended in 1726, when the sort of surge of Atlantic piracy ends with Blackbeard and all these sort of characters when that ends. But piracy continues well into the 19th century, to be honest, there's lots of surges of piracy thereafter. We just don't seem to romanticize them in the same way.

[William Durrimple]

Yeah, no. Good. I'm glad we don't. Hey, you mentioned before that they'd found the Queen Anne's Revenge. Have they raised it or are they diving around the wreck? Tell us that story.

[David Wilson]

So they found the Queen Anne's Revenge off the coast of North Carolina in the 1990s, and they've been slowly but surely excavating it. And I believe they have raised it as well now in the more recent decades. But what's really interesting about this, it's pitched as a pirate vessel. So really they keep talking about the Queen of Revenge as being Blackbeard's vessel. And that's where all the. Where all the intrigue comes from. But it was first and foremost a slaving vessel. So really we should be looking at it in that sense as well, because a lot of the artifacts found on board are also related to the slave trade. And I think they are. They are doing more work on that now as well.

[Anita Arnand]

I just have to say that the legend continues in Reunion. And I mentioned about putting this bottle of rum on the grave of La Busse, which means, of course, the buzzard in French. And the reason that he is still immortalized is that when in 1730, he was captured by a slave trading bounty hunter, he was brought back to Reunion, sentenced to death. And on the scaffold he made a speech which immortalized it him for life. As the noose was placed around his neck, he scattered a bundle of parchment among the crowd. The maps, he said, indicated exactly where on Reunion his treasure lay buried. But first, the finder would have to unite all the different maps and crack the code. To this day, the treasure has never been found, despite adventurers coming to Reunion to search for it for 250 years. It's a great story and. And such is the legend that to this day in Reunion, if you want a child or you have a problem conceiving women, come to the grave of La Bus. He's still regarded as this figure of sort of virility and the sort of symbol of passion, actually. And you go to the grave and it is alive with offering cigarettes, bottles of vodka bottles of rum. And it's one of the main religions in Reunion. The locals there still very much regard Labouse as a figure who is around in some form and can intervene in.

[William Durrimple]

Can I ask the very obvious question, what were you after, Dalrymple?

[Anita Arnand]

It all went all right for me, thanks.

[William Durrimple]

Golden Road, doing great, I'm sure. There's literally no connection, but it is.

[Anita Arnand]

Literally the case that he found £1 million worth of Indian gems, La Bousse, and they've never been found. And you still have French treasure hunters going for it today, so that's a great story.

[William Durrimple]

Well, look, I mean, if you've got a spare hour, you know what you could do then. Listen, this has been an absolute delight. David Wilson, thank you very, very much for joining us. That's it from our miniseries on Blackbeard, but do join us again. Till the next time we meet, it's goodbye from me, Anita Arnan.

[Anita Arnand]

And goodbye from me, William Durimpel.