The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down (43 page)

Blackbeard never came.

***

As he sailed down North Carolina's Outer Banks, Lieutenant Maynard heard all sorts of stories about Blackbeard. His pilot, a North Carolinian hired by Spotswood, said Blackbeard had been ferrying stolen cargo between Ocracoke and Bath. At Roanoke Inlet, halfway down the Outer Banks, local mariners told them that the Monday before they had seen Blackbeard's
Adventure
aground on Brant Island, a marshy islet on Currituck Sound, thirty miles back toward Virginia. Maynard spent the rest of the day sailing back and forth the length of Currituck Sound, but saw no sign of Blackbeard or anyone else. Spotswood himself had warned that Thatch was "fortifying an island at O[cra]acock Inlet and making that a general rendevouz of such robbers." From other mariners, Maynard probably heard another disturbing story that would reach Williamsburg a few days later: Blackbeard had "been join'd by some other pirate crews" at Ocracoke, increasing his numbers to 170 men; Maynard had no way of knowing that Vane's pirate crew had come and gone eight weeks earlier.

At four
P
.
M
.
, with mounting trepidation, Maynard's small sloops reached Ocracoke Inlet, thirty miles south of Cape Hatteras. Once around the outer edge of Ocracoke Island, Maynard saw two sloops at anchor behind the island in a place now known as Thatch's Hole, one of them bearing nine guns and matching the description of Blackbeard's
Adventure.
The other sloop was unarmed and looked to be a coastal trading sloop. On the island, Maynard would have seen a large tent, the remains of bonfires, some empty kegs and barrels perhaps, but no sign of fortifications. He took note of the wind and currents and the sun, low in the sky, and gave the order for the
Jane
and
Ranger
to drop anchor. He didn't want to engage Blackbeard in darkness.

Since Vane had left, Blackbeard had indeed been traveling back and forth between Bath and Ocracoke, spending a couple of weeks overseeing twenty or so men at Ocracoke, then a couple of weeks with his wife in Bath. His return to town was, by now, overdue. Five days earlier—November 17—he had received a letter from Tobias Knight urging him to "make the best of your way up as soon as possible ... [as] I have something more to say to you than at present I can write"; the justice had signed it "your real friend and servant, T. Knight." Blackbeard had more important matters to attend to than Knight or the two modest sloops that had just appeared in the inlet; his pirate gang was entertaining one of their merchant friends, Samuel Odell, whose trading vessel was anchored alongside the
Adventure.
While Maynard's men tried to sleep, steeling themselves for the fight ahead, Blackbeard's men drank late into the night.

At nine o'clock the following morning, Maynard gave the command to weigh anchor and sailed straight for the
Adventure,
hoping to board her before Blackbeard could roll out her cannons. As they entered the anchorage on the faintest of breezes, Midshipman Hyde's
Ranger
ran aground on a sandbar. He ordered his men to start throwing ballast stones overboard in the hopes of making the sloop light enough to get back afloat. Maynard pressed ahead in the larger
Jane,
only to run aground himself, eliminating any possibility of a surprise attack. Despite their hangovers, Blackbeard's men couldn't help but take notice of the two sloops that had clearly been trying to sneak up on them, and whose suspiciously large crews were now noisily throwing ballast and water barrels over the side in an urgent attempt to get free. When it dawned on them that they were under attack, the pirates sprang into action, rushing to loosen sails, cut the anchor cables, and ready the cannons. It happened so fast that their guest, Samuel Odell, and his three crewmen didn't have time to get off Blackbeard's vessel. Just as the
Adventure
's sails caught their first faint breath of wind, Hyde got the
Ranger
afloat and headed straight for the pirates, with most of his twenty-five men straining at the oars.

The pirates began firing their muskets, and when the vessels had closed to within "half [a] pistol shot," Blackbeard signaled the gun crews to fire. Flames blasted from the muzzles of the
Adventure's
cannons and, a split second later, four- and six-pound cannonballs tore across the
Ranger
's foredeck, demolishing foresails and killing Hyde and his second in command, the
Lyme
's coxswain, Allen Arlington. Wounded men convulsed on the
Ranger
's blood-soaked deck as the sloop slowed to a stop. Amid the confusion, some of the sailors managed to let off a volley of small arms fire as the
Adventure
swept past. One of the musket balls severed the jib halyard, the line holding up the pirate's foresails, causing the
Adventure
to lose speed. This was a critical piece of luck for Maynard's men. Having gotten the
Jane
free, they now rowed madly toward the pirates in the hope of boarding them. Had the halyard not been hit, the
Adventure
could have escaped into the open sea. Instead, the two vessels closed to within fifty feet of each other.

At this point, Blackbeard hailed Maynard."Damn you villains, who are you and from whence came you?" he said, according to the
General History.
"You can see by our colors we are no pirates," Maynard is said to have replied. Thatch, his beard tied in black ribbons, held up a glass of liquor and, according to Maynard, "drank damnation to me and my men, whom he styled Cowardly Puppies, saying he would neither give nor take Quarter." Maynard responded that that was fine with him. Blackbeard then signaled to his gunner, Phillip Morton, to unleash his other broadside. Morton had loaded the guns with grape and partridge shot that yielded a shotgunlike discharge that was extremely deadly at such close range. Other pirates threw improvised hand grenades they had made by stuffing gunpowder, musket balls, and bits of old iron into empty rum bottles. When the smoke lifted, the
Jane's
deck was covered with bodies. In just a few seconds, twenty-one of Maynard's crew had been killed or wounded. Only two men were still standing on the sloop's deck. The battle, Blackbeard concluded, was won. He ordered the
Adventure
to come alongside the
Jane
and for his men to prepare to board.

Under cover of gunpowder smoke, however, Maynard had ordered a dozen or so uninjured men to hide in the
Jane
's hold and await his signal. Crouching at the ladder, he whispered instructions to his helmsman and his first mate, Mr. Baker, telling them to lie low and to signal to him when the pirates came over the side.

When the
Adventure
banged against the
Jane,
Blackbeard was the first over the rail "with a rope in his hands to lash or make fast the two sloops." At Baker's signal, Maynard rushed up from the hold, sword in hand, a dozen crewmen behind him. In a scene that inspired many Hollywood movies, Blackbeard and Maynard faced off against each other—dashing naval lieutenant and fearsome pirate—swords drawn. Humphrey Johnson, the North Carolina mariner who carried the news of the battle to New England, described the fight this way. "Maynard making a thrust, the point of his sword went against Teach's cartridge box"—where he stored his ammunition—"and bended it to the hilt." Blackbeard then delivered a blow that shattered the guard of Maynard's sword, slicing the officer's fingers. Maynard jumped back, "threw away his sword and fired his pistol, which wounded Teach." By now, ten of Blackbeard's men had clambered aboard the
Jane
and were clashing with Maynard's men. In the chaos, the
Jane
's helmsman, Abraham Demelt, made his way to Maynard's side and managed to slash Blackbeard across the face. The pirates aboard the
Jane
were outnumbered by Maynard's men and rapidly fell to the bloodstained deck. More men trained their pistols on Blackbeard, who staggered on, swinging his sword at Maynard and Demelt, blood gushing from his face and body. More musket balls struck his tall frame as the sailors surrounded him, swords drawn, circling for the kill.

According to Humphrey Johnson, the final blow came from a Scots highlander, who decapitated Blackbeard with a powerful swing of his sword, "laying it flat on his shoulder" attached by a bit of flesh. The author of the
General History
disagrees, saying Blackbeard expired suddenly "as he was cocking another pistol," finally succumbing to his wounds. In letters to friends and relatives, Maynard didn't say how Blackbeard died, but noted that he fell "with five shot in him, and 20 dismal cuts in several parts of his body." The melee had lasted less than six minutes, during which time all of the boarding pirates were slain without killing a single one of Maynard's men, though he reported several "were miserably cut and mangled."

The
Ranger
came alongside to help finish off the pirates remaining aboard the
Adventure,
who were outmanned by nearly three to one. Many jumped in the water, where the naval sailors picked them off. (According to Captain Gordon's postaction report, one of the pirates made it to shore, succumbed to his injuries, and was "discovered some dayes after in the reefs by [way of] the fowls hovering over him.") One of the
Ranger's
sailors had been killed by friendly fire, bringing the navy's total casualties to eleven dead and over twenty wounded. The victors had one final scare outside the
Adventure
's powder room: They discovered a black pirate named Caesar, match in hand, struggling to get free of the merchant Samuel Odell and one of his crewmen, so he could follow Blackbeard's last command: In the event of defeat, blow them all to smithereens. Caesar was successfully restrained and became one of fourteen pirate prisoners—nine white and five black—that were taken into custody. Odell, his body bearing "no less than seventy wounds," was also taken prisoner, though he was later released.

After the battle, Maynard's men searched the
Adventure,
hoping to find a horde of Spanish gold and silver. Instead they found some gold dust, a few items made of silver (including the goblet stolen from William Bell), and "other small things of plunder." They also found Tobias Knight's recent letter to Blackbeard, and a number of papers implicating Knight and Eden in Blackbeard's piracy. The tent on the shore concealed the remnants of the French ships' cargo: 140 bags of cocoa and ten casks of sugar. If Blackbeard had accumulated fantastic wealth, he had not kept it with him at Ocracoke.

Whether severed during or after the battle, Blackbeard's head was strung up in the
Adventure
's bowsprit: a grotesque trophy that would fetch the sailors £100 bounty when they got back to Virginia. Maynard had Blackbeard's headless body thrown into Pamlico Sound, where, according to legend, it swam around the
Adventure
three times before sinking into the brackish water.

***

Owing to a spate of rough weather, Maynard and Brand didn't meet up until November 27, when the lieutenant came up to Bath to deliver the evidence found against Knight and Eden. Brand was already furious with Knight, who he said was "making [an] abundance of difficulty ... advising the Governor not to assist me and constantly justifying the pyrates." The chief justice had "positively denied that any [pirated] goods were about his plantation." Brand now confronted Knight with incriminating evidence from Blackbeard's letter, the "memorandum in Thache's pocket book," and statements from several witnesses who had taken part in unloading plunder. Knight finally "owned the whole matter" and showed Brand twenty barrels of sugar and two bags of cotton "covered with fodder" in his barn. Eden, seeing the game was up, ordered his marshal to deliver to Brand six slaves and sixty hogsheads of sugar that had belonged to Blackbeard or his men and had been in the governor's possession. Brand also tracked down "several pyrates lurking [in Bath]," including Blackbeard's boatswain, Israel Hands, who would ultimately agree to testify against his companions in exchange for his life. The total value of the cargo found in Bath and Ocracoke was estimated at £2,238, including the
Adventure
herself.

Lieutenant Maynard returned to Hampton Roads in the
Adventure
on January 3, 1719, Blackbeard's head still hanging from the bowsprit. As he passed HMS
Pearl,
he saluted Captain Gordon with all nine of the
Adventure
's guns. Gordon treated his lieutenant to a rare honor: an equal return salute from one of His Majesty's frigates. Gordon and Maynard presented Blackbeard's head to Governor Spotswood, who had it suspended from a tall pole on the west side of the Hampton River at a place now known as Blackbeard's Point, as a ghoulish admonition to would-be pirates.

In a few weeks, Maynard would be a household name from New England to London, Port Royal, and beyond. In Boston, thirteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin, then a printer's apprentice, wrote and published a "sailor's song" about Maynard's accomplishment, which he sold on the street. The text has been lost, save for one stanza ending with the lines

It's better to swim in the sea below
Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol

The expedition kept the court system busy for many years as the various parties tried to settle their scores with one another. On March 12, 1719, the prisoners were tried at the Capitol in Williamsburg and, apart from Samuel Odell, found guilty. Thirteen pirates were executed, their bodies hung in gibbets strung along the Hampton-Williamsburg road. The last, Israel Hands, was freed just prior to execution, owing to the timely arrival of a ship carrying an extension of the king's pardon, an event that also saved William Howard. Based on evidence gathered by Brand and Maynard, Tobias Knight was brought to trial in North Carolina for colluding with the pirates; he was found not guilty, largely because he managed to have the testimony of Blackbeard's four black crewmen thrown out because, as he argued,"by the laws and customs of all America" the testimony of blacks was not of "any validity against any white person whatsoever." Governor Eden threatened to prosecute Brand for trespassing on the lands of the lords proprietor of North Carolina, and sparred for months with Spotswood over both the legality of the invasion and the ownership of plunder, though these efforts came to naught. Edward Moseley and Maurice Moore broke into an official's home in an unsuccessful attempt to find evidence linking Eden with Blackbeard, and were caught, tried, and convicted of sedition. For his part, Robert Maynard filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Gordon and Brand after the captains decided to share Spotswood's bounty money among the crew of the
Lyme
and
Pearl,
not just those who had fought at Ocracoke; in the end, most sailors received only £1 for their part in the battle.