"Only The Devil And I Know The Whereabouts Of My Treasure And The One Of Us Who Lives The Longest Should Take It All"....Blackbeard

Damnation Seize My Soul by Chris Collingwood. I saw a great copy of this painting once, with perfect lighting, and it seized my soul.

Off the coast of Beauford, NC an anchor has been hauled up one last time... almost 300 years after its last drop. It is the anchor from Queen Anne's Revenge, the pirate ship of the famous Blackbeard. The once French slave ship was renamed and became Blackbeard's stollen ride after its capture. The ship met its demise before it's famous owner, having been run aground and abandoned a few months before Blackbeard's death in 1718.

The anchor of Queen Anne's Revenge being hoisted from NC waters last week. The wreck, which is the largest off North Carolina's coast, was discovered in 1996. Recovery has been ongoing since then.

The mad-eyed Edward Teach was born in Bristol in 1680 and grew up to be the most famous marauder of the West Indies, North Carolina and Virginia. Pirates were admired as romantic heroes even during their own lifetime, glossing over the fact that most were brutal sadists. They lived outside the law and were free from constraints in those hard times when everyone else seemed to be catching a flogging. They accepted their fate--that their lifestyle led to an exciting, but usually short life with a career that ended in one or two years...usually at the end of a rope.

A pirate captain only kept his position if he were popular, successful and feared. He had to stand out in a crowd, and this Blackbeard did well. He was said to be tall, strong, hairy, wild, brave, and a flamboyant dresser. He wore brightly colored silk scarves over his shoulders with flintlocks tied to the end. He braided his beard, which grew almost up to his eyes, and tied the braids with colored ribbons. He put slow burning fuses in his hat which he would light right before going into action. He was a constant drinker who believed a drunken ship was a happy ship and said that without alcohol, the "rogues are aplotting." He was said to have tormented fellow pirate, Stede Bonnet, once inviting him on board, getting him stinking drunk, then convincing Bonnet's waiting crew to elect a new captain.

The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1718.

But it did indeed come to a quick end after he was mortally wounded by volunteers of the Royal Navy led by Robert Maynard at Ocracoke Inlet. It took 25 wounds to bring him down, including 5 gunshots and a slit throat. During those times, if you killed someone famous, there were no photos or press to prove it, so Blackbeard's head was cut off and hung from Maynard's ship's bowsprit as it sailed back to Virginia. But Blackbeard had the last hurrah as it was reported by those present that his headless body, when thrown overboard, swam around his killer's ship three times before sinking.

A canon recovered from the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Blackbeard had plenty of warning that he was losing his ship, so his booty was removed and taken ashore. Artifacts from the recovery will be on display at the NC Maritime Museum.