My Wicked, Wicked,Ways

Let's set the record straight. My name is not now, nor has it ever been Edward Teach. Teach is merely one of many aliases I used in the 17th and l8th centuries, so that others would not know my true identity. Yes, I used the name Teach, Thach, Tache, Tack, Drummond,& Commenday. However, I am best remembered as Captain Blackbeard.

I was born in the year 1680 near Kingstown, Jamaica. At three, my family moved to England. I grew up in the city of Bristol. It was there that I was educated in the finest schools in England.

When I was 13 my father died. A year later my mother remarried. The man she married was a tyrant who hated me & beat me unmercifully on numerous occasions. At 16 1 turned on him and beat him within an inch of his life. I was however, forced to leave my home that very day. I ran to the Bristol docks & signed on as a cabin boy on a ship bound for Jamaica.

It was in Jamaica where I met Henry Jennings, a sly, crafty old privateer. It was Jennings who introduced me to the "Brethren of the Coast;" the pirates!

I learned much of the sea from Jennings. When he retired from the sea I sought out the best of the privateers. His name was Benjamin Hornigold: an excellent teacher & a great Captain. Our years of sailing together proved to be profitable & enjoyable: years filled with excitement & adventure. After serving with Horngold for only I year, he promoted me to 2nd in his own command.

In 1717 we captured a French ship named the "Concord." We were off the coast of St. Vincent. Hornigold (an older man & ready to retire) granted my request &allowed me to claim the Concord as My own personal prize. I renamed the ship,; the Queen Anne's Revenge. I mounted 40 cannons on her decks and started sailing for the first time in my life as a pirate Captain.

The weeks & months that past were quite successful. I became such a problem in the Caribbean, that the King sent a man-of-war out from Barbados. Her orders were to seek-out, find, & destroy Blackbeard & his Queen Anne's Revenge. Well they achieved the seeking out &finding, but after a battle that lasted over 3 hours, I sent His Majesty's Ship "Scarborough," limping back to Barbados. From that time forward I was so feared, that I rarely had to fight. Most often, the underpaid merchant seamen immediately surrendered. Things went rather well for old Captain Blackbeard, rather well indeed. My flotilla grew to 5 ships & over 300 men. I could however see the end of freebooting near. I knew it was time to give up piracy. King George I sent out a proclamation that allowed all of us pirates to receive a full pardon with no punishments. In the spring of the year 1718 we departed the bay of Honduras. Our destination - the fair Colony of North Carolina. I had been doing business with their Governor & knew that he would give me the King's pardon. I had decided to retire there & try my hand at farming.

After two & a half weeks of sailing we appeared off the coast of South Carolina. Our decision was to have one last stab at piracy: so we blockaded the port of Charlestown. We captured the harbor & city, holding it for 5 days, taking on more treasure than we had ever seen before. On our northward trek, having no longer any use for my flotilla, I ran 4 of my 5 ships aground on a' sand bar & left almost all of my crew marooned on a small deserted island. Left them to die in the Carolina sun. Alas, a few days later a simple swine name of Steeds Bonnet saved them all.

It was June, 1718 when me & my remaining 23 crew members sailed up the Pamlico River in North Carolina. As soon as my ship was secured at the Bath dock, I sought out Governor Charles Eden. I requested & received a pardon, not only for myself but all my men as well.

I was quite happy in this small North Carolina town. I wasted very little time in selecting a new bride. I met a girl named Mary Orman who lived on a plantation not far from Bath town. I was near 40, she was only 16. Our wedding was an affair to remember, The governor himself performing our wedding ceremony.

My life assumed a normalcy I'd not known since childhood. It was not long however, before my old shipmates began to create problems. They did not fit in ashore. I decided to make one last journey. I would sail them to Philadelphia. Leaving most of the crew there. The handful that did not care for that city, I would sail south to a small island off the coast of North Carolina named "Ocracoke."

There I would wait for other Captains to take them on. When I was sure they had a good Captain & a good ship to sail in: I would return to my wife & my new home, living hopefully a life of peace. Little did I know however, there had been a plot against me. Colonel Edward Mosley & Colonel Maurice Moore had traveled to Virginia, and in Williamsburg, met with Governor Alexander Spotswood. They planned a two pronged ambush, for when I sailed to Ocracoke,

November 22, 1718: As my sloop neared the island of Ocracoke, we spotted the masts of two ships. We thought them to be friendly, so we continued towards the island. As we drew alongside they hoisted the Union Jack & began firing small arms, we fired a broadside that sank one of the ships & killed most of the crewmen, or so we thought. As soon as we boarded the other ship, we were surrounded by British Marines, they had been hiding, waiting, below the decks. There must have been 80 of them & perhaps 18 of us. My men fought nobly, but it was hopeless, the sea grew red with our own blood.

When my body was later examined I was found to have got 21 slashes & cuts from swords & sabers, 5 bullet holes & my head had been removed from my body. The whereabouts, of my own skull, to this day remains a mystery. Some claim that Blackbeard's skull is now in the possession of a secret society in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where it is used as a chalice in Satanic rituals. Others say it remains in Virginia at the University of Virginia Medical Collage. Many agree it is buried on Ocracoke island, where it is dug up every 10 years on November 22nd.

The only thing I can swear to is that my head was sailed to Virginia, hung up like a trophy, on the bowsprit of the ship "Ranger." It was then placed on a boarding pike next to the shoreline at the mouth of Hampton Roads Harbor. It remained on that stake for weeks, perhaps months. My skull served as a clear warning to those rascals that thought they would like to be a pirate, a pirate just like BLACKBEARD!

- Capt. Blackbeard

Captain Blackbeards most recent alias is Benjamin Cherry, now settled as a gentleman of North Carolina, Ben "Blackbeard" Cherry travels widely appearing at pirate festivals around the nation & in schools where he presents a rollicking program of pirate lore with a strong anti-drug abuse message. Ben is a longtime friend of the Seattle Seafair Pirates, He has been our guest at Seafair on many occasions & is our frequent companion during the Pirates Week festival in Grand Cayman If you would like to contact Blackbeard, write to; Benjamin V. Cherry 119 West Water Street, Port of Plymouth, NC 27962


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