Tuesday, March 4, 1997
Reprinted with permission from the Charlotte Observer
Copyright owned by The Charlotte Observer

By David Perlmutt, Staff Writer

Blackbeard

Real Name: Edward ``Blackbeard'' Teach

Born: Probably before 1690, in Britain.

Died: November 1718.

Occupation: Pirate. From 1716 through 1718, Blackbeard and his crew terrorized sailors on the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Early career: As a crew member of privately owned ship, helped plunder French and Spanish ships, as was permitted by Queen Anne of Britain during the War of Spanish Succession.

Appearance: Coal-black beard and long hair braided with black ribbons. Tucked burning, dangling rope under his hat to look more menacing.

Politics: Allegedly was friends with N.C. Gov. Charles Eden, who is said to have allowed pirates to thrive as long as they gave him a cut of the booty.

N.C. home: Had a mansion in Bath, now the oldest town in N.C. He and other pirates loved the N.C. coast for its havens of shallow sounds and inlets. It is said that Blackbeard took his 14th wife in Bath.

Best party: In fall 1718, Blackburn returned from sea to his hideaway off Ocracoke Island. He hosted a huge pirate shindig with dancing, drinking and bonfires.

Last fight: The governor of Virginia sent a crew on two sloops to stop Blackbeard. In fierce face-to-face fighting in Ocracoke Inlet, Blackbeard's throat was slashed. As a warning to other pirates, his head was cut off and displayed on one of the sloops.

Sources: National Geographic Society, several historians.

And by the time he met his bloody demise in 1718, Edward ``Blackbeard'' Teach, the most notorious buccaneer of them all, left a legend that inspired ballads, plays and tall tales rich in Carolinas lore.

The year of his death, as his small fleet of pirate ships maneuvered the waters approaching what is now called Beaufort Inlet, Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sand bar and was abandoned.

In the 278 years after, hobby divers and treasure hunters searched, but couldn't find the fabled vessel that carried 40 cannons.

Now, the state and officials of a Florida-based research company believe it has been found - in 20 feet of murky water, two miles off shore - in what could be one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries in history.

``We haven't absolutely concluded that it's Queen Anne's Revenge, but we certainly believe it to be that,'' Jeffrey Crow, director of the N.C. Division of Archives and History, said Monday. ``It's in the right place, and it was built at the right time.

``This is very exciting stuff.''

Divers for Intersal Inc. found the vessel in November, but the discovery was announced Monday.

Generations of North Carolinians have grown up with tales of Blackbeard and the plunder he perpetrated off the Carolinas coast. By the time he made it to North Carolina in 1717, he'd already cultivated a reputation as a fierce, broad-shouldered buccaneer given to fits of cruelty.

Blackbeard was a master of psychological warfare, wearing three braces of pistols, and in the thick of battle, sticking a long, lighted rope under his hat to frame his face in fire. He wore his coal-black hair and beard long and braided - in a time of clean-shaven faces - and, knowing his reputation, many a ship's captain gave up before a fight, Crow said.

He established a barren outpost in Ocracoke, strategically placed near major shipping lanes.

Teach briefly retired and built a mansion in Bath. But once his money ran out he went back to piracy.

He rarely took treasure, but went after more mundane items like barrels of tobacco and sugar, which he traded. He blockaded Charleston harbor and held officials hostage for a chest of medicine. Some say N.C. Gov. Charles Eden allowed the plundering to go on as long as he was given a cut of the loot.

Before Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground, three other vessels in Blackbeard's fleet had made it into the narrow inlet. Blackbeard ordered one of the boats, called Adventure, to pull his ship off the sand bar. But the boat sank trying; divers will attempt to find it.

As his flagship sat stuck, Blackbeard ordered his crew to place whatever treasures were aboard on another boat and left Queen Anne's Revenge to the shipworms.

He died in a bloody battle, against troops sent by the governor of Virginia. He was trapped on Nov. 21, 1718, and fought with sword and pistol until his throat was slashed and his head cut off.

Artifacts from the shipwreck will be kept in one collection and displayed, likely in the port town of Beaufort.

The find came on a cold, blustery day.

Intersal had searched the waters near Beaufort off and on for nine years to no avail. Its researchers had read transcripts from trials of pirates in Charleston and Virginia, and documents in England, and decided the boat had to be within sight of shore, said Mike Daniel, who headed the operation.

In November, divers were two miles off Fort Macon on the eastern tip of Atlantic Beach. Visibility in the water was five to six feet. The crew had been searching that area for about a month, finding four other shipwrecks but not Blackbeard's ship.

Finally, a magnetometer on board the crew's 40-foot boat recorded ``a hit, so we knew we had metal down there,'' Daniel said. He sent a diver down, who found nothing.

Two days later, another diver went down. ``I think we have cannons down there,'' he told Daniel.

As Daniel suited up in his diving gear, divers brought up a bronze bell. Later the bell was cleaned, and the year 1709 was found. The ship was built in 1710.

Then the divers carried to the surface the barrel of a blunderbuss, a long, heavy gun.

And as soon as Daniel dove, it took no time to find a pile of 10 to 15 cannons, fused together by the centuries in salt water.

``It was very exhilarating,'' Daniel said. ``We were starting to pull things off in a very short time. It was just laying there on the surface and I started thinking, I need to get these divers off the shipwreck before the site is stripped.' So, when I was fairly sure we had one of Blackbeard's ships, I ordered my divers up.''

Back on the boat, he immediately called state officials with the news. His crew hasn't been back to the site since.

``They didn't want to disturb the site,'' said Steve Claggett, the state's head archaeologist. ``We are very lucky; they have done everything by the book.

``These folks are perhaps some of the best we've ever worked with under any circumstances. Their interest in this is purely historical.''

The state, which permits such explorations, immediately declared 300 yards around the site off limits, and is negotiating with the U.S. Coast Guard and the state parks department to protect the site.

After the find, Intersal formed a nonprofit company to work with the state in the excavation. Daniel said they will keep book and movie rights to repay $300,000 from investors that was spent on the exploration.

In about two months, divers will begin trying to determine what remains of the ship and collect artifacts. The project will take at least five years.

Daniel said much of the hull appears to be buried in sand, but the deck and masts likely have rotted away.

Officials don't know if its remains can be raised. ``The one thing that really astounds us is that this ship has not been found until now,'' Claggett said. ``Everyone knows about Blackbeard, and there's such an interest in that period. It just goes to show it's a big ocean out there.''