Topics Related to Maritime History
When we left off last month, we shared the mysterious story of the QAR breech blocks. This month, the story continues…
The Tale of Two Ships Project has enabled me to research the history of La Concorde and Queen Anne’s Revenge, and grasp a more profound understanding of this one ship with very different identities.
After the battle of Ocracoke in November 1718, only sixteen members of Blackbeard’s crew were rounded up and brought to Virginia to await trial. The men waited for three months for the seemingly inevitable guilty verdict of piracy and death sentence. During this time some of the crew attempted to save their lives by turning on their deceased pirate Blackbeard and becoming informants for Governor Spotswood. The informant crew members hoped the evidence they provided during their imprisonment would be enough to trade a death sentence for life enslavement.
When we last visited the story of the gentleman pirate, Stede Bonnet had been convicted for his crimes of piracy. Bonnet had to wait an entire month until his scheduled hanging.
Early November 1718 proved a busy time in the life of Stede Bonnet. If you recall, the gentleman pirate escaped custody in Charleston in October.
In March 1718, the HMS Phoenix arrived in New Providence carrying the King’s Pardon, and among the first to sign was none other than Blackbeard’s former commander Benjamin Hornigold. Hornigold arrived on the scene as a privateer before the island of New Providence became a pirate haven and attempted to continue his legitimacy as such by claiming to only attack French and Spanish ships, well after official privateering rights were revoked.
La Concorde, later Queen Anne’s Revenge was what is known as a square-rigged vessel, meaning the primary sails used to propel the vessel were set perpendicular to the keel of the vessel. A vessel with this type of rig would place many unique demands on the crew, both on deck and above, including furling (rolling up) sails at great heights in the air and hauling on lines with incredible force on deck.
In late September 1717, Stede Bonnet met Blackbeard.
The most prominent symbol for piracy in popular culture is a black flag decorated with the infamous skull and crossbones. This flag has been used within the mythos of pirates, both real and fictional, for over 300 years. With the expansive mythology surrounding piracy, and particularly Blackbeard, it is worthwhile to look deeper into this iconic flag and its connections to the infamous pirate.
As the pirates of the Golden Age became more fierce and defiant, European countries were at a loss for how to deal with what was becoming a plague on commerce.