Raising Blackbeard's "Queen Anne's Revenge"

Who Was Blackbeard?

The fearsome pirate left reminders of his legacy elsewhere on the North Carolina coast.

In Plymouth—about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Bath—actor Ben Cherry has made a full-time career of doing Blackbeard impersonations.

The 1996 discovery near Beaufort of a shipwreck thought to have been Blackbeard's vessel rekindled widespread interest in the pirate. (Read "'Blackbeard's Ship" Yields New Clues to Pirate Mystery.")

And there are enduring legends that Blackbeard hid some of his gold in the surrounding swamps, and that his ghost still frightens away anyone foolish enough to look for the treasure.

He may have been born in England sometime before 1690. His real name is thought to be Edward Teach, or perhaps Thatch. He probably became a sailor during the War of Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714, when England's Queen Anne hired privateers to plunder French and Spanish ships.

Like many sailors who were out of work when the war ended, Teach turned to piracy. He joined the crew of pirate Benjamin Hornigold and apparently proved himself to be a skillful, cunning, and daring leader.

Around 1718, Teach—who'd grown a long, black beard that covered most of his face—took command of a captured French ship he renamed the Queen Anne's Revenge and embarked on his short, spectacular career as Blackbeard.

In the summer of 1718 Blackbeard astonished England and colonial America by blockading the port of Charleston, South Carolina. He could have leveled the city with his armada but decided it would be a more impressive—and memorable—display of power to spare the town.

When the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground off Beaufort, Blackbeard went to Bath.

The colony's governor granted Blackbeard a pardon, and it appeared that the pirate was going to settle down and become a country gentleman.

But the governor also agreed to look the other way when Blackbeard occasionally snatched a passing ship. Teach's willingness to spend freely and sell captured goods at bargain prices made him many friends in Bath.

Blackbeard was killed in November 1718 during a bloody battle with the British navy at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. The British displayed Blackbeard's head on the bowsprit of one of their ships.