The Plank
Day 1: Caribbean
Day 2: Charleston
Day 3: Carolina Coast
Day 4: Beaufort
Day 5: Bath
Day 6: Ocracoke

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Blackbeard's Final Battle

By KELLY SIMMONS, Staff Writer

NOVEMBER 1718, OCRACOKE, N.C.
Winter would arrive soon to the island and bring with it, Blackbeard knew, a dull respite.

The two dozen pirates who remained with him were restless as their provisions dwindled, as merchant ship traffic faded. On this bony sliver of land that seemed to bob in the Atlantic, Blackbeard had staked his claim. And while kindred spirits had visited him and rousted rum in September and early October, none would stay in so desolate a place.

Blackbeard's dream of building a pirate kingdom off the Carolina coast was fading.

"Good riddance!" he roared to himself. "I'll remain alone if need be -- but I'll surely make my mark here!"

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NOVEMBER 1718, WILLIAMSBURG, VA.
"It is reported he fortifies Ocracoke. Once dug in, we will feel his sting for many years," an adviser was telling Gov. Alexander Spottswood.

The Virginia governor knew well the damage that pirates were inflicting on his colony.

"And now a nest of them so close to our ports!" he gasped. "Why, it will be New Providence all over again. They must be driven off."

The North Carolina merchants who had arrived in Williamsburg this week, seeking Spottswood's help, quietly watched the deliberations. They had already experienced Blackbeard's sting. They knew Virginia, out of self-preservation, would act.

No one must know what I do tonight, Spottswood told himself. North Carolina's governor cannot be trusted. Many on my own council are in league with the devil. Our best weapon is surprise -- and some well-manned sloops.

"Yes, we must deal with him now, here," Spottswood told his advisers, "lest his presence haunt us to our graves."

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JULY 1997, OCRACOKE, N.C.
After nearly three centuries, Blackbeard's haunting presence lingers here. The southern part of Ocracoke island today is, literally, awash with a pirate persona that draws tourists and fills merchant tills.

The sprawling Blackbeard's Lodge welcomes guests. The dockside Jolly Roger bar keeps them entertained. Teach's Hole Blackbeard Exhibit & Pirate Specialty Shop and the Pirate's Chest gift shop keeps them appropriately outfitted with plastic cutlasses, eye patches, and pirate flags.

At Silver Lake, the Windfall offers scenic tours by boat -- and flies the Jolly Roger.

Kayak tours pass by Teach's Hole -- Blackbeard's favorite anchorage hideaway -- and guides are quick to recount Blackbeard's most famous battle here.

North of Ocracoke Village is more than 10 miles of unspoiled dune, forest and beach. It appears much like it did in Blackbeard's day. Motorists traveling down Highway 12 -- the only road north of the village -- can see ocean waves crashing on shore to the east and the gentle waters of the Pamlico lapping onto sandy beach to the west.

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In his cabin, Blackbeard fell into a fitful, alcohol-induced sleep. An angry sea slapped against the wooden hull and that maritime lullaby once again brought the nightmare.

In his dream, the Royal Navy was upon him, boarding his ship, swords and pistols drawn. They came without warning, under cover of darkness.

They came for him.

The slapping of oars in water jerked Blackbeard awake.

In the distance, off his stern, he could see two row boats approaching his sloop. They were taking soundings, checking for sandbars, plotting the best course to his ship.

Small arms fire from Blackbeard's crew forced the tiny boats into retreat.

Blackbeard watched the boats glide to the two sloops in the distance. His spyglass showed him what he suspected: they were Royal Navy sloops.

Blackbeard saw too that they carried no cannons. At his order, Blackbeard's crew hoisted anchor and began sailing toward the approaching ships.

"Villains, who are you?" Blackbeard shouted across the water. "And from whence come you?"

"You may see by our colors we are no pirates," replied the navy officer aboard one of the sloops.

"Send your boat on board so that I might see who you are," Blackbeard suggested.

"I cannot spare my boat, but I will come aboard you as soon as I can with my sloop," the navy officer shouted.

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The cockiness of that statement is not lost on historians today.

The brash navy officer was in unfamiliar, even treacherous, waters that day.

His crew possessed only small arms to attack Blackbeard's well-armed craft.

In the early 1700s, the Royal Navy's record of success in dealing with pirates was mediocre.Indeed, Blackbeard owed much of his fearsome reputation to an incident years earlier in which he attacked and forced a heavily-armed British man-of-war into retreat. Ever since then, ship captains knew to surrender to Blackbeard immediately.

But what Navy Lt. Robert Maynard had in his favor that day was this: a pirate captain whose battle skills at atrophied over the years, a pirate captain who was perhaps feeling the ill-effects of alcohol and was not thinking clearly.

And as motivation, Lt. Maynard had this: Virginia Governor Alexander Spottswood would pay a handsome reward for Blackbeard and his pirates -- enough to make the risk worthwhile.

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Photo illustration by Jerry Wolford / News & Record

Blackbeard grabbed a chalice of rum and raised it toward the approaching sloop bearing the name Ranger: "May hell seize my soul if I give you quarter or take any from you."

The navy officer responded: "I expect no quarter from you, nor shall I give any."

As the ships closed on each other, Blackbeard's cannons delivered a crippling broadside to the first navy sloop, stopping it dead in the water. As he neared the second sloop, Blackbeard watched her decks for the brash navy officer.

Then, Blackbeard trained his cannons on the second sloop and ordered the next broadside. Before the smoke cleared, Blackbeard's ship was alongside. In that moment, a deadly rain of grenade and small arms fire fell upon the Navy ship.

In the blinding smoky chaos aboard the Ranger, Lt. Maynard ordered his surviving crewman out of sight and below deck: "Keep sword and pistol at the ready. When they come aboard, we'll catch them napping."

When the smoke cleared, Blackbeard could see the dead and wounded sprawled aboard the crippled Ranger.

"They're all knocked in the head but a few," Blackbeard told his men. "Board her and cut them to pieces."

Moments later, from below deck, spilled dozens of Royal Navy seaman. They swept into Blackbeard and his small band of pirates. Smoke and fresh blood again filled the deck of the Ranger. Blackbeard fired pistol after pistol and swung his heavy cutlass into the fray.

Straight away, the brash young naval officer confronted Blackbeard. Both men pulled their pistols. Both fired at the other.

Blackbeard's pistol misfired.

Lt. Robert Maynard's mini-ball found its marked.

Rocked momentarily, Blackbeard recovered and staggered forward, swinging his cutlass with such force that it broke Lt. Maynard's sword blade at the hilt.

Blackbeard reared back again with his cutlass. But before he could strike a blow, one of Maynard's men joined the attack, slicing Blackbeard's throat. More navy soldiers rushed in, firing, stabbing and slashing the pirate as he crumbled to the deck.

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What happened that day signaled the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Piracy along the colonial east coast.

Piracy's most dominating player had fallen.

Weeks later, dozens of pirates would hang in Charleston, S.C.

Many more would hang in Williamsburg, Va. in subsequent months.

One of Blackbeard's most trusted men -- Isreal Hands -- survived and turned state's evidence against other pirates and against some North Carolina leaders. His trial testimony would besmirch the reputation of North Carolina for years to come.

It was Isreal Hands who author Robert Louis Stevenson would one day use as his pirate prototype in crafting his classic, "Treasure Island."

It's ironic that Blackbeard's reign of terror lasted only about 18 months -- but his legend has grown through three centuries.

Any of the locals here in Ocracoke can easily recount Blackbeard's final chapter, but George and Mickey Roberson, owners of Teach's Hole Blackbeard Exhibit & Pirate Specialty Shop tells it best:

"A highlander sliced him across the neck. Blackbeard said 'Well done, lad.' The highlander struck him again, slicing off his head. They say the water was blood red all around the ship," Mickey Roberson says.

Maynard's crew attached Blackbeard's head to their ship's bowsprit -- a grisly keepsake they would proudly display when sailing into Bath and later into Virginia harbors.

Blackbeard's headless body -- he had been stabbed and slashed 20 times and shot five times -- was tossed into the sea.

Local legend has it that Blackbeard's body swam around the ship seven times before it sank into the inlet that would forever bear his name: Teach's Hole.

Tourists regularly ask George and Mickey Roberson how to get to the real Teach's Hole. They tell them -- and then they share a little island folklore.

"On a real dark night, you can see the green fluorescent glow of Blackbeard's headless body, swimming around Teach's Hole -- looking for his head."