In modern day, the name Blackbeard is synonymous with the word pirate, and that is not without reason. A British book named A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates was published in 1724 under a pen name of Captain Charles Johnson, containing vivid descriptions of Teach and others captured the attention of many, effectively beginning the romanticization of piracy. The word pirate, however, has changed meaning over the years; it is now often confused with privateer, corsair, swashbuckler, buccaneer, and others. They all sound maritime enough, but there is quite a difference between all of them.

A privateer or corsair was a seafaring mercenary of sorts, being contracted by a government to attack enemy ships during times of war. The contract, also known as a letter of marque, split the profits between the mercenary and the government. The English largely utilized them during the Anglo-Dutch War against the Dutch, and later in the Nine Year’s War against France, which led them to need something similar. The French contracted sailors the same way but named them corsairs.Throughout the seventeenth century, buccaneers were Dutch, French, or English raiders who primarily attacked Spanish ships and cities. The term swashbuckler was coined only in the early 1900’s by fiction writers and was never used prior for describing pirates. Finally, we have pirates. Actual pirates were not under hire and did not pick and choose based on its nationality, acting beyond the law. While most of these activities occurred off of the coast of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it moved over to America in the eighteenth. There we find the waters that Teach spent much of his time in—the Caribbean Sea and the far western portion of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Castle of San Sebastián, a fort built on the coast of Spain to fight off piracy.

Similar to other seafarers of his time, little is known about Teach’s childhood and teenage years; he remained unknown to official records until he was under scrutiny for piracy. The aforementioned book, the only source for this information, states that an Edward Teach was born in Bristol, England around 1680, and ended up in the privateering business in Bahamian waters (based out of New Providence) by the time he was in his early thirties. New Providence’s British government had largely collapsed in the early eighteenth century and, in lieu of an actual official government, supervision was established by the pirates there. It was during this period that piracy became significantly bolder than earlier stints, and also that Teach began his career as one of Benjamin Hornigold’s crew, who was a famous privateer-turned-pirate in 1716. Hornigold saw something special in Teach and became a mentor of sorts to the inexperienced pirate. A year went by and our Edward Teach earned the right to command both a small crew and a sloop by the spring of 1717. However, this period could not last, as the English wanted their city back. When the royal navy began fighting the pirate government, and profits became more difficult to create. A growing dissent among the pirates based out of New Providence, bolstered by this new conflict, led to a rebellion among Hornigold’s crew. Thus, Teach left and began operating on his own.

Port Royal (Jamaica), before its disastrous earthquake in 1692 that sunk much of the city into the sand— as a result, New Providence (Bahamas) became the new haven for pirates.

In the fall and early winter of 1718, the eastern seaboard of the British colonies was where Edward Teach could be found. He and his crew captured three prizes off of the coast of Virginia and even added another sloop to his force. His entourage set off to depart the northern waters in October, waters which were riddled with unpleasant winter gales; they followed the natural lay of islands and ended up off the coast of Martinique, a French Island south-east of Puerto Rico. A large merchant vessel was spotted, and the pirates pursued the poor ship and its crew until it was overtaken. The crew surrendered their 200-ton slave ship, which was of French origin and very sturdily built. A great idea may have occurred to the famous pirate-to-be just now or perhaps on the month-long voyage over to this point, but it was now that his idea would come to fruition. Teach led the vessel into a secluded harbor, where he began to convert the vessel to fit his needs. First, he went about increasing the ship’s firepower; having collected many cannons from looted vessels, the merchant brig received an upgrade of twenty-six cannons, making for a total of forty. Teach removed the slave decks, and changed the stern structure to be more slim, in order to make the vessel more capable for maritime battles. He named the repurposed vessel the Queen Anne’s Revenge in reference to the death of Queen Anne, which resulted in a switch of ruling families in Great Britain. As for the ship itself, it soon began terrorizing the oceans around Jamaican waters and the Caribbean.

Enjoy the history lesson thus far? Leave a comment and let me know! Otherwise... to be continued!