Edward Teach ( born Edward Teach ) nicknamed Blackbeard ( English Blackbeard ; 1680 , Bristol , England - November 22, 1718 , Father Okrakok , North Carolina ) - English pirate operating in the Caribbean in 1713-1718, respectively.
Blackbeard | |
---|---|
Aliases | Blackbeard |
Date of Birth | |
Place of Birth | Bristol (presumably), England |
Allegiance | England |
Date of death | |
Place of death | |
Cause of death | multiple injuries |
Occupation | pirate smuggler |
Edward Teach [6] was born in 1680 in Bristol. Little is known about Tich’s childhood and youth. Some historians say that Tich was an orphan, others - illegitimate. Tich's childhood was bleak and ended in 1692, when Tych, who was barely twelve years old, entered as a cabin boy in the navy.
In 1713, Edward joined the pirate team of Benjamin Hornigold , who worked on the islands of the Caribbean. Tich quickly got his own ship, Revenge of Queen Anne , and from 1714 to 1718 became a famous pirate.
After leaving Hornigold Teach, he founded a pirate alliance and blocked the port of Charleston in South Carolina . After receiving a ransom from local residents, Edward took the ship to a sandbar near Beaufort in North Carolina . Tich accepted the royal pardon, but soon returned to the sea, which did not go unnoticed by Virginia Governor Alexander Spottswood. Spotswood equipped a group of soldiers and sailors to catch the pirate. On November 22, 1718, Edward Tich was killed by a small detachment of sailors under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard .
In most primary sources, his pseudonym is indicated as “Tetch”, which corresponds to the characteristic appearance of Black Beard ( English thatch - thick head of hair).
Insightful and prudent, Captain Edward Teach avoided the use of force, relying on his formidable image, causing fear among those he was going to rob. Edward wisely and fairly managed the crew. Not a single evidence of murder or torture of prisoners on his ship has been preserved. After his death, Tich was romanticized and served as a prototype for many works about pirates in different genres.
Content
Biography
Early years
According to the assumption of Robert Earl Lee ( Robert Earl Lee ), Edward Teach was born into a wealthy representative family [7] . It is believed that Tych was taught literacy, as he communicated with merchants; In addition, a letter was found in his name from the Chief Justice and the Secretary of the Provinces Carolina Tobias Knight. Perhaps Edward Teach arrived in the Caribbean in the last years of the seventeenth century on a merchant ship or a slave ship [8] . A contemporary of Ticha, one captain Charles Johnson , argues that Blackbeard was a sailor on the marque of Jamaica during the Queen Anne War and "repeatedly showed his extraordinary courage and personal courage" [9] . It is not precisely determined at what point Tich entered the fighting [10] .
Filibuster
The first documentary mention of Titsch refers to October 1717 ( the Boston News-Letter newspaper ), when he was already pirating under the command of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, who had robbed Spanish and French ships, first as a privyrat , and then at his own peril and risk. Historians suggest that Titsch participated in the War of the Spanish Succession (also known as Queen Anne's War ) as a privateer, and after signing the Utrecht Peace , not wanting to give up his favorite profession, he joined the Hornigold filibusters . This indirectly confirms the name Tich later gave to the flagship of his pirate fleet - “ Revenge of Queen Anne ” .
While in the Hornigold team, Teach took part in a large number of letters of marque against the French. Taking advantage of the fact that England was in a state of war with France, filibusters freely used the island of Jamaica as their base. At the end of 1716, Hornigold handed Tich to his personal command a sloop seized from the French during one of the raids. By this point, Tich already had a reputation as a fearless and violent pirate.
In early 1717, Titsch (possibly in company with the Hornigold) went to the shores of North America . After leaving New Providence, the pirates seized the barque , commanded by Captain Turbar from Bermuda . On board the barge was 120 barrels of flour, but the pirates took only wine from him and let him go. Then they managed to seize a ship with rich booty, going to South Carolina from Madera. After repair and maintenance of their ships on the coast of Virginia, the pirates returned to the West Indies .
In November 1717, the sloops of Ticha attacked and, after a quick fight, captured a large French vessel near the island of St. Vincent . At this point, the Blackbeard fleet consisted of two sloops: one with 12 guns and 120 crew members, the second with 8 guns and 30 crew members. The frigate of the slave-traders Concorde ( fr. La Concorde ), marching from Guinea to Martinique under the command of Captain Dosset, was captured by the ship. The pirates led the Concord to the island of Bequia in the Grenadines , where they landed the French and African slaves ashore. French cabin boy Lewis Aroth and several other crew members voluntarily joined the pirates and pointed out valuable cargoes that were secretly transported on the ship. As a result, the mining from the ship turned out to be very rich - among other things, a fair amount of gold sand and precious stones were found on it.
The smaller of the two sloops the pirates gave to the French, and they themselves switched to the "Concord" , which Tich strengthened, equipped with 40 cannons and renamed "Revenge of Queen Anne" .
Blackbeard Pirate
In 1717, the new Governor of the Bahamas Woods Rogers announced the beginning of a merciless fight against piracy. Hornigold with a part of his team decided to surrender to the mercy of the British authorities and receive the amnesty promised by the royal decree. Tich refused to stop his craft and raised a black flag over Queen Anne's Vengeance , thereby finally outlawing himself.
Traveling along the Lesser Antilles , Tych attacked and robbed all oncoming merchant ships (attacks were recorded near the islands of St. Vincent , Saint Lucia , Nevis , Antigua ). In the vicinity of St. Vincent Island, the pirates seized a large English merchant ship under the command of Christoph Taylor. Taking all that was valuable, the pirates landed a crew on the island, and the ship itself was set on fire. In December 1717, the Ticha fleet left Puerto Rico in the direction of the Gulf of Samana on Hispaniola Island.
By January 1718, about 300 people were already on the Ticha team. Cruising around the islands of St. Christopher and Crab, the pirates captured several more British sloops. At the end of January, Queen Anne's Revenge began to anchor near the city of Battown ( English Bathtown ) in North Carolina . This small town, whose population at that time did not exceed 8 thousand people, was a good shelter for ships sailing from the Atlantic . The settlers gladly bought the cargo stolen by the pirates, so Tichu liked Battown (Bathtown) as a rear base, and he repeatedly returned to him.
In April 1718, in the Gulf of Honduras, Tych seized the Adventure sloop ( English Adventure ) and forced his captain, David Herriot , to join the pirates (according to another version, Harriot, being a pirate, voluntarily joined the Ticha fleet, but later was removed from command of his ship). The pirates went further east, passed by the Cayman Islands and captured a Spanish sloop from Cuba , which was also attached to their flotilla. Turning north, they passed through the Bahamas and approached the shores of North America.
Charlestown Blockade
In May 1718, Queen Anne's Revenge and three smaller pirate sloops approached the city of Charles Town in South Carolina. They anchored off the shores of Charlestown, setting up an ambush. Thus, in a few days, 9 ships were captured, the most wealthy passengers were taken as hostages. Having received a tremendous ransom for them with money and medicines, Teach went to North Carolina . He bribed the governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden, and continued to engage in robbery.
End of career
In the fall of 1718, Virginia Governor Alexander Spottswood published a proclamation in which he promised a reward of 100 British pounds to those who capture or kill Tich, as well as smaller amounts for ordinary pirates.
Edward Teach was taken aback in his den at the mouth of Okrakoka by a naval detachment consisting of two sloops and headed by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Many pirates were fired at Bat Town. At the disposal of the Black Beard there are only 60 people. Government forces had a three-fold numerical advantage.
Tich remained at the disposal of the sloop "Adventure", armed with nine guns. This sloop had at least some kind of crew, so on it Tich decided to break into the sea, leaving the other two ships. The sloops of Maynard began the pursuit, taking advantage of the tide. Tich turned and gave a side salvo with a canister, killing the midshipman on the Ranger sloop, and also killing and wounding several sailors. The sloop of Lieutenant Maynard lost his turn.
Tich, having underestimated the size of the crew on the second sloop, decided to board him. Maynard also prudently hid most of the crew in the hold, while Maynard himself and the helmsman remained on the deck. The people of Ticha, approaching the sloop Maynard, threw grenades at him. Tich was sure that almost the whole crew died and even exclaimed: “Everything, except two-four (Maynard's people), got on the head” and stepped aboard the sloop. And then he and the pirates were met by the Englishmen hiding in the hold, who easily defeated the pirates, thanks to their numerical superiority.
During the fight, Maynard fought with Tich. They exchanged pistol shots, while Tych was wounded, and then took up the sword. Both fencing for a while in the midst of the battle, until Maynard's saber broke. Tich was already ready to kill him, but then a Scot came to the aid of Maynard, who pierced Ticha with his saber. Tich fell to the deck and died trying to cock his pistol.
Behind Tich, one of his pirates, nicknamed Black Caesar, tried to blow up the ship’s cruet camera, throwing a grenade into it. This attempt failed: Black Caesar lost consciousness before he managed to throw a grenade.
When, after the battle, they found the body of Blackbeard, they counted five bullet and twenty-five saber wounds on it.
Maynard cut off Tichu's head and ordered him to be hung on the bowsprit of his ship. All thirteen pirates captured alive were convicted in Williamsburg and executed by hanging.
Flag
The flag depicts a devil holding an hourglass (symbol of the inevitability of death) and preparing to pierce the human heart with a spear. The flag was supposed to warn oncoming ships about the danger of resistance to pirates - in this case, all the prisoners were in for a cruel death. For some time, instead of a skeleton on the flag depicted a pirate.
Legend
Due to the extraordinary appearance and eccentric behavior of Ticha, historians have made him one of the most famous figures of the Golden Age of Caribbean piracy. However, his “career” was rather short, and the success and scope of his activity was much smaller than that of many of his contemporary pirates. In the future, there were many rumors and legends associated with the name Ticha. That Ticha did not overtake justice and he allegedly survived. But to confirm or deny the legend is no longer possible.
Tich served as the prototype for the image of the pirate Flint in the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson “ Treasure Island ”. At the same time in the novel itself there is a replica that Blackbeard is “a real baby” compared to Flint.
The imitator Ticha, who identified himself by the same name, is found in another work by Stevenson - The Owner Ballantray.
For a long time, among the pirates and just adventurers, it was rumored that shortly before his death, Tich hid a large amount of gold and other wealth on some uninhabited island. Perhaps it was the legend of the Black Beard 's treasure that prompted Robert Stevenson to write a famous novel. According to modern data, the Ticha team really saved their savings on the uninhabited island of Amilia , but no significant values were subsequently found there.
Research
In mid-January 2011, a group of archaeologists discovered a fragment of a saber that allegedly belonged to Blackbeard. The find was discovered when the flagship vessel of the pirate "Revenge of Queen Anne" was raised from the bottom [11] . At that time, the suspected remains of the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718, were studied by underwater archaeologists for more than 10 years. According to the representative of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the State of North Carolina, they managed to find a golden fragment of a French design saber hilt, which most likely belonged to Captain Blackbeard himself [12] . In late May 2011, the anchor of Queen Anne's Vengeance was raised from the bottom [13] [14] .
Movies
About the famous pirate filmed a lot of movies and TV shows:
- " Blackbeard Pirate " ( eng. Blackbeard, the Pirate , USA, 1952), in the role of Robert Newton [15]
- "The Ghost of the Black Beard" ( English Blackbeard's Ghost , USA, 1968), in the role of Peter Ustinov [16]
- The series " Pirates of the Seven Seas: Blackbeard " ( Blackbeard , USA, 2006), in the role of Angus Macfadyen [17] .
- In the 2014 series Skull and Bones , John Malkovich plays the role of Edward Tich.
In computer games
The character of the Black Beard is found in a number of computer games:
- Corsairs: Return of the Legend
- Sid Meier's: Pirates
- Saints Row: Gat out of Hell .
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
- Port Royal 2
- Kings Bounty: Dark Side
- Blackbeard's Assault
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Notes
- ↑ German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 1033320315 // General Regulatory Control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
- ↑ American National Biography - 1999.
- ↑ SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ According to one of the versions, the real name is Edward Drummond ( English Edward Drummond ).
- ↑ Lee, Robert 1974 , pp. 4-5.
- ↑ Konstam, Angus . Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate: John Wiley & Sons, 2007 - p. 19 - ISBN 0-470-12821-6
- ↑ Johnson, Charles, 2009 .
- ↑ Lee, Robert 1974 , p. 9.
- ↑ proficinema.ru, Interesting facts about the shooting of the film "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"
- ↑ proficinema.ru, Captain Blackbeard's saber found
- ↑ Anchor from Blackbeard ship recovered (English) . CNN (May 27, 2011). The date of circulation is June 25, 2012. Archived June 27, 2012.
- ↑ The anchor of the ship of the famous pirate Blackbeard raised from the seabed (Inaccessible link) . RIA News (May 28, 2011). The date of circulation is June 25, 2012. Archived March 6, 2016.
- ↑ Blackbeard, the Pirate ( Internet ) on the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) - IMDb
- ↑ Blackbeard (English) on the Internet Movie Database
Literature
- Lee, Robert E. Blackbeard the Pirate. - North Carolina: John F. Blair, 1974. - ISBN 0-89587-032-0 .
- Gubarev V.K. 100 Great Pirates. - M .: Veche, 2011. - 432 p. - Series "100 great."
- Captain Charles Johnson. General history of the robberies and deaths committed by the most famous pirates = Per. A.K. Efremova. - M .: Eksmo , 2009. - ISBN 978-5-699-27708-7 .
- Rogozhinsky Jean. Encyclopedia of pirates. - M .: Veche, 1998. - 679 p.
- Seitz Don Carlos. Under the black flag. Stories of famous pirates of the West Indies, the Atlantic and the Malabar coast / Trans. from English E. V. Lamanova. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2017. - 416 p. - ISBN 978-5-9524-5278-7 .