"So each man to his gun,
For the work must be done,
With Cutlass, sword and pistol
And, when we can no longer strike a blow,
Then, fire the magazine, boys, and up we go!
It's better to swim in the sea below
Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol."
--- This was supposedly from a sailor's song written by Ben Franklin.
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This is from the log of the man who killed Blackbeard or Edward Teach, Tache, or Thatch, whichever version of his last name you prefer, --- Lieutenant Robert Maynard: "Mod gales and fair Weather, this day I recd from Capt. Gordon, an Order to Command 60 Men out of his Majesties Ships Pearle and Lyme, on board two small Sloops, in Order to destroy Some pyrates, who resided in N Carolina, This day Weigh'd, & Sail'd hence with ye Sloops undr my Command, having on board Proviso of all species with Arms, & Ammunition Suitable for ye occasiion."
Governor Spotwood of North Carolina under pressure of many traders approached the commanders of ships about getting rid of Blackbeard and his cronies. He issued a proclamation offering a reward of a hundred pounds for Blackbeard and lesser rewards of twenty, fifteen and ten pounds for his crewmen. Maynard was the commander of the Jane, which sought out Black beard on his sloop "The Adventure", where it was anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island at Pamlico Sound on November 22, 1718.
Captain Charles Johnson in his "General History Of ... The Most Notorious Pyrates", published in London in 1724, records this great, colorful and often quoted conversation between Blackbeard and Maynard, --- "Blackbeard hail'd him in this rude Manner: Damn you for Villains, who are you? And, whence came you? The Lieutenant make him Answer, You may see by our Colours we are no Pyrates. Blackbeard bid him send his Boat on Board, that he might see who he was but Mr Maynard reply'd thus; I cannot spare my Boat, but I will come aboard of you as I can, with my Sloop. Upon this Blackbeard took a Glass of Liquor, & drank to him with these Words: Damnation seize my soul if I give you Quarters (***meaning mercy), or take any from you. In Answer to which, Mr Maynard told him, That he expected no Quarters from him, nor should he give him any."
Maynard's sloop the Jane came toward the Adventure. Blackbeard then loaded a cannon with shot and metal scraps and fired, killing five of Maynard's men. Maynard then shot away the Adventure's jib, forcing her to go to shore. Blackbeard and his men then came aboard the Jane, Blackbeard shouting, --- "Let's jump onboard and cut them to pieces!" A desperate hand-to-hand fight began with muskets and swords. Blackbeard eventually fell dead, decapitated, and with twenty other slashes to him and shot with five musket balls. His body was thrown over board, his head hung from the Jane's bowsprit.
Strange stories about Blackbeard have sprung up around Bath, North Carolina. It is said that his tall spectral body stomps about at night, his heavy booted footsteps echoing from wooden boards, demanding in a loud voice, "WHERE BE ME BLASTED HEAD?... WHERE???... Fer I can nay go to meet me mentor, Ol' Nick, the Devil, without it!" Strong winds blow at gale force and sand is flung against windows in the dark when Blackbeard's ghost walks.
Well... There is a story that his head was made into a punch bowl and that his search may, indeed, be a very long one!
Yes, it is said that along the seacoast, and especially at "Teach's Hole", the popular name for the place where Blackbeard was killed (at Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Inlet), that the headless body of Blackbeard swims around and around under water, on moonless nights, holding a lantern that emits an eerie greenish yellow glow. Of course, Captain Teach is searching vainly for his head!
(I have been to Beaufort, North Carolina. It's really worth going to the Maritime Museum there. They have artifacts of Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. )
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