Blackbeard, the Pirate vs The Outer Banks Boy from Nowhere

Blackbeard the pirate was constantly on the mind of the Captain of this Maine coast schooner as it neared Cape Hatteras, the graveyard of the Atlantic. His ship was loaded in Machias, Maine and had both holds and the deck loaded with soft pine and spruce lumber for a buyer at the South Carolina port. The Captain had heard from other ship captains about the pirates that were along the Atlantic Ocean’s coastline that would attack and take over cargo and passenger ships. He was fearful and necessarily so. There were rumors, maybe facts, that Blackbeard had headquarters near Ocracoke, not too far from Cape Hatteras.

While there should be no worry of a load of lumber; Blackbeard has been known to seize an unarmed or merchant ship for just the cash aboard to pay for rum or molasses for a cargo to get back to the north. This schooner with only a swivel gun aft and one small cannon up forward would be a no contest for Blackbeard’s ship which had around 40 cannons and a couple hundred pirates at times.

On this trip there was an added worry, the Captains ten year old son had asked to stay aboard and had come along. The son wanted to learn the ropes of being a sailorman. The cargo ship and its crew were sailing south towards the Outer Banks of North Carolina when a dark cloud low on the horizon ahead indicated a rain storm. The Master Mariner called to a crew man to bring up his and his sons “so-westers” and foul weather coats to keep them dry through the rain squall ahead.

While the boy’s father stood at the steering wheel on the aft deck, he watched the young boy on the waist deck just below to see that he buttoned the strap of the “so-wester” and fastened the rain coat tight. He expected to get plenty of rain and wind from the squall sighted just ahead. The crew fastened everything down on the decks and made sure all the doors and windows were shut to keep out the water. The waves were getting bigger and bigger and began to splash up on the deck of the ship.

The rain and wind swept over the ship and for about 20 minutes he could not even see the points of the compass. He had to use the aft slap of the sails to maintain the same course. The cargo ship was taking waves over the sides now and the wind was whipping around the masts. The cargo would slide around on the deck as the bigger waves would beat right against the piles of lumber. The crew had to make sure the piles did not break apart or they would possible lose some of the lumber in the ocean.

The crew also had to watch for the big waves to make sure they were secure so the waves would not wash them off the ship. The wind was blowing the tops of the waves hard against the wheel house making it harder to see what was ahead.

Once the Captain and his ship were through the squall and clear of the hard rain he looked for his son. There was no sighting of him on either deck or in the ocean alongside of the schooner. He had all the crew along with himself search the ship for the young boy. They looked in all the different rooms and even in the hold of the ship without finding the boy.

The Captain began to think that his young son had been washed overboard and probably drowned in the rough water from the storm. He made slow turns while they searched all around the area and went back towards the storm to look for his son in the water. The Captain could not believe that he had lost his son to the ocean; he could only hope that the boy would not drown and would make it to the shore.

It was with deep sorrow that he had to continue to sail to South Carolina to deliver his load of lumber cargo. He knew he had to come back this way and he would look on the islands for him on his way back. Little did he know of the courage and tenacity of his son?

As the captain moved along the coast toward his destination he began to hear gunfire and some explosions. It was Blackbeard on the “QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE” and his pirates invading the town of Beaufort, North Carolina.

The Captain of the cargo ship headed the ship away as quickly as possible. They would sail on by to get away from the pirates while they were busy with the battle at hand and before they came after them.

While at Beaufort, North Carolina Blackbeard’s pirates were in a battle to ransack the town, they had killed a dozen or more citizens and kidnapped a young woman. The pirate’s went up and down the streets terrorizing the people and looking for supplies and treasures.

The news of this started the chase by two sloops of the Governor of Virginia’s Fleet. The subsequent visit and oyster roast was cut short with the first sighting of the perusing ships. The pirates rushed to get aboard their ship and began moving immediately. Blackbeard sailed his ship around the sand bars and though the channels and got away from the perusing sloops as he had done before.

In the years before and after the demise of Blackbeard and his ships the “QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE” and the “ADVENTURE” whenever sailors got together the tales of Blackbeard the pirate led all of the rest. Teach, a little while before he became known as Blackbeard, was one of the crew of a pirate ship that had been badly damaged in a sea battle with what must have been a privateer.
When boarded in a sinking condition she was found to be loaded with Spanish art objects, including a sea chest of gold bullion. With a great possibility of his ship sinking to the bottom of the sea, the pirate captain with four of his crew manned a jolly boat to go ashore to bury the loot for picking up later in a sounder craft. The rest of his crew was hard at work repairing and keeping his ship afloat. On its return, the jolly boat was rowed by two men not four as when it left the near sinking pirate ship.

Captain Teach was the new master and was then called Blackbeard. The former captain had somehow gotten slaughtered by a cut from his back through to his belly. Blackbeard had him buried along with the chest of gold bullion.

Now under control, Capt. Blackbeard had two of the damaged port side cannons forced up and across the deck to the undamaged starboard side. This extra weight to the starboard side along with the weight of the returning long boat rose up the damaged port side, high and clear of the water, so the ships carpenters could repair the gun fire holes near the water line planking. With the ship holding to a port tack, there was time to accomplish this work.

Blackbeard sailed the unseaworthy pirate ship off south for a home port and to get more repairs. Three years later there were reports of Blackbeard and his pirate ship (flying the black flag, to warn locals to stay clear) seen off what was by now called Mark Island in down east, Maine. That name was chosen because of the high sided grass and rocky side that could be seen so well when a ship closed on the mainland.

The ship sailed away after unsuccessful searches for the buried gold. Many years later the older ship logs still told of the pirate ship that lay “hove to” while some of the crew in a jolly boat went ashore to search for the gold.

More than one captain was heard to remark that a sight bearing taken far at sea could with a few small changes of course to keep the sails “full and drawing” could alter the arrival point. It seems that no one at the time noted that the same type of high sided grass and a visible bluff was just fewer than two hundred miles southwest of the entrance to Boston, Massachusetts harbor.