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Blackbeard: Terror at Sea, a television special by the BBC, starring James Purefoy as Blackbeard. [1] [2] It aired in the United States on March 12, 2006 on National Geographic and was released on DVD in the Netherlands in July 2006, by Just Entertainment.
The story, told in retrospect by Israel Hands, a former friend and companion of Blackbeard, begins in June 1717, in the Bahamas. It is the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession. After peace has been made, many former privateers in British service are no longer required and are sent on their way, with many of them turning to piracy.
Israel Hands serves as ship's master on a sloop captained by Charles Vane. During landfall at the pirate haven of Nassau, New Providence, Hands meets Edward Teach, and joins his crew.
Meanwhile in Virginia, one of the richest British colonies in the Americas, governor Alexander Spotswood is incensed by the economic damage caused by piracy. Captain Brand, a Royal Navy officer stationed in Virginia, introduces the recently transferred Lieutenant Robert Maynard to the governor, but is berated for not being able to capture any pirates, as Spotswood wants the navy to hunt them down, instead of just providing protection.
At sea, Teach and his crew come across a French sloop and decide to give chase. They catch up to the ship, but their attempts to intimidate its crew into surrender fail, and the pirates have to board. In a short but bloody skirmish, the pirates battle their opponents into submission. Teach is frustrated by the bloodshed, which yielded them a mere fifty sacks of sugar. He dreams of larger prizes and being remembered for more than just for being a petty criminal. They trade the sugar to Charles Eden, the governor of North Carolina. Unlike Virginia, it is a poorer colony with few goods and ships, and can't be choosy about trading partners.
Later, the pirates encounter the "La Concorde", a French slave ship under captain Dosset, on its way to Martinique. While Hands explains that slave ships are usually well crewed and armed and that pirates wouldn't normally attack ships of that size, the ambitious Teach nevertheless decides to give chase. They come alongside and this time, the intimidation tactic works and the French strike their flag without a fight.
Teach takes the "La Concorde" as his new ship and gives his own sloop to Dosset, so that he and his men can continue on their way. This is supposed to spread a message to future victims, that if you surrender without a fight, you will live. Louis Arot, who sailed on the "La Concorde" as cabin boy and is actually a teenage girl in disguise, joins the pirate crew and becomes well liked by Hands and Morton (Blackbeards chief gunner), but has to keep his real identity a secret.
Some months later, after taking several more prizes, they spot a large ship, which Hands identifies as the "Great Allen", a merchant vessel from Boston. Teach is angered upon hearing this, as he recollects the story of Captain Bellamy's pirate crew, some of them were picked up by a ship from Boston after being shipwrecked. Instead of being rescued however, they were tried for piracy and a few of them were hanged, at which Teach takes insult. He orders to attack the ship and retreats to his cabin. There he dons a hat with burning cannon fuses, six loaded pistols and two cutlasses. The legend of Blackbeard has finally taken its full form. After boarding the "Great Allen", the pirates strap her captain to the mast, humiliate and flog him.
Governor Spotswood in Virginia is infuriated as he hears of the incident, and even more so when he learns that King George I will issue a pardon to any pirate who surrenders himself, fuming that the pirates are "rewarded" with this pardon for their many criminal activities.
After the attack on the "Great Allen", where some of the pirates were wounded and others are ill with yellow fever, they need medicine. In order to get it, they blockade the port of Charleston, South Carolina, extorting money from any ship that heads in our out of the port. They also stop the "Crowley" and discover Samuel Wragg on board, a government official carrying 1500 pounds. He, his son and other passengers are taken hostage and Teach sends two pirates ashore to gather medicine in exchange for their release. A few days later, they return with the medicine and the pirates leave the port.
Blackbeard surprisingly decides to accept the pardon from Governor Eden. For a while he settles down in North Carolina and marries Mary Ormond, a young lady from a wealthy local family. However, he soon tires of life on land, while his crew becomes unruly due to his absence and boredom, whereupon they return to sea and piracy.
Events take a turn for the worse, as Spotswood and Maynard devise a plan to catch Blackbeard and the quartermaster Howard is caught and interrogated by Spotswood. Under torture, he reveals the location of Blackbeards ship, and Maynard is sent out with two sloops to engage the pirates.
As many of their comrades have either taken the pardon or are hunted down, Blackbeard realises that their time is running out and their story will soon be coming to an end. He shoots Hands in the leg, whereupon he is forced to stay on land, which later saves his life.
At Ocracoke Inlet, Maynards ships encounter Blackbeards lone sloop. The navy vessels lack cannons, so Blackbeard is tempted into a boarding action. Many of Maynards men remained below deck for cover, and upon his sign they storm on deck to engage the pirates in a fierce melee. Blackbeard approaches Maynard, who shoots him with his pistol, but this fails to stop him. He disarms Maynard and knocks him down, but as he is about to kill him, he is stabbed and killed by one of Maynards men from behind.
The tale comes to an end with Hands recounting the fates of the surviving pirates, Governor Eden, Louis Arot, Governor Spotswood, Maynard and at last, himself - he took the pardon and returned to London, continuing to tell Blackbeards story.
James Purefoy as Edward Teach (Blackbeard), the notorious pirate captain.
Mark Noble as Israel Hands, friend and companion of Blackbeard and the narrator of the story.
James Hiller as Mr. Gibbens, Blackbeards right-hand man.
Jimmy Akingbola as Black Caesar, a former african slave who was freed by Blackbeard and is now loyal to him.
Robert Ricards as Mr. Howard, alledgedly a Lord before going to sea, now Blackbeards quartermaster.
James Marchant as Philip Morton, Blackbeards chief gunner.
Simon Kunz as Alexander Spotswood, governor of Virginia.
Rupert Wickham as Captain Brand, a captain in the Royal Navy, stationed in Virginia.
Roger Barclay as Lieutenant Robert Maynard, Royal Navy, also stationed in Virginia.
Peter Pacey as Charles Eden, governor of North Carolina.
Brendan Hooper as Tobias Knight, confidant of Charles Eden.
Michael Mueller as Edward Moseley, an opponent of Charles Eden.
Manuel Cauchi as Captain Dosset, the french captain of the "La Concorde".
Antonia Campbell as Louis Arot, a french teenage girl in disguise, cabin boy on the "La Concorde" and later member of Blackbeards crew.
Marc Spiteri as Captain Taylor, commanding the "Great Allen" from Boston.
John Hug as Samuel Wragg, a council member taken hostage by Blackbeard.
Sally Bretton as Mary Ormond, Blackbeards wife during his stay in North Carolina.
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him.
Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Stede Bonnet was a Barbadian-born pirate and military officer, known as the Gentleman Pirate because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. Despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided he should turn to piracy in the spring of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, the Revenge, and travelled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.
Queen Anne's Revenge was an early-18th-century ship, most famously used as a flagship by Edward Teach, better known by his nickname Blackbeard. The date and place of the ship's construction are uncertain, and there is no record of its actions prior to 1710 when it was operating as a French privateer under the name La Concorde. Surviving features of the ship's construction strongly suggest it was built by French shipwrights, based on differences in fastening patterns in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. After several years of service by French sailors, she was captured by Blackbeard in 1717. Blackbeard used the ship for less than a year, but captured numerous prizes using her as his flagship.
Charles Eden was a British colonial official who served as the second Governor of North Carolina from 1714 until his death in 1722.
Captain Robert Maynard was a British Royal Navy officer. Little is known about Maynard's early life, other than that he was born in England in 1684 and then later joined the English Navy. He was made a lieutenant in January 1707, and by 1709 was the third lieutenant on HMS Bedford.
Richard Worley was a pirate who was active in the Caribbean Sea and the East Coast of the American Colonies during the early 18th century.
See also 1717 in piracy, 1719 in piracy, and Timeline of piracy.
Israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was an 18th-century pirate best known for being second in command to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. His name serves as the basis for the name of the villainous sidekick in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island.
Caesar, later known as “Black Caesar”, was a West African pirate who operated during the Golden Age of Piracy. He served aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge of Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and was one of the surviving members of that crew following Blackbeard’s death at the hands of Lieutenant Robert Maynard in 1718. Myths surrounding his life - that he was African royalty and terrorized the Florida Keys for years before joining Blackbeard - have been intermixed with legends and fictional accounts as well as with other pirates.
True Caribbean Pirates is a documentary which aired on The History Channel in 2006.
Blackbeard, or officially, Blackbeard: The Musical or Blackbeard: A New Musical, is a musical created by Rob Gardner. The plot focuses on the notorious pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, and his blockade of Charles Town in South Carolina in 1718. The musical portrays Blackbeard as a compassionate person, who is deeply in love with a woman on his ship named Mary Ormond. Blackbeard struggles to maintain his fierce façade, while at the same time trying to win the heart of the pacifistic Mary.
Blackbeard's Point is an area of land on the north side of the mouth of the Hampton River in Hampton Roads harbor in Virginia. It received its name in the early 18th century, when the pirate Blackbeard was menacing shipping on the American coast. When approached by North Carolina merchants seeking help in breaking up piracy along the Outer Banks, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood sent the Royal Navy, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard, to capture Blackbeard. After the pirate was killed in a battle off the coast of North Carolina on November 22, 1718, Lieutenant Maynard had his head removed and hung from the bowsprit of his sloop. On arrival in Virginia, the lieutenant governor had Blackbeard's head hung from a pole at the mouth of the Hampton River as a warning to others who might be tempted by piracy. The head remained for many years and the site continues to be known as Blackbeard's Point today.
The Battle of Cape Fear River, also known as the Battle of the Sandbars, was fought in September 1718 between two sloops from the Province of South Carolina led by William Rhett and a group of pirate ships under the command of Stede Bonnet. Rhett's sloops defeated the pirates in the Cape Fear River estuary which led to Bonnet's eventual execution by hanging in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Atlantic World refers to the period between European colonisation of the Americas (1492-) and the early nineteenth century. Piracy became prevalent in this era because of the difficulty of policing this vast area, the limited state control over many parts of the coast and the competition between different European powers. The best known pirates of this era are the Golden Age pirates (c.1650-1730) who roamed the seas off the coast of North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
HMS Pearl was a 42-gun fifth-rate of the Royal Navy. Her crew was involved in the hunt and death of Blackbeard in 1718.
The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas after the destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. The gang consisted of the most notorious and cunning pirates of the time, and they terrorized and pillaged the Caribbean until the Royal Navy and infighting brought them to justice. They achieved great fame and wealth by raiding salvagers attempting to recover gold from the sunken Spanish treasure fleet. They established their own codes and governed themselves independent from any of the colonial powers of the time. Nassau was deemed the Republic of Pirates as it attracted many former privateers looking for work to its shores. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants in the town.
Lieutenant Richards was a pirate active in the Caribbean and off the Carolinas. He is best known for sailing alongside Blackbeard.
The Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates was a royal proclamation issued by George I of Great Britain on 5 September 1717. It promised a pardon for acts of piracy committed before the following 5 January to those pirates who surrendered themselves to the correct authority before a deadline. Originally, the surrender had to occur on or before 5 September 1718; this was later extended by a second proclamation to 1 July 1719.
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