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.
Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
HMS Norfolk was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built at Southampton and launched on 28 March 1693, and was the first ship to bear the name. She was rebuilt at Plymouth according to the 1719 Establishment, and was re-launched on 21 September 1728. Instead of carrying her armament on two decks as she had done originally, she now carried them on three gundecks, though she continued to be rated a third rate.
Robert Maynard was a British lieutenant, and later captain, in the Royal Navy. Little is known about Maynard's early life, other than 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.
HMS Neptune was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built under the 1677 "Thirty Great Ships" Programme and launched in 1683 at Deptford Dockyard.
HMS Burford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1679 as part of the Thirty Ships Programme of 1677. She fought in the War of English Succession, including the Battle of Barfleur, before being rebuilt at Deptford in 1699, remaining as a 70-gun third rate. During the War of Spanish Succession she was mostly in the Mediterranean fleet and fought at the capture of Gibraltar and the Battle of Málaga in 1704 before being extensively repaired between 1710 and 1712 at Portsmouth Dockyard. Burford served in the Baltic in 1715 and 1717 before returning to the Mediterranean to fight the Spanish at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. She was wrecked on the Italian coast in a storm on 14 February 1719.
HMS Gloucester was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1710s. She participated in the 1701–15 War of the Spanish Succession. The ship was burned to prevent capture after she was damaged in a storm during Commodore George Anson's voyage around the world in 1742.
HMS Bristol was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 18th century.
True Caribbean Pirates is a documentary which aired on The History Channel in 2006.
Skeffington Lutwidge was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He had a particular connection with Horatio Nelson, who served under Lutwidge as a midshipman on an expedition to the Arctic in HMS Carcass in 1773, and again in 1801 while a captain, when Lutwidge was commander in chief in the Downs. Lutwidge served for a considerable period and in a number of ships, in American waters during the War of Independence. During this time he captured a number of American privateers, and was involved in operations on Lake Champlain. He reached flag rank soon after the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, and served mainly in Home waters as commander in chief of some of the stations on the south coast. He retired from active service with the rank of admiral, and died in 1814, shortly before the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He was the great-uncle of Lewis Carroll.
Sir John Lawford was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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 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 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.
HMS Auguste was the French 54-gun Auguste built in Brest in 1704 that the British captured in 1705. In her brief French service she captured two British men-of-war. She was wrecked in 1716.
Robert Linzee was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
William Taylor was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Superb was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been Le Superbe, a 56-gun warship of the French Navy, until her capture off Lizard Point by HMS Kent in July 1710. Commissioned into the Royal Navy in September 1710, HMS Superb served throughout Queen Anne's War and the War of the Quadruple Alliance, during which she participated in the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. She was broken up in 1732.
HMS Flamborough was a Royal Navy post ship, launched in 1707 with 24 guns. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to be stationed in South Carolina, holding that position from 1719 to 1721. She was rebuilt as a considerably larger 20-gun vessel in 1727, and was employed during the following decade off Ireland and later on the Jamaica station. After a period in New York she returned to the Carolinas in 1739, patrolling the coast and playing a minor role in the War of Jenkins' Ear. She returned to England in 1745. After undergoing a major repair she was recommissioned under Captain Jervis Porter in April 1746, and served in the North Sea for the following two years. She was sold out of naval service in 1749.
HMS Pearl was a 40-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. It was used during the War of Jenkins' Ear, and was one of the ships dispatched under Commodore George Anson for his raids on Spanish possessions in the Pacific.
HMS Aldborough was a 24-gun sixth-rate ship of the Royal Navy, purchased in 1706 and in service in Mediterranean and English waters until 1727.
The Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates was issued by George I of Great Britain on 5 September 1717. It promised a royal 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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