Blackbeard is arguably the best-known pirate from the Golden Age of Piracy, which stretched from the late 1600s to the mid-1720s. Although his pirating career lasted only a few years, and he failed to accumulate much in the way of treasure, he and his men plundered many ships, and, in an audacious move, their mini pirate armada blockaded the city of Charleston for nearly a week. But the most iconic scene in Blackbeard’s storied life is his death, the 300th anniversary of which falls on Nov. 22. Here is how Blackbeard — whose real name was probably Edward Thatch or Teach — met his gruesome end, at the hands of British naval Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who was sent by Virginia Governor, Alexander Spotswood, to track him down.
Tipped off that Blackbeard and his men might be moored off North Carolina’s Ocracoke Island, Maynard’s forces departed Williamsburg on Nov. 17, 1718, and sailed down the James River. Although Maynard would have preferred to have the services of a British man-of-war to take on the fearsome pirate, such a ship could not navigate the shallow waters of Pamlico Sound, so Maynard had to rely on the services of two small sloops, the Ranger and the slightly larger Jane, with 25 men placed on the former, 35 on the latter, which would be the vessel on which Maynard sailed. While these sloops could easily navigate the shallow and twisting channels around Ocracoke, they had no cannons, which meant that Maynard’s men would have to rely on their personal weapons in going up against a foe with nine cannons at his disposal.
