Posted on 11/20/2008 5:34:21 PM PST by Reaganesque
Blackbeard's sloop Adventure was anchored on the inner side of Ocracoke Island. Maynard's sloops guided by local pilots, arrived in the area at dusk on Thursday, November 21 where they decided to wait for the tide and attack the next morning.
At first light the sloops weighed anchor and crept toward the island. Maynard ordered some men to take a small boat and row ahead of the sloop as there was so little wind. As they approached the pirate ship they received a volley of shot. The boat hastily retreated back to the protection of the sloops.
The pirate ship at this time only had nineteen men aboard, "thirteen white and six negros." Moreover, Blackbeard and several of his men had spent the night drinking. However the pirate captain knew the shoals and channels, and his ship was armed with nine mounted guns. With the alarm raised, he cut his anchor cable and headed for a narrow channel among the submerged sandbanks. Maynard hoisted the King's colors and set off in pursuit.
There was so little wind that the sloops had to use their oars to make any progress. Just then Maynard's sloops ran aground and a shouting match took place between the two captains.
Blackbeard hailed Maynard in his rude manner: "Damn you for Villains, who are you? And from whence came you?" The Lieutenant answered, "You may see by our Colours we are no Pyrates." Black-Beard 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 soon 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, 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.
With the help of the rising tide, and with the help of much heaving and pulling from his men, Maynard's two sloops floated free and began to row towards the Adventure. As they approached, Blackbeard fired a broadside from his guns, which he had loaded with swan shot, nails, and pieces of old iron. The effect was devastating. In Maynard's words, "Mr. Hyde was unfortunately killed, and five of his Men wounded in the little Sloop, which having nobody to command her, fell astern and did not come up to assist me till the Action was almost over." (Actually, six men were killed and ten wounded in the broadside.)
Maynard pressed on in the Jane and succeeded in shooting away the Adventure's jib and fore-halyards and forcing the vessel ashore. He ordered all except two of his men to hide in the hold with their weapons at the ready while he made his final approach. As the Jane came alongside his ship, Blackbeard naturally assumed his guns had killed most of her crew and decided to board Maynard's ship with ten of his pirates. They clambered aboard, and as they did so, the sailors emerged from hiding.
Maynard and Teach themselves begun the fight with their swords, Maynard making a thrust, the point of his sword went against Teach's cartridge box, and bended it to the hilt. Teach broke the guard of it, and wounded Maynard's fingers but did not disable him, whereupon he jumped back and threw away his sword and fired his pistol which wounded Teach. Demelt struck in between them with his sword and cut Teach's face pretty much; in the interim both companies engaged in Maynard's sloop, one of Maynard's men being a Highlander, engaged Teach with his broad sword, who gave Teach a cut on the neck, Teach saying well done lad; the Highlander replied, If it not be well done, I'll do it better. With that he gave him a second stroke, which cut off his head, laying it flat on his shoulder.
According to Maynard, Blackbeard fell "with five shot in him and 20 dismal cuts in several parts of his body." He kept the head and slung it below the bowsprit of his sloop.
Some weeks later in the column of his logbook headed "Remarkable Occurencies &c," Maynard noted: Little wind and fair weather this day I anchored here from N Carolina in the Adventure Sloop Edward Teach formerly Master (a Pyrat) whose head I hung under the Bowsprit of the Said Sloop in order to present it to ye Colony of Virginia & ye goods & Effects of the Said Pyrat I Deliver'd to my Commanders disposal.
On a personal note: Ya gotta love the bit about the Highlander cutting off Blackbeard's head. "If it not be well done, I'll do it better." What a great story!
The next “Talk Like A Pirate Day” MUST include the phrase: “Ack! Gurg...”
If it not be well done, I’ll do it better. With that he gave him a second stroke, which cut off his head, laying it flat on his shoulder.
Just damn!
Leave it to a Scotsman to do it right!!
I got a mental picture of Crocodile Dundee and his line about “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!!” LOL
The various navies seem hamstrung by the legal vacuum of dealing with civilian fighters who attack civilian targets and then hide in sovereign waters.
But thats only because they’ve got it backwards. The legal vacuum ought not mean the good guys have no recourse, but rather that the bad guys have no legal standing. That means you hunt them down and eliminate them. Somalia is a failed state; Puntland isn’t even recognized as a state. So don’t waste energy with hand-wringing, just do it.
There are times when you have to stop worrying about what the men in suits think. The men in suits are paying these people off to the tune of a million bucks at a time. Just get them and wipe them out. There is another name for civilian fighters who attack civilian targets; they’re called terrorists. They need to be dealt with; we’re supposedly at war with terrorists.
A lot of victories went to the British because of Scottish Warriors, seconded from the Highlands, from the Firth of Forth to the shores of Loch Buie, and thence all over the world.Many were Camerons, Donalds, Campbells,Buchanans and MacIntoshes.
Great stuff!
Also, Irishmen and the famed Ghurkas.
Some of my ancestory comes from the McDonald clan.
A Highlander at that.
From Glenelg in 1842 via Greenoch aboard the barque HMS Adelaide to Saint John , New Brunswick, Canada, Alexander McDonald. Settlers for the New Brunswick Land Company, and half of them died of fever that first winter, they arrived late in September and were placed in the wilderness of the Mirimichi Area, in sheds and shacks with no food or tools to cut wood. ( axe heads with no holes for handles in them.)
They spoke only Gaelic, interpreter was a flowse called Nickleson.
They revolted in the spring and tore up their Indentures of Servitude, and went off on their own. None dared try to enforce those indentures. We've distrusted government ever since,and take bitter solace in our bibles and guns. LOL.
ping for home read
Amen...mount the little Somali bastards on a stick with a bunch of pig’s heads just to emphasize the point!!! Kill’m all....and send the remains to the pig pen.
You know,I always thought it’d be kinda exciting to be a pirate when I was a young lad. But later I came to realize that there’d always be the unwieldy prospect of forever having my Parrots looking over my shoulder...
Thanks much. I know little about Scotland and its history. Off hand I would say they are tougher people than the English because they live North of them in a harsher climate with (I think) a more windswept topography. Just the way they speak is more clipped and tight
Wouldn’t that be violent? Why not negotiate with them and find out why they hate us so much.
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