Edward Teach AKA Edward Thatch AKA Blackbeard the Pirate died off of Ocracoke Island, During his final battle he was shot 5 times and stabbed 20 times. His body was tossed overboard and his head was hung from the Bow of the HMS Pearl.
Blackbeard was certainly one of the more notorious pirates even though he was not as successful as other pirates like Bart Roberts or Henry Evans.
while Pirates have a reputation from that era of being brutal, unrepetant, murderers. Blackbeard was different, his crew was given democratic rights in terms of ship decision making, and Blackbeard used intimidation including using light tallow in his beard to force the surrender of ships, but he rarely murdered captive crews.
He was also short lived, the height of his career was about 2 years, and then he accepted a pardon and settled on land and married before he was killed.
The most famous aspect of his history was his ship the Queen Anne's Revenge which he stole from the French and it became the flagship of his flotilla. It was a Frigate with a complement of 125 and was armed with 40 cannons, but contrary to popular lore, Blackbeard only had it for a year before running it aground and dispersing or abandoning his crew.
This day in 1718
