Around pirate adventures there have always been disputes - what is true in them and what is fiction. Many things are hidden under the veil of mystery and obscurity to this day, but there are those that historians still managed to find. These few unique items include Blackbeard's flagship Queen Anne`s Revenge!

More than two and a half centuries ago, the flagship, pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina. Edward Teach, the captain of the ship, left him with his crew in June 1718...
But first things first.

Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, was a dashing captain of sea robbers. When his crew embarked on boarding, the captain calmly smoked and passed wisps of smoke through his beard: creating the demonic image of the "sea devil", he hoped that the captains of the ships, out of fear, would surrender to him without a fight.

But, a captain without a ship is nonsense. What can be said about the legendary, flagship, Blackbeard's ship, called "Queen Anne's Revenge" ... And here's what: before becoming a pirate ship, this ship was called "Concorde".

This ship was built in 1710 and had the beautiful name "Concorde". First, the Spaniards sailed on it, then the ship was bought by France, and the last owner, who made the Concorde a real legend, was the great and famous pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach). It happened in 1717, the Concorde then sailed its usual route under the command of French slave traders (it was for these purposes that the ship served), as if for no reason, two light sloops full of pirates appeared on the horizon. It is believed that the French could easily smash both pirate ships to smithereens, but everyone had already heard about Blackbeard and his reprisals, so the sailors were very intimidated. At the first order of the pirates, the crew of the Concord laid down their arms.

Edward Teach renamed the ship Queen Anne's Revenge. It was a three-masted ship 36 meters long and 8 meters wide. The displacement was approximately 300 tons, and from the artillery - the ship carried 26 guns on board. Tich improved it, after which the ship began to carry as many as 40 guns! The crew for Queen Anne's Revenge was made up of 150 notorious thugs.

Together with his crew, over the next few years he piracy in the Caribbean and off the eastern coast of America, robbing a total of 40 ships. How ferocious he was can be judged by the legends. So, according to one of them, he forced his prisoner to eat his own ears, and according to another, he chopped off a finger of a prisoner who did not want to give up his ring.

Frankly, for historians, the name of the ship "Queen Anne" s Revenge "(Queen Anne's Revenge) sounds very mysterious. In addition, Tich's contemporaries testify that he often called himself the "Avenger of the Spanish Seas." For whom did he avenge the British? For the executed queen Anna, the second wife of King Henry VIII? And thereby hinted that he was the bearer of the old English surname Boleyn? The French historian Jean Merien suggested that his real name was Edward Dammond. Perhaps this is so, perhaps not, while this is another white spot in stories.

On the "Queen Anne's Revenge" Teach went to cruise around the island of St. Vincent, where he captured a large English merchant ship under the command of Christoph Taylor. The pirates removed everything that they could need from this ship, and, having landed the crew on the island, set fire to the ship.

Defoe writes that a few days later Teach met the forty-gun ship Scarborough, with which he entered into battle. The battle lasted several hours and luck began to bow to Teach. Realizing in time that they would lose in an open battle, the captain of the Scarborough decided to take advantage of the speed of his ship. He stopped the fight and, raising all the sails, turned to Barbados, to the place of his anchorage. Significantly inferior to Scarborough in speed, Tich's ship stopped the pursuit and headed towards Spanish America. Unfortunately, neither in the ship's log nor in Teach's letters about the collision with the Scarborough does anything, so the reliability of this information lies entirely on Defoe's conscience.

In December-January 1718, Edward Teach, having replenished the crew (now there were about three hundred thugs on board the Queen Anne's Revenge), Teach, cruising off the islands of St. Kitts and Crab, captured several British sloops. And at the end of January he arrived in Ocracoke Bay, to the city of Bath (North Carolina). The cunning captain understood that this town (at that time its population was a little over 8 thousand people) is an excellent refuge for ships sailing from the Atlantic to Pimlico Bay, and the fighting colonists were willing to pay Tich for pirate booty more than professional buyers in the Bahamas .

Soon, Blackbeard looted so much that under his command there were already 4 ships, naturally the Queen Anne's Revenge became the flagship. Under his command, more than 35 robberies were committed, of which not even all were at sea. Recently, Teach actively began to "work on land", and a little later he even blockaded the harbor of Charleston (this was May 1718). And already in the early summer of that year, the ship ran aground near North Carolina. It is believed that Edward Teach acted so consciously, since the ship became too recognizable ...

After Edward Teach lost the Queen Anne's Revenge, his ships continued to raid throughout the summer and autumn of 1718. It is known that in September of the same year, he and his team organized a grandiose feast that brought together many pirates.

During this feast, since everyone knew that tomorrow they would be attacked by enemy sloops, someone asked the captain if his missus knew where his treasures were hidden, because anything could happen during the battle. The captain replied "Only me and the sea devil know this location and the last one left alive will take everything for himself." Later, the pirates from his detachment, who were captured as a result of the battle, told a story that was absolutely incredible: when they went to sea in order to engage in sea robbery, they noted an unusual person among the crew, one that for several days either walked along the deck, then descended into hold, and no one knew where he came from; then the stranger disappeared shortly before the ship was wrecked. The pirates believed that it was the Devil himself.

There are many legends around piracy, which developed widely in the Middle Ages: which of them is true and which is fiction - let historians figure it out. But it should be noted, despite the fact that many details of the pirate life are still unknown, some evidence of the deeds of gentlemen of fortune was still found. And one of them is the ship of the legendary pirate (Edward Teach), which was called "Queen Anne's Revenge".

The beginning of the history of the great flagship

The flagship was built back in 1710. It was originally called "Concord". And at first it was used by the Spaniards. However, the French soon bought the ship, and its last owner, who gave the ship worldwide fame, was Edward Teach, a cruel pirate who terrified sailors with his name alone.

In 1717, the Concorde followed its usual route, carrying a crew of French slave traders. Suddenly, two light and fast pirate sloops appeared on the horizon, on board of which the pirates vigilantly looked out for their new victim.

There is an opinion that the French were quite capable of smashing the flimsy boats of gentlemen of fortune in comparison with the Concorde. But each of the crew members had heard about Tich's tough temper and exorbitant cruelty, so no one wanted to get into battle with the most formidable pirate of that time. At the first order of Blackbeard, the French sailors laid down their arms, after which the ship was captured.

"Queen Anne's Revenge"

The flagship of the Concorde was renamed the Qeen Anne's Revenge immediately after Blackbeard appropriated it, placing his crew of notorious thugs on the ship. It should be noted that the ship was simply huge in comparison with most of the ships that plowed the waters of the oceans at that time.

"Queen Anne's Revenge" had three masts, and its length was as much as 36 meters with an 8-meter width. Edward Teach put a lot of effort into improving his new houseboat and placed 40 artillery pieces on board. Such power was unheard of even for the Spanish navy, and the capacity of the ship was 150 people who served in Blackbeard's command.

Within just one year after the capture of the Concorde, Teach captured 4 more ships on a freshly renamed ship. Under the command of Blackbeard, who led his escort from the captain's bridge of Queen Anne's Revenge, he carried out about 35 robbery attacks, of which far from all were carried out at sea.

In the last years of his life, Teach actively "worked" on land, and at the beginning of 1718 he even carried out the blockade of Charleston. In early summer, the ship ran aground near North Carolina. But there is an opinion that Blackbeard led him into shallow water consciously - by that time, Queen Anne's Revenge was too recognizable to make sudden raids on it.

The sunken flagship, on which the legendary pirate sailed, was discovered in early 2012. And today, active work is underway to raise his remains from the seabed.

Edward Teach
(c. 1680-1718).

Edward Teach(Edward Teach) - an English pirate who hunted in the waters of North America and the West Indies in 1716-1718. Also known by the nickname Blackbeard. He was one of the most odious figures in the history of sea robbery. Became the hero of American folklore, numerous novels and films. Legends about the treasures he buried still excite the imagination of seekers of pirate treasures.

The date and place of birth of this robber have not yet been clarified. Most authors believe that he was born in Bristol around 1680, went to sea at an early age and during the years of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) served on the corsair ships. There is also a version that Teach was a native of North Carolina, and the Jamaican chronicler Charles Leslie wrote in 1740 that Blackbeard was born in Jamaica "to highly respected parents" and that his brother was a captain of an artillery convoy.

If Teach was a corsair during the War of the Spanish Succession, then after it ended, he could, like many other corsairs, be left without work. Johnson assures that Blackbeard did not engage in piracy until 1716, and one can agree with this. His name appears in the documents of the British Admiralty only from 1716. Having settled on the island of New Providence, the main pirate base in the Atlantic, Teach joined the leader of the Bahamian pirates, Benjamin Hornigold, who in December 1716 transferred the sloop he had captured as a prize under his command. In March 1717, Captain Matthew Munson, visiting the Bahamas, learned about the presence of 5 pirate captains in New Providence, including Edward Teach; the latter commanded 6 cannon sloops and about 70 cutthroats.

"The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

On New Providence, Teach and Hornigold met the aspiring pirate Steed Bonnet, whose sloop, the Revenge, Blackbeard took command of. In September, they sailed north from the Bahamas to Delaware Bay, where they captured 11 ships, including a ship from Havana with 120 barrels of flour and a sloop from Bermuda, skipper Thurbar, from which they took several gallons of wine. September 29, 1717 "Rivenge" robbed the sloop "Betty" with a cargo of Madeiran wine.

Later, the Spofford and Sea Nymphs ships from Philadelphia were seized by pirates, and on October 22, the Robert and Good Intent sloops were robbed, from which the robbers took food. In connection with the approach of cold weather, Teach finally turned south and set off from the coast of North America to the Caribbean Sea.

On November 17, the 14-gun French slave ship Concorde (200 tons) from Nantes was attacked 100 miles south of Martinique by two pirate ships. The captain of the Concorde was Pierre Doss. According to the French, one pirate sailboat had 12 guns and 120 crew members, and the second, a 40-ton Bermuda sloop, had 8 guns and 30 crew members. After a heated battle, the Concorde was captured by Tich's people, who took it to the island of Bequia, renamed it Queen Ann's Rivenge (Queen Anne's Revenge) and brought the number of guns on board to 40. Captain Doss was given a Bermuda sloop and almost all Negro slaves, with whom he arrived safely in Martinique.

On December 5, south of Puerto Rico, Captain Teach boarded the English sloop Margaret, heading from St. Christopher Island under the command of skipper Henry Bostock. Before he was released ashore, Bostock spent eight hours aboard the Queen Ann's Revenge and had the opportunity to closely examine the pirate leader. According to him, "Captain Tech [Teach] was a tall, thin man with a very black beard, which he wore very long."

Shortly before December 19, Teach and Bonnet broke up. The latter went towards the Gulf of Honduras, where, apparently, he piracy until the spring of 1718. Meanwhile, Teach, cruising in the area of ​​St. Vincent Island, captured the large English ship Great Allen. Having cleared its holds, the pirates landed all the prisoners on the shore of St. Vincent, and the prize itself was set on fire. Throughout the winter, pirates hunted in the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico, but the details of their cruising are unknown.

In March 1718, Blackbeard set out for the Bay of Honduras, and on the way he met again with Steed Bonnet's "Rivenge". Teach joined him, but a few days later, seeing that Bonnet knew nothing about maritime affairs, with the consent of his people, he appointed his assistant Richards as commander of the Rivenge. He took the major aboard his ship.

On one of the islands in the Turneff group, the pirates replenished their fresh water supplies. At this time, the sails of an unknown sloop appeared in the sea. Captain Richards immediately weighed anchor and, hoisting a black flag on the mast, came out to meet him. The stranger surrendered without a fight. It turned out to be the 80 ton Adventure sloop from Jamaica, commanded by skipper David Harriot. The pirates took the prisoners aboard the Queen Ann's Revenge, and Israel Hands, the navigator from Tich's ship, was chosen as the captain of the prize.

On April 9, the pirates set sail and headed deep into the Gulf of Honduras, where they robbed several merchant ships. After that, the robbers went to Turkil Island, and then to Grand Cayman, where they captured a turtle catcher ship. From the Caribbean, the pirate flotilla entered the Gulf of Mexico, rounded the western tip of Cuba and moved north through the Florida Strait. Having captured 1 brigantine and 2 sloops along the way, the pirates set off for the coast of South Carolina, where they stood at the port of Charleston for five or six days.

Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, vintage engraving.

From Charleston, Blackbeard went to North Carolina and went into Topsail Bay (now Beaufort Bay), where the Queen Ann's River, and then the Adventure, ran aground. It is believed that Teach and Hands did this on purpose, as they wanted to get rid of unnecessary people and take over most of the booty.

Two crews from the wrecked ships were forced to transfer to a small 8-gun Spanish sloop, and he, overloaded, headed for a small sandy island, lying three miles from the mainland. Here, after a quarrel, Blackbeard landed 17 sailors, and he himself, with about 40 white people and 60 Africans, went to the port of Bath Town, where he contacted Governor Eden. The latter convened a vice-admiralty court, which recognized the pirate sloop as a legally taken Spanish prize.

In June 1718, Teach again went to sea and headed for Bermuda. On the way, the pirates met 2 or 3 English ships, but they took away only provisions and the supplies they needed. His men were later seen in Philadelphia, and in August of that year the governor of Pennsylvania issued an order for his arrest.

Teach returned to Bath Town with a party of 80 or 90 slaves captured from the French. This living commodity was immediately purchased by the planters. After refitting the ship, Blackbeard announced that he was going on a "trading voyage" to St. Thomas; trade, however, did not come to fruition. Near Bermuda, the pirates came across 2 French ships, one of which was loaded with sugar and cocoa, and the other was empty. The ship, on which there was no cargo, was released by Tich, transferring all the sailors from the loaded ship to it; the latter he brought to North Carolina.

Meanwhile, the skippers of the sloops, often attacked by Blackbeard, held a conference with merchants and some of the planters and decided to do away with the pirates. Since the governor of North Carolina was in league with Teach, they sent a delegation to neighboring Virginia. The local governor, Alexander Spotswood, agreed that it was time to take more effective measures to eliminate piracy.

The appointed hour came in November 1718, when informants reported that Blackbeard was in Ocracoke Bay and was preparing to strengthen the neighboring coast with the aim of turning it into a "second Madagascar". Spotswood invited Captains Brand and Gordon, who commanded the warships Pearl (Pearl) and Lime (the latter stood on the James River), to a meeting. It was agreed that for actions in shallow water areas the governor would hire 2 small sloops, the crews of which would be manned by sailors from warships and equipped with hand weapons and ammunition. Their command was entrusted to Robert Maynard, the first lieutenant of the Pearl.

On November 17, 1718, Lieutenant Maynard sailed from Kikkwetan, on the river. James was in Virginia, and on the evening of the 21st came to the mouth of Ocracoke Bay, where he saw a pirate sloop.

Seeing Maynard's sloops, Blackbeard prepared his ship for battle. He had 25 people on board, although he told the skippers of all the ships he met that he had 40 people in his crew.

The head of Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, at the end of the bowsprit.

The battle that flared up in Ocracoke Bay was stubborn and bloody. “Blackbeard and the lieutenant fired pistols at each other, which caused the pirate to receive a wound,” wrote Charles Johnson, “and then fought with sabers until the lieutenant’s saber, unfortunately, broke, so that he was forced to retreat in order to cock the hammer, but at that moment, when Blackbeard struck him with a cutlass, one of Maynard's men inflicted a terrible wound on his neck and throat ...

Now they were close to each other and fought for life and death - the lieutenant with twelve sailors against Blackbeard with fourteen - until the sea around the ship was stained with blood; Blackbeard was wounded in the corps by Lieutenant Maynard's pistol and yet did not retreat and fought with great fury until he received twenty-five wounds, five of them gunshot wounds. Finally, having already fired several pistols and cocking another, he fell dead; by that time, eight more out of fourteen had fallen, and all the rest, very wounded, jumped overboard and asked for mercy ... "

Having defeated the pirates, Lieutenant Maynard ordered Tich's head to be cut off and hung on the end of the bowsprit, after which he sailed to Bath Town to help his wounded sailors.

After the wounded had recovered sufficiently, Maynard sailed back to Virginia, with Blackbeard's head still hanging at the end of the bowsprit, and with 15 prisoners, of whom 13 were hanged. On the pirate sloops and in a tent that stood on the shores of Ocracoke Bay, Maynard's men found 25 barrels of sugar, 11 barrels and 145 sacks of cocoa, a barrel of indigo and a bale of cotton. Together with what was taken from Governor Eden and his secretary, and what was obtained from the sale of the sloop, this amounted to 2,500 pounds sterling. In addition, the members of the expedition received bonuses announced by the governor of Virginia in his proclamation. All the money was paid within three months and divided between the teams "Lima" and "Pearl".

According to legend, Tich's head was taken to the capital of Virginia and put on a pillory. Carrion-eating birds dealt with it in a few days, after which the skull of the famous pirate turned into a hornet's nest.

From the book: V.K. Gubarev "100 Great Pirates".
Viktor Gubarev - victor-gubarev.livejournal.com

In the history of piracy, fiction and truth are intertwined and often inseparable. What is the mere description of the appearance of Tich, which has become a textbook in numerous biographies of this robber, as if he embodied all the evil of the pirate world. “The physiognomy of Captain Tich ... was completely covered with dense vegetation, which immediately attracted the eye. This beard terrified America ... It was black in color, and the owner brought it to such monstrous proportions that it seemed as if the hair was growing right out of the eyes. Teach used to braid it into small pigtails intertwined with ribbons ... and throw them over her ears. During the battle, he hung a wide sling with three pairs of pistols in holsters on each shoulder and stuck fuses under his hat so that they hung down, almost touching his cheeks. His eyes were naturally fierce and wild. It is impossible to imagine a figure more terrible than this demon-possessed man, comparable only to a fury from hell ... "This vivid description belongs to the pen of one of the first historians of piracy, a mysterious writer, under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson, who created the book" A General History of Robbery and murders committed by the most famous pirates, as well as their manners, orders and government from their very beginning and appearance on the island of Providence in 1717 until this 1724 year ”(“ A General History of Piracy ”).

Blackbeard's ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" from the movie
"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".

Artifacts from a pirate ship will reveal the secrets of Blackbeard.

In 2011, archaeologists began an operation to raise the remains of the Queen Anne's Revenge ship from the bottom of the Atlantic, on which the legendary pirate Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, plowed the seas.

From a ship that sank 300 years ago off the coast of North Carolina, they raised a 900 kg cannon, as well as small dishes, jewelry and even shackles. The raised artifacts were first put on public display and then sent to the laboratory for analysis.

Also, a one and a half ton anchor was removed from the bottom. Now scientists have to work hard to restore the find. After that, the anchor will be exhibited at the local museum; it will replenish the collection of exhibits, one way or another connected with the legend of "Blackbeard". The wreckage of the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" was discovered back in 1996, but the anchor was raised to the surface only on May 27, 2011.

Scientists hope that the items found at the bottom will help to find out the truth about the British pirate. All archaeological work on the vessel is planned to be completed by 2013.

The pirate Edward Teach hunted in the Caribbean at the beginning of the 18th century. The heyday of his "activities" fell on the years 1716 - 1718.

According to historians, Queen Anne's Revenge originally belonged to French slave owners. Now archaeologists hope that they will be able to raise two more anchors, which are tightly glued to the ship.

The ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" was undoubtedly used for naval combat during the captain's bloody business. Previously, archaeologists managed to lift over 220 thousand lead bullets and buckshot, as well as 25 cannons, many of which were loaded, from the ship.

Anchor of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

- The Queen Anne's Revenge sank in 1718. What is left of him now?

Wild-Ramsing: Of course, over the years, the condition of the ship has deteriorated greatly. The place where the ship sank looks like a field of ruins. There are very few wooden things left, mostly solid, rigid objects made of iron, ceramics and stone. But because the iron has spent a lot of time in the salt water, a crust has formed that we call "splicing". Objects lying next to the metal grew to it. In this way we found parts of sails, ropes, copper tools, pewter, small pieces of gold and animal bones (pigs, cows that were eaten by pirates).

- What other pirate things did you get from the bottom of the ocean?

Wild-Ramsing: The anchor was the main find, for the sake of which we started the expedition. Before that, it was possible to get some small items: lead bullets for firearms, cannonballs. We met sticky lumps of lead shot, nails and sand. We believe that this mixture was placed in cannons in canvas bags and these were homemade shells. We managed to find metal items of the officers' toilet, medical instruments, the wooden part of the ship's stern, boards, frames, gold powder, wine bottles and crystal glasses and many other small things.

- Have you already determined what next artifact you will get from the bottom?

Wild-Ramsing: We don't know... and that's the most exciting part of our job. We will explore the front of the ship where the pirate crew lived and worked, and of course the galley. Who knows what we might find there.

- Where are all found artifacts stored?

Wild Ramsing: An exhibition of all the exhibits and descriptions of our research just opened at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in North Carolina Bay.

- The owner of the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" was the famous pirate Blackbeard. What new did you find out about this hero?

Wild-Ramsing: Our preliminary reports are largely consistent with the historical facts. Blackbeard was the captain on the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge", before the ship sank, he took most of his personal belongings in a hurry, but something still remained (the most valuable of Blackbeard's surviving things, researchers call the hilt of his sword). There are also some discrepancies with history. For example, according to our version, the anchor was used to prevent the ship from running aground. But according to the official version, the captain himself brought the ship aground. Of course, we will not be able to find out the whole truth, but new assumptions and clues to the correct answers will appear.

- Is it possible to reconstruct the history of piracy in the Caribbean region on the basis of these finds?

Wild-Ramsing: We're just getting a sense of what life was like as a pirate in the 18th century, we're starting to learn more about the life of pirates: what they ate, what games with alcohol were popular among the robbers, what dishonest tricks they used, when you wanted to cheat. But perhaps the jewels of the collection are weapons and ammunition, such as the Swedish pistol, made in 1712, which was loaded with bullets and bolts, which speaks of the ingenuity of the pirates. During collisions with other ships, they sought to frighten the crew and disarm them. They tried to take the sailors by surprise, and not sink the ship, as was the case in traditional naval battles. In addition, no one supplied them with ammunition, so they had to make do with handy tools, such as bolts.

- For most people, your research is especially interesting because of the popularity of the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean". Has the film influenced your work and the interest of investors in the project?

Wild-Ramsing: After the release of the film, many people are literally fascinated by pirates. Therefore, when we make another discovery, great interest is shown from all over the world. And now even from Russia! After the release of the last series, attention became more intense, because the character Blackbeard and the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" appeared in the picture. And we are pleased to think that our search inspired Hollywood producers to include them in the film. Of course, we appreciate the promotion that we received due to the fact that so many people watched "Pirates". This helped fund the project. In the 18th century, pirates were a people who played an important role in the development of the New World.

Edward Teach (real name Edward Drummond), nicknamed Blackbeard, was a thunderstorm in the Caribbean. In the fourth decade of his life, he "became famous" for successful attacks and robbery of merchant ships encountered on his way. In 1716, he joined Benjamin Ornigold's pirate crew in New Providence Bay. Soon Blackbeard himself became a captain, having at his disposal the "Queen Anne's Revenge".

In 1717, the authorities of the Bahamas announced a merciless fight against piracy, and the governor of Virginia announced a reward for capturing or killing Teach and his crew. The English lieutenant Robert Maynard took up the hunt for Blackbeard. By 1718, Tich's "squadron" consisted of several sloops and 300 "gentlemen of fortune". In November 1718, Captain Blackbeard, so named for his thick beard, died during a boarding battle with Maynard's soldiers, who personally cut off Teach's head and ordered it to be hung on the ship's yardarm. Subsequently, Edward Teach, not without the help of historians and romanticized legends, became one of the most famous pirates. So the images of Blackbeard are seen in many works about pirates, for example, the character of the same name in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and in the famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson "Treasure Island".

May 28, 2011
Sources: rg.ru, vsekommentarii.com, utro.ru

Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard.
Photo from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides".

Medical instruments were found on Blackbeard's ship.

In the course of research work on the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge", owned by the famous pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, medical instruments were found. This was told by archaeologist Linda Carnes-McNaughton (Linda Carnes-McNaughton) in a report at the Society for Historical Archeology.

The Blackbeard ship, which ran aground off the coast of North Carolina and was abandoned by the crew, was discovered in 1996. Since then, underwater archaeologists have been working on its study. In addition to cannons, weapons and other items, they found a lot of medical instruments. Among the finds are scissors and silver needles, a pestle and a mortar for preparing medicines, vessels, two enemas, and a device for bloodletting. The clamps fitted with screws may have been part of an amputation device. A metal syringe was also found, which was used in the only treatment for syphilis of that time, pumping a mercury compound into the urethra.

It is known from written sources that Edward Teach, having captured the French slave ship Concorde and turned it into his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge, released the entire crew, but left three ship surgeons who were to treat the wounds and illnesses of Teach's team.

Linda Carnes-McNaughton discovered the lists of the Concorde's crew and determined that the names of these doctors were Jean Dubois, Marc Bourneuf La Rochelle and Claude Deshaiers. Shortly thereafter, the Queen Anne's Revenge and three other pirate ships blockaded the port of Charleston in South Carolina. Edward Teach took hostages from nine passing ships and informed the governor that if he did not receive a ransom, he would burn the captured ships, execute the hostages and send their heads to the governor. The ransom that Teach eventually received included not only money, but also a large amount of medicine. So the famous pirate managed not only to get professional doctors for the crew, but also to supply them with the necessary medicines.

Fifteen people on a Dead Man's Chest

Queen Anne's Revenge- the only real-life sailboat from the film series "Pirates of the Caribbean", the flagship of a pirate Edward Teach(Edward Teach or Edward Thatch) nicknamed Blackbeard(Blackbeard).

The sailing ship was built in 1710 in Great Britain, when the Spanish fleet bought it in 1713, the ship bore the proud name of "Concorde" (La Concorde) and was a three-masted ship, supposedly thirty-six by eight meters in size, with a displacement of three hundred tons, armed with twenty-six guns. Neither exact information about the appearance and structure of the sailboat, nor illustrations of it were found. The only image of a sailboat is in the monograph by J. Budrio. After the Spaniards, the French bought the ship. And for several years, Concorde was involved in the transport of slaves in the Caribbean. In 1717, the sailing ship was captured by pirates led by Blackbeard.

Edward Drummont(Edward Drummond), that was actually the name of Ticha, was an Englishman, presumably born in the 80s of the seventeenth century. During the war between England and France, the so-called "Queen Anne's War", he was a privateer and robbed French and Spanish ships in caribbean sea with Benjamin Hornigold. He got his nickname not by chance, since he really was the owner of a luxurious black beard, into which he wove black ribbons. He did everything to match the image of the most terrible pirate of the Caribbean. This song was written about him "Fifteen Men for a Dead Man's Chest"- that was the name of a small island in the Caribbean, where he landed 15 people from his team for an organized riot, leaving them only rum and sabers, in the hope that they, having drunk, would go crazy and cut each other.

The Concorde team surrendered Blackbeard virtually without a fight. Two small sloops captured an almost three-ton ship. So great was the fame of Blackbeard among the sailors of the Caribbean. Remarkably, the pirates did not kill the crew of the sailboat, but simply landed everyone on the nearest island, leaving them one of their sloops.

Renamed "Concord" to "Queen Anne's Revenge" and made it his flagship. The ship was partially rebuilt and its armament increased to forty guns. The number of pirate crew of the ship was up to 150 people.

For two years Blackbeard robbed about forty ships, and now led a whole flotilla of pirate ships (another well-known ship of Edward Teach - "Adventure" ("Adventure").

The most famous of all the tricks of Tich was the blockade of the entrance to the harbor of Charleston (South Carolina) in May 1718. And in June of the same year "Queen Anne's Revenge" ran aground and then sank in Topsel Bay off the coast of North Carolina (the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current Beaufort Bay).
According to one source Blackbeard suffered a shipwreck, trying to hide from his pursuers, according to another version (which is more likely), the ship was sunk on purpose, since the pirate no longer needed this sailboat, widely known among sailors. He himself was killed on November 22, 1718 by the English lieutenant Robert Maynard, who was specially hired for this by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood.

Since then about adventures Blackbeard and its famous sailing ship are legendary, its prototype is in the works of Daniel Defoe and Robert Stevenson. But the pirate and the ship were most famous thanks to the film

It so happened that after more than two centuries, exactly on the day of Tich's death, on November 22, 1996, divers of the Intersol group in Beaufort Bay (North Carolina) found an anchor leg sticking out of the silt.

Anchor of the sailboat “Queen Anne's Revenge”

After the examination, it became known that the anchor belonged to the legendary sailing ship "Queen Anne's Revenge". The search continued, and the collection of the North Carolina Maritime Museum was replenished with many exhibits from the famous sailing ship. These are several cannons, weapons, a ship's bell (dated 1709), a large number of cannonballs, and navigational instruments. In the spring of 2012, work began on lifting the ship's hull.

Sailboat model at the North Carolina Museum

"Queen Anne's Revenge"

The secrets and treasures of pirate ships buried in the depths of the sea still attract adventurers who are ready to devote their lives to finding them.

In 1996, an expedition of explorers discovered the paw of the anchor of the ship of the famous pirate of the early 18th century: "Queen Anne's Revenge", Edward Teach alias Blackbird ("Blackbeard").

The fate of the ship

More than two and a half centuries ago, the flagship pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina. Blackbeard, the ship's captain, left with his crew in June 1718 when the ship ran aground.

And on November 22, 1996, exactly on the anniversary of Blackbird's death, divers from the Intersol research group discovered an anchor leg sticking out of the sand on the seabed off the coast of Beaufort, North Carolina.

They continued searching and found several more cannons. Since then, the expedition has repeatedly returned to this place and found hundreds of other items, including cannons, a bell and weapons. In the fall of 1997, researchers managed to find part of the ship's skeleton.

Much indicates that the expedition found the ship "Queen Anne's Revenge".

"Demon of the Seas"

In the early years of Blackbird's life, all that is known is that he was born in England, probably in the 1690s in Bristol or London.

His real name is Edward Teach, although in some primary sources he is called Edward Thatch.

It is indisputable only that, having become a pirate, he took the pseudonym Blackbird (“Blackbeard”).

He did indeed wear a long black beard with black ribbons woven into it.

When his crew embarked on boarding, Blackbird smoked imperturbably and passed wisps of smoke through his beard: creating a demonic image of the "sea devil", he hoped that the captains of the ships would surrender to him without a fight.

Probably, like many pirates, he started as a privateer. In 1713 he settled by the sea and soon joined the pirate crew of Ben Hornigold.

After Hornigold received an amnesty in 1717 and gave up piracy, Blackbird took command of his flagship, a former French slave ship known as the Concorde.

Blackbird additionally armed it with cannons and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.

Together with his crew of 300, he spent the next few years piracy in the Caribbean and off the eastern coast of America, robbing a total of 40 ships.

Blackbird was the most notorious pirate operating along the coast of North Carolina in the early 18th century.

How ferocious he was can be judged by the legends. So, according to one of them, he forced his prisoner to eat his own ears, and according to another, he chopped off a finger of a prisoner who did not want to give up his ring.

After Blackbird lost the Queen Anne's Revenge, his ships continued to raid throughout the summer and fall of 1718. It is known that in September of the same year, he and his team organized a grandiose feast that brought together many pirates.

This was the last straw that broke the patience of the governor of the Virginia colony, Alexander Spotswood, who decided to send two sloops under the command of Lieutenant of the Royal Navy Robert Maynard to finally deal with Blackbird.

On November 21, near Ocracoke Bay, Lieutenant Maynard's ships overtook the pirate fleet, and the battle began the next day. Blackbird was the first to launch a cannon strike that killed several people from the British ship. But Maynard was a worthy adversary.

He outsmarted Blackbird by making him believe that most of the English crew had been killed while the sailors were safely hidden. When Blackbird began to board the ship, he stumbled upon an ambush. Sources say that a terrible fight ensued between Blackbird and Maynard, during which the lieutenant wounded the pirate with a pistol and pierced him with a sword.

But he did not give up until one of the members of the English team rushed at him with a knife and cut his throat. Maynard cut off Blackbird's head and hoisted it on the prow of his ship, setting off on his return victorious journey. A well-deserved death has finally found the ferocious "demon of the seas".