#ocracoke

We got there at around 7:00pm on the 27th and spent the evening getting settled in. While it was cloudy, the weather was nice for most of our drive. The weather forecast warned there may be some rain this week, but we were not prepared for Hurricane Idalia.

We started our first day warm and clear. The rich colors of our first morning sunrise on the 28th were stunningly glaring behind the other houses. As the morning progressed, I noticed we had yellow-bellied sliders peeking out of the surface of the pond neighboring the Hatteras Civic Center.

Monday was mostly a beach day with an afternoon at the pool. This was the only day we we able to swim in the ocean before we received warnings of the incoming storm.

There were so many yellow-bellied sliders peeking up on the surface, I got up early to watch the sunrise and then the turtles.

On Tuesday, the 29th, we rode the ferry to Ocracoke. The weather was very warm and the water was clear. I loved the rich green we saw in the calm waters. I tried to show contrast with silhouettes and the shimmers of the water. I let the calm green water be my negative space with fellow ferry passengers (including @lizadomuch) as my focuses. Because the waters were so calm, I took shots of the humid blended horizon.

On the 22nd of November, 1718, Blackbeard would be killed off the coast of 'Ocacock' Island, along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Robert Maynard and his men had arrived the evening before, the fifty-seven men hidden aboard two chartered merchant sloops, and would wait for sun up before approaching the anchored sloop, Adventure, at Springer’s Point.

Blackbeard and his men were unaware of what was coming that morning, as reports state that in the aftermath of the battle that it was obvious that they had spent the night carousing, with the shoreline littered with campfires, sailcloth tents and awnings, and remnants of their last haul (consisting mostly of sugar and cocoa). Its been estimated by some that this was a temporary stop, another night on dry land before plans of heading to St. Thomas to pick up a letter of marque, enabling Blackbeard to once again perform legal privateering in the Caribbean; but this assumption is often disputed by historians as an addendum to make the reader want to sympathize with the villain.

The Ranger and the Jane, the outfitted merchant sloops, would make a hard turn larboard and make their way to Blackbeard’s anchorage. As for Blackbeard noting it, it would still be hard to tell what the intent was as the ships approached in the early light, as the island was a common stopping point for many travelers in need of fresh water. It would become apparent though once his crew would spot the glint of muskets and cutlasses and a number of men swarming the upper decks.

The Adventure sloop had nine mounted guns, but Blackbeard’s crew of sixteen men was severely outnumbered, three to one. According to accounts, Blackbeard reportedly would call out “If you shall leave us alone, we shall not meddle with you.” to which Maynard would reply “It is you we want and we will have you dead or alive.” The approaching ships would fly the British White Naval Ensign, but its authenticity would be questionable, as in theory anyone could fly any flag they had managed to have gotten a hold of.

Blackbeard was cornered in shallow water with no wind to escape. As a result, the order was given and the Adventure let loose a broadsides of “swan shot, spick nails, and pieces of old iron,” killing 11 and wounding 9 of Maynard’s men aboard the Ranger, lowering Maynard’s forces to forty-six. The ensuing battle would take an hour, a series of sailing maneuvers and gunfire, concluded by a final six minute battle of hand to hand combat, once the crew of the Adventure approached close and boarded the Jane.

More men rushed up from below to meet the boarders, and shortly afterwards, Blackbeard and nine of his crew laid dead on the decks, while Maynard and 11 of his men would only suffer injuries. The remaining six pirates would surrender, now that Blackbeard had fallen. These crewmembers would later be taken to Hampton, Virginia, by early 1719.

The fall of Blackbeard is a tale that many historians have taken artistic liberties with, many embellishing the story of the battle with many colorful tidbits, such as Blackbeard being a savage opponent, that he had been shot multiple times and cut repeatedly before finally going down in battle. The tale of the battle could also be fabricated with other claims, stating that he was a vicious foe, making their success all that more impressive. Or, its more likely those additions to the story were added in by Charles Johnson in his General History of the Pirates in 1724 as yet another colorful addition to help it sell. A number of times, Blackbeard had been shot before falling in melee combat.

The facts are that Maynard and his men had killed Blackbeard on November 22nd, with Blackbeard outnumbered, 16 to 57, and his broadside was able to reduce their numbers by 11 before boarding, where he and 9 others went down. The amount of re-tellings of this event are staggering, all with new ideas proposed, what was going through Blackbeard’s mind, what his intentions were, and many more minute details to the battle that could be fabricated. Chances are though, that someone is right about something.

Blackbeard’s head would be severed from his body while lifeless upon the deck, and displayed on the bowsprit as a trophy for the return trip back to Hampton, Virginia. His body would be tossed overboard. Folklore would even go on to state that the pirate captain’s headless body swam around the Ranger three times in search of its head before finally sinking to the depths, and rumors would persist of Blackbeard’s skull being used as a drinking chalice later on before dissappearing into someone’s private collection.

In any case, the waters around Ocracoke became the permanent resting ground for arguably history’s most famous pirate, the waters of which are now home to a multitude of legends regarding Blackbeard’s unresting soul seeking both his lost head, and his fabled “buried treasure.” Some folklore claims that his headless body later washed ashore Ocracoke and became buried on land.

Some would state that Blackbeard’s demise on this date brought about the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, or the beginning of the end - the loss of such a character striking the morale of other pirates out to sea, knowing that they were not in fact invincible. Accounts of piracy however would carry on well into 1730, with some more famous pirates who had yet to even begin their careers.

I am one of the people who actually live near the island where it happened so I am very familiar with the story.

Blackbeard was killed in a battle between him and pirates hunters. Shot and stabbed to death. But thats not the worst part.

In order for the hunters to get the reward money, they had to cut off his head and take it back home so he could be identified.

Now I don't know how David Jenkins wants the story to end but if he plans to use the Battle of Ocracoke in the show there's only two ways it can end. Someone else besides Ed gets killed, or Stede sees Edwards head in the hands of a British naval officer and goes batshit insane.