Blackbeard- The Birth of America

by Samuel Marquis

  He had received his official orders only this morning from his superior officer, Captain Brand, who was in overall command of the two-pronged attack into North Carolina territory: a march overland to capture the pirates in Bath Town, and a seaborne attack on Blackbeard’s sloop off Ocracoke. Brand would command the main force of the expedition, which would march cross-country from the James River to Bath with the strength of the column augmented along the way by Colonel Edward Moseley and the North Carolina militia. Brand and his manservant would cross the boundary line between the two colonies of Virginia and North Carolina near Windsor, at which point Spotswood’s legal authority ceased to exist. Brand would be relying on speed, surprise, and a small force of only himself and his servant to counter any move by the North Carolina authorities or the pirates to prevent him from carrying out his job. At Queen Anne Creek, he would link up with Moseley, his brothers-in-law Colonel Maurice Moore and Captain Jeremiah Vail, and their contingent of militia. From there, Brand’s expeditionary force would strike for Governor Eden’s residence in Bath, growing in strength along the way with fresh forces gathered up by the North Carolinians.

  Meanwhile, Maynard would lead the second contingent, an armed naval force consisting of the Spotswood-chartered Jane and Ranger in a seagoing expedition to Ocracoke Island. The Royal Navy provided the crews: thirty-five sailors from Captain Gordon’s Pearl and twenty-five from Brand’s Lyme. Maynard was in overall command of the two sloops and all the seamen headed for the Old Watering Hole along the protected interior of the barrier island. It was here Thache was reported to have set up a pirate base camp. Maynard’s force would capture any pirates left behind on Blackbeard’s base at Ocracoke before crossing the fifty miles of Pamlico Sound to the mouth of the Pamlico River. Once in place, Maynard could blockade the town from the sea while his commanding officer swept into Bath from the landward side. Captain Gordon drew the short straw and remained behind on the James River with the Lyme and Pearl men-of-war, commanding the floating reserve of two warships with half-strength crews.

  The larger Ranger and more compact Jane sailed east down the river, the Ranger a hundred yards abreast of the flagship’s larboard beam. Both sloops were fast, light, clean, stiff, and weatherly, and as Maynard stared out over the railing at the Ranger, he was confident that both boats would do the job set out for them. The only thing that worried him was that neither vessel was equipped with heavy cannon or even swivel guns. It was anticipated that the additional weight would make them less maneuverable in the shallow waters of Roanoke Inlet, Pamlico Sound, Town Creek, and Ocracoke Inlet. He and Midshipman Edmund Hyde of the Lyme, who captained his consort Ranger, had an ample supply of pistols, muskets, cutlasses, daggers, boarding axes, grenadoes, and boarding pikes to go along with their months’ worth of provisions. But with no cannon and only sixty men, Maynard knew that if his sloops were the ones to encounter Blackbeard, they would have to surprise him at anchor. Otherwise, they would be even more vulnerable to attack than the pirates they were being sent to fight.

  Feeling the wind on his face, he was glad to be at sea again, and even happier to be leading an expedition of such importance. From Brand’s intelligence reports, he knew that Thache had a greatly reduced crew, but that didn’t mean the man wouldn’t put up a vigorous fight. In fact, Maynard was expecting it and actually looked forward to the opportunity to cross swords with the rogue if it came to a pitched battle. His only hope was that, if they did get into a scrap, the pirate captain wouldn’t be able to unleash his eight guns against him. He and his crew would stand no chance against the pirates’ broadsides.

  Maynard was a cautious officer. Intelligent and professional, he was intent on succeeding in the mission for which he was assigned, and he had no desire to be a first lieutenant forever. And his orders were clear. They called for him to navigate his way through Roanoke Inlet, sail the length of Pamlico Sound to Brant Island Shoals, strike east for Ocracoke’s southeast tip, and capture any pirates he could find on the island. If Blackbeard was not there, he would then cross the fifty miles of Pamlico Sound, proceed up Pamlico River, and head for Bath Town. Once in place he would blockade the river, hopefully trapping Blackbeard’s Adventure in Town Creek. He and his men would act as a floating reserve for Captain Brand’s force, which would sweep in from the landward side. If everything went according to plan the pirates would be caught in a trap. Naturally, their inclination would be to fight, and Maynard had to be ready to thwart any attempt by the pirates to escape by sea. However, as no one knew exactly where Blackbeard was, Maynard had to rely on his initiative, and stand ready to do battle with the pirates wherever they might be. When fighting a dangerous and wily former British Navy officer like Blackbeard, he knew nothing could be taken for granted.

  But he and his men were ready. The sixty men in his invasion force were well armed. He had two local pilots familiar with the waters of Pamlico Sound, one aboard each sloop, to guide him, including Master Pilot William Butler who was said to have no equal when it came to navigating the treacherous shoaling waters of North Carolina. And his men were more than willing to fight—indeed, they seemed to relish the opportunity. They had been inspecting and cleaning their pistols and muskets, checking their powder, sharpening their swords, and practicing their fighting skills for much of the day.

  In seven years of naval warfare fighting the French, he had put himself in harm’s way time and again, especially in the sea battle off Dunkirk in 1708. But somehow he could feel that this bout with the notorious Blackbeard the pirate would be much bigger than any engagement he had fought before. He could feel in his bones a great contest, a battle for the ages. As he imagined it in his mind, he and his heavily bearded, cutlass-wielding adversary would be right in the middle of it all, two lead actors in a sword duel on a brightly lit stage.

  And then together, they would forever be linked by history.

  CHAPTER 64

  OCRACOKE ISLAND

  OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA

  NOVEMBER 21, 1718

  SITTING PEACEFULLY NEXT TO THE OLD WATERING HOLE, Edward Thache read over the secret letter from Tobias Knight a second time.

  My friend,

  If this finds you yet in harbor I would have you make the best of your way up as soon as possible your affairs will let you. I have something more to say to you than at present I can write; the bearer will tell you the end of our Indian War, and Garret can tell you in part what I have to say to you, so refer you in some measure to him.

  I really think these three men are heartily sorry at their difference with you and will be very willing to ask your pardon; if I may advise, be friends again, it’s better than falling out among your selves.

  I expect the Governor this night or tomorrow, who I believe would be likewise glad to see you before you go, I have not time to add save my hearty respects to you, and am your real friend.

  And Servant.

  T. KNIGHT

  When he was finished reading, a half dozen grackles flew in from the west. They touched down upon the gnarled limbs of a canopy of live oaks that spread out like the arms of an octopus. He studied the crow-like avians for a minute as they chucked and chattered, their yellow eyes poking out devilishly in the hauntingly beautiful forest of the barrier island. Then he read the letter a third time before looking up and staring thoughtfully again at the ominous, black-headed birds.

  Most of the crew was aboard the Adventure, sitting about drinking, playing games of chance, and entertaining the local trader Samuel Odell and his shipmates, while the remainder, including Thache, Caesar, Garret Gibbons, Richard Stiles, James White, and Joseph Brooks had come ashore to collect water and dig for clams. The clams would supplement the goose and duck supper the captain was intending to host that night in gratitude to Odell and his crew, who were being feted for recently pulling the grounded Adventure off Brant Island Shoals. It was to be a farewell feast before the company set sail for St. Thomas.

  Having already spoken at length to his bosun Ga
rret Gibbons, the bearer of the letter, Thache knew what Knight was telling him. The letter was not a warning, but rather an announcement of good news and potential reconciliation. By referring to the end of the Indian War, Knight was alluding to the fact that the much-feared conflagration in Bath County had turned out to be nothing more than false alarm. The potential threat of a new Indian war was the impetus that had hastened the Adventure’s departure from Bath shortly after the incident with Israel Hands three weeks earlier. With regard to what Tobias Knight wasn’t able to disclose in his letter and that he had instructed Gibbons to further elaborate on, Knight was telling him that an extension of the King’s pardon was on its way from England. It was not a message the secretary of the Governor’s Council and customs inspector for North Carolina could convey in writing, hence his sentence: “I have something more to say to you than at present I can write.”

  Based upon his conversation with Knight, Gibbons wasn’t able to elaborate further upon the nature of the extension except to say that the time period covered by the pardon had likely been extended beyond the date of January 5. This was important because it meant that Thache and his crew would no longer be in violation of the King’s pardon with the taking of the French vessel Rose Emelye in August. If true, this was a huge change in his fortunes and would mean that he didn’t need to sail to St. Thomas to seek a privateering commission from the Danish governor in that West Indies port. Instead, he could return to his beloved Margaret in Philadelphia and go on to live the life with her that he had always dreamed of without having to look over his shoulder as a hunted man.

  If he sailed to Bath, Knight had made it clear the governor would like to see him, no doubt to communicate in person the details of the new pardon. As Gibbons had relayed it to him, even before the first pardon had expired, King George’s Privy Council at St. James’s Palace in London had apparently begun to consider the possibility that an extension might be necessary if they were going to be able to recruit an effective privateering force to raid Spain’s treasure fleets sailing from Central and South America. Word had recently reached the colony that the King was expected to declare war on Spain this year, though no firm date for the recommencement of hostilities had been set. In anticipation of the coming conflict, the Privy Council was extending His Majesty’s Proclamation of Indemnity, but the precise dates for its limitations had yet to be made officially known. A ship bearing the new pardons was expected by early- to mid-December, and colonial governors were expected to follow the letter of the law accordingly.

  The second part of the letter was the more troubling and enigmatic. The “three men” that had some “difference” with him, whom Knight believed wanted to reconcile with him, were none other than Colonel Edward Moseley and his brothers-in-law, Colonel Maurice Moore and Captain Jeremiah Vail. During his multiple stays in Bath Town, the three merchant-landowners had tried to strike an exclusive arrangement with him to sell his piratically taken goods to them. But Thache had refused. While he and his smuggled sugar, cocoa, indigo, and other provisions had been welcomed by Bath County colonists and Pamlico Sound traders, Moseley, Moore, and Vail were well known for their high prices and predatory business practices and wanted him to sell them his pirated goods at ridiculously cheap prices. During his last meeting with them, he had again refused to work with them and they had gotten into a heated argument. Threats had been made by the three wealthy North Carolina businessmen and he had stormed out of the tavern. Now, they apparently wanted to reconcile. In the absence of an agreement with these gentlemen, he had become unwanted competition. They were obviously afraid that he would undersell them and hurt their business since he could deal directly with consumers. Now that he had been granted the King’s pardon, the three powerful North Carolinians likely feared that he would continue to remain a major competitor—not in Nassau or Jamaica but in their own back yard.

  But somehow he didn’t believe that Moore and his brothers-in-law were as willing to reconcile as Knight suggested. All they really seemed to care about was that his cheaper goods posed serious competition. Without some business arrangement with him for access to those cheaper goods, they could not hope to profit. So it made sense for them to try and reconcile. But somehow he didn’t think they would do that and would try to undermine him. He wasn’t sure how they would accomplish such a feat, but he had a feeling, deep down, that that was precisely what they were doing. At the very least, they were not to be trusted in any smuggling or trading arrangement with his last supply of goods and provisions remaining on Ocracoke.

  Suddenly, he heard a stirring in the woods. He nearly jumped up from the gnarly bough of live oak he was sitting on. He looked up to see Caesar.

  “Caesar, by thunder ye scared the devil out of me, man!”

  “I’m sorry, Captain, I didn’t mean to. I just came by to see how you were doing.”

  Thache stuffed Tobias Knight’s secret letter into the pocket of his captain’s jacket. He would keep the news from Caesar and the other crew members until the new pardon was made official. “I’m sorry, lad, I didn’t mean to yell at you.” He smiled. “You took me totally by surprise. Why you’re as sneaky as an Indian.”

  “Aye, that’s because I’ve had to fight them. When I was with Master Knight, I had a scrap or two with the Tuscarora. Now those red men be true fighters. They can split an apple in two with a bow and arrow, they can.”

  “No doubt. The letter I was just reading bears good news from Esquire Knight. The much-feared Indian war is a sham. The Indians are still at peace.”

  “That is good news. I am glad to hear that Mr. Knight is safe. Are you…I mean, were you planning on coming back to the beach?”

  “Aye, I just came in here to relieve myself and get a drink of water from the well. I seem to have sat down and lost myself in thought. I must be getting old because I lost track of time.”

  “You just needed some time alone to think, Captain. It has been a tough time these past few months—no doubt you have much on your mind. In fact, that’s why the men were worried about you.”

  “Worried about me?”

  “They just wanted to make sure you were all right. We’ve dug up six buckets of clams and are ready to return to the ship.”

  “Well done, lad. It’s going to be quite a feast. I am sure Mr. Odell and his companions are in for a treat. But you don’t need to worry about me, or about the crew. There are merry times ahead for us all. Merry times indeed.”

  “That is good to hear, Captain. The men will like hearing that.”

  Standing up from the fallen live oak branch he was sitting on, he slapped Caesar good-naturedly on the back as a peal of laughter rose up from the beach a hundred feet to the west. “Let’s get on back then. I’m getting hungry just thinking about those fresh clams.”

  “Aye, Captain, so am I.”

  ***

  They walked along the narrow, sandy trail that sliced through the forest of hydra-like oak and red cedar until they reached the beach looking out onto Pamlico Sound. Along the beach lay tattered and patched sailcloth, temporarily erected as canvas tents and fluttering limply in the light breeze. Spread out along the sand, black needlerush, and cordgrass were empty bottles, broken ceramic jugs, piles of various animal bones, wide circles of ash from cook-fires, and other flotsam from the great banyan with Charles Vane held six weeks earlier. Neatly tucked away along the edge of the tree line were eleven casks of cocoa, two dozen hogsheads of sugar, several barrels of indigo, five bales of cotton, and the other articles remaining to be traded before setting out for the West Indies.

  The wind was down and there was a chill in the air that made Caesar shiver. Weeks earlier the weather had turned and now periodic nor’easters had begun to blow, bringing cold winds and squally rains, one after the other. Like the other eighteen men of the company still remaining here on Ocracoke, he was anxious to begin their journey south. Most of the men were in agreement that winter at sea was for navy and merchant swabs, not for gentlemen of fortune
like themselves. Furthermore, though the Adventure was freshly careened and ready to set sail, most of their money was gone, they had no suitable winter clothing, and provisions, rum, and morale were running low. But Caesar and the other crew members were unwilling to press the captain on the issue, as he had said they would be leaving any day now. Several of the other crew members were whispering amongst themselves that he had become sullen and irritable, especially since the two-masted French Martiniqueman had been brought in from Bermuda three months earlier.

  Staring out at the mercury-colored sound, it seemed unfathomable to Caesar that nineteen pirates, thirteen whites and six blacks, were all that was left of the formidable 700-mate, four-ship, 60-plus-gun flotilla that a mere six months earlier had rivaled the strength of any pirate fleet in history. But what pained him most of all was that even after the clever and necessary downsizing of the pirate crew at Old Topsail Inlet, the infighting, petty squabbles, and betrayals had continued. The captain was believed to have deliberately shot Israel Hands with a powder charge, and he and two other crew members, accused of disloyalty by Blackbeard, had just been left behind at Bath Town. Still, the loyalty of Caesar and the other eighteen who remained on board the Adventure was beyond measure. All they needed, thought Caesar, was an official letter of marque and all would be well again. Furthermore, they would be protected from the Woodes Rogers’s and Governor Johnson’s of the world.