Black Pirates Month: Black Caesar

Black Caesar was an African chieftain who evaded capture by slavers many times until he was tricked aboard a vessel with promises of trade. A sea captain approached his band of warriors and, showing them a watch, said there were goods too heavy and numerous to carry on his ship. He invited them aboard and showed them various treasures, jewels, and silk. He plied the men with food and drink, and Caesar soon found that the ship had secretly set sail while they were on board. The Africans tried to fight the crew, but the slavers were well armed and quickly subdued them.

One of the sailors befriended Caesar during the voyage, and when a hurricane threatened to destroy the ship off the coast of Florida, the white sailor freed Caesar and the two escaped in a lifeboat. They took up lodging on a small island in the upper keys and began pirating. The two men would approach a ship in their lifeboat and pretend to be castaways, and once on board would subdue and rob the crew.

They were quite successful for a time. Legend says that Black Caesar had a prison camp for captives to be ransomed, and that he and his partner had a way to hide their boat underwater if anyone sailed near, to keep up the ruse that the island had no inhabitants. It all went sour, though, when Caesar's partner brought home a particularly attractive female captive. The two men fought over her, and Caesar killed his former friend.

Some time later, Black Caesar joined the pirate crew of none other than Blackbeard (Edward Teach) and became his lieutenant, successfully raiding American merchant ships in the Mid-Atlantic. When Blackbeard was finally killed, Caesar attempted to light the whole powder magazine (in what we suppose would now be called a suicide bombing), but he was subdued and captured before he could light the fuse. He was tried and executed for piracy.

To this day, the island that served as his headquarters for ten years still bears his name as "Caesar's Rock."

Blackbeard's Ghost Says "Up Yer Arse!"

Blackbeard was known for being defiant. When confronted at his last stand, he toasted the crew of his capturers, calling them "cowardly puppies." They say he had to be shot and stabbed numerous times before falling, and even after being tossed overboard, his beheaded corpse was said to have swum around the ship several times before sinking. Such was his reputation that this last tale was considered believable by those who knew him.

It's not surprising, then, that the ghost of Blackbeard is still giving us news nearly 200 years after his death.

The wreck of Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was discovered nearly 20 years ago off the coast of North Carolina. They are still excavating it and making new discoveries all the time.

The latest finds have been various archaic medical technologies, including a device used to treat dehydration by pumping fluid into the rectum. In the 16th century, it seemed reasonable to cure a deficiency by forcing the needed substance up your ass.

Click here for the full story: Medical finds from Blackbeard's wreck

On Stranger Tides

The fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series will be released in 2011. It is based, in part, on the award-winning 1988 novel "On Stranger Tides" by celebrated Fantasy/Magical Realism author Tim Powers. It combines piracy with the supernatural, a perfect fit for the PotC franchise. Do yourself a favor and read this book while you're waiting for the movie to come out. We only wonder if they kept Blackbeard in the film script. Powers himself speculates that Blackbeard's role in the tale will be taken on by mutinous first mate Barbossa.

Pirate Festival in Virginia

Today, tomorrow and Sunday is the Blackbeard Pirate Festival in Hampton, Virginia. It's a weekend-long dock party featuring many historical reenactors performing skits. There be music, vendors, and actual tall-masted sailing ships engaging in mock sea battles. The event culminates with a reenactment of Blackbeard's last stand and subsequent funeral parade. See www.blackbeardpiratefestival.com for more info.

Blackbeard News

When pirates were asked what country they were loyal to, some would euphemistically say "We're from the sea!" Meaning their allegiance was given to no nation.

It has long been thought that Edward Teach (Blackbeard) was a less-than-loyal subject of the British Crown, hailing from Bristol. But now Kevin P. Duffus, an author from North Carolina, is promulgating the idea that the notorious pirate is not from Bristol at all, but rather a local boy from the Carolinas.

His theory is that Blackeard was really Edward Beard, the son of Captain James Beard, a landowner near Charleston. Edward Beard went to Philadelphia to learn sailing skills, then went pirate, acquiring the moniker "Black," in the tradition of Black Bart Roberts and Black Sam Bellamy, thus "Black" Beard. Teach was just an alias.

Duffus admits he doesn't have any proof of this theory, but cites lack of documentation of anyone named Teach or Thatch in Bristol in those days. He is further attempting to bolster credibility of his idea by petitioning the state of North Carolina to DNA test an old skeleton to see if it is from one of Blackbeard's crew members. No, we can't see how that makes any sense either. But in our view, anything that gets historical pirates in the news is good.

So, one dude thinks Blackbeard was from South Carolina, and the rest of pirate scholarship thinks he was from Bristol. But one thing is for certain: he was from the sea.

More Blackbeard News

Earlier we reported on the museum exhibit of relics recovered from the ship thought to be Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. The more stuff they excavate from this wreck, the more sure they are that it is indeed the vessel of the infamous Captain Teach. National Geographic recently reported on some recent finds which lend more certainty to the identity of the ship. And of course they have great photos. Here's the article.

And in other news, if you're in New Orleans, or have a way to get there, consider checking out PyrateCon this weekend!

The Jolly Noggin of Blackbeard

In 1996, a marine recovery team found the remains of a wrecked ship in an inlet on the coast of North Carolina. Since then, about a third of the wreckage has been excavated, yielding over 16,000 artifacts of British origin. The wreck has been identified as probably being the Queen Anne's Revenge, a pirate ship that scourged the coast of the southern colonies under the captaincy of Edward Thatch (sometimes given as Teach), better known as Blackbeard.

Blackbeard made his last stand off the coast of NC almost three hundred years ago. Despite the fact that Blackbeard had decided to accept a Royal pardon and retire, Governor Spotswood of Virginia sent two sloops out of his jurisdiction to hunt down the illustrious Captain Thatch.

Lieutenant Robert Maynard, in command of the mission, engaged Thatch near Beaufort Inlet. After a spirited exchange of insults and gunfire, Blackbeard and ten of his men threw grenades made of rum bottles full of gunpowder onto the deck of Maynard's sloop. After covering the deck with smoke and broken glass, they boarded.

They say Blackbeard was shot five times and stabbed close to twenty before he fell. Maynard cut off Thatch's head-- not only for a trophy, but also as proof to collect the bounty (a meagre £100). He hung the head from his bowsprit. That's the beam that juts out from the front of a wooden ship.

According to legend, Blackbeard's decapitated body was thrown overboard, where it swam around the sloop seven times before sinking. But the head was kept, this we know. And scholars suspect that we still have Blackbeard's actual skull.

This supposed skull of Blackbeard and many of the recovered artifacts from the supposed Queen Anne's Revenge will be on display at a grand exhibition of pirate history from antiquity to the present at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. The exhibit, entitled Knights of the Black Flag, opens tomorrow.

The Colour of Beards

Seafaring folk of the eighteenth century, like most folk of the eighteenth century, were a superstitious lot. Sailors would only sing songs that mention home when they were on the return leg of their journey. Since whistling was thought to encourage wind, a sailor would never whistle during a storm, for fear of turning a squall into a hurricanoe! And it was generally thought to be very bad luck to cut hair or nails while at sea.

Hair and nail clippings were sacred to Persephone, a Greek demigoddess. So it was considered bad form to make them while your fate rested in the hands of Poseidon, god of the sea. Consequently, many pirates ended up with noticeable beards. Some beards were so noteworthy that the name of the beard is more well known than the name of the man.

Especially Blackbeard. His beard, in addition to being black, was long and wild, and he was known to braid it and weave burning pieces of rope into it-- to terrify opponents.

Bluebeard was not a pirate. Bluebeard is a European folk tale about a character who serially marries and murders women. But this tale is outside the scope of this blogge.

Redbeard was not a pirate, technically. Redbeard was two pirates, probably the most famous of the Barbary corsairs. Baba Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa were Ottoman Turks born on the isle of Lesbos (then called Midilli). They and their other two brothers were all seamen in the Mediterranean. Aruj was given a small fleet by an Ottoman Prince in order to fight the Knights of St. John who were interfering with Ottoman trade and shipping. He was later given authorization to raid Italy and other Christian nations on the northern mediterranean coast. When he was killed in battle with Spain, his brother Hayreddin took over his mission. Hayreddin eventually grew wealthy and ultimately became Pasha of Algiers.

Yellowbeard is a pirate-themed comedy film by Graham Chapman of Monty Python. It is an example of a film that was probably ruined by development hell, but the finished product is still quirkily entertaining. Ah, but what might have been, if it had starred Keith Moon and Adam Ant as originally planned...

Check it out for yourself:

Pillage of the Village

If you're in Florida, or have a way to get there, you may want to check out the 17th annual Florida Renaissance Festival which is underway, weekends through March 8. It's at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach, on the east coast near Boca Raton. The weather forecast for this weekend is partly cloudy mid-70's.

This particular weekend, the 21st and 22nd, is the pirate-themed weekend. They call it the Pillage of the Village. While you're in town, be sure to scour the coast for buried treasure. Both Blackbeard and Sir Henry Morgan deposited loot in the area.