Beaufort’s claim: ‘Blackbeard slept here’…and then some

Beaufort, N.C., is known as “pirate town,” which adds to the charm and intrigue of this historic seaside village. The most notorious pillager and plunderer of all time – Blackbeard the Pirate – was a regular visitor.

Journalists from the British Isles note with pride that Bristol, a port community in southwestern England, is the hometown of Edward Teach Jr., born about 1680, the son of Capt. Edward Teach Sr. and his first wife, Elizabeth.

Edward Jr. became Blackbeard, who “still captures our imaginations to this day,” wrote journalist Maddy Searle of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was bad to the bone and “one of the most infamous pirates in history.”

Blackbeard sailed the seas around the West Indies and Britain’s American colonies, making a fearsome reputation for himself,” she said.

Searle cited research by the late Robert Earl Lee of Kinston, N.C., who authored several Blackbeard books. Lee wrote that “Teach was born into an intelligent, respectable, well-to-do family…and was undoubtedly swayed by Bristol’s maritime heritage and traditions…and privateering.”

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) believes: Teach “served in Queen Anne’s War between England and Spain, which lasted from 1702-13…sailing out of Kingston, Jamaica, to prey on French ships for Britain.”

“After the war, Blackbeard reportedly sailed in consort with the pirate crew of Capt. Benjamin Hornigold, sailing out of New Providence in the Bahamas,” according to DNCR. “He proved a fierce and able pirate, and captured the French slave ship, La Concorde, in 1717 off Saint Vincent Island in the Caribbean. Blackbeard transformed the vessel into his flagship and renamed her Queen Anne’s Revenge.”

In an essay for the State Library of North Carolina, Lee wrote in 1986: “Teach grew a coarse, coal-black beard that covered the whole of his face. He allowed his monstrous mane to grow to an extravagant length, and he was accustomed to braiding it into little pigtails, tied with ribbons of various colors.”

“As a finishing touch before a battle, he tucked under the brim of his hat fuses (made of hemp) that would burn at the rate of a foot an hour, the eerie coils of smoke from which added to the frightfulness of his appearance. Across his shoulders he wore a sling with two or three pistols hanging in holsters, like a bandolier. In the broad belt strapped around his waist was an assortment of pistols and daggers and an oversized cutlass,” Lee wrote.

“Teach’s deliberately awesome appearance in battle” was totally intimidating, causing crews of many merchant ships to surrender “without any pretense of a fight,” Lee noted.

Blackbeard was also feared for two other dagnabbitly dramatic displays. One was the flag that flew over the Queen Anne’s Revenge; it depicted a heart dripping blood and a skeleton holding an hourglass and spear. The other was his preference for wearing a crimson-colored coat when engaged in marauding and ransacking.

Blackbeard was a major player during the final chapters of the “Golden Age of Piracy,” which is generally defined as the period between the 1650s and the 1730s.

His story is best told by the staff at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, which has on display an impressive array of artifacts salvaged from the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The ship ran aground and sank in 1718 while approaching Beaufort Inlet. The wreck was discovered in 1996.

Blackbeard was a frequent guest at a small inn located on Hammock Lane overlooking Taylors Creek in Beaufort. The Hammock House, as it became known, is one of the oldest homes in town, dating back to about 1709.

The name comes from the fact that the house was built on a “hammock,” defined as a “fertile raised area.” The structure has experienced several renovations and was featured in advertising for Sears’ Weatherbeater paints in the 1970s.

The home is now a private residence, but locals believe it is among Beaufort’s most haunted houses.

Jane Welborn Hudson, a journalist from Greenville, N.C., wrote that Blackbeard “reportedly had two dozen ‘wives’ in various ports.”

He hanged one of those brides from a live oak tree in the yard of Hammock House, Hudson wrote. Now, in Beaufort, folks say that when the moon is big and full, you can hear a young woman’s screams.