Blackbeard

Throughout history Blackbeard has been a very well know pirate. For many people he is the first person that comes to mind when talking about pirates in general.

Blackbeard’s was also known as Edward Teach and he was described as a bloodthirsty, greedy, black bearded pirate. Many of the other pirates were scared of the man because he had such a fearsome appearance. He was also known to use unnecessary violence but was a very calculated man.

La Concorde was the ship that Blackbeard captured, in which he renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge. He equipped the ship with about 40 cannons, many guns and lots of ammunition and of course, a crew with about 300 men. As an archeologist, I have discovered about 30 of those cannons but only 24 have been recovered.

The first cannon was discovered in November of 1996 and since then more artifacts have been discovered and we continue to study them and recover them to this day. Queen Anne’s Revenge is located in North Carolina and we have been able to dive and see how big the ship actually is. Being able to discover all the different artifacts that have been there for more than 300 years has allowed us to open up the lab for educational tours. This give the opportunity for all those students interested in the Golden Age of Piracy to see firsthand all the different artifacts that pirates traveled on board with.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge project has helped me put a realistic view on pirates and the things they used as weapons and how dangerous it must have been traveling with them and being attacked by them. Blackbeard was a calculated man and you can tell he was ready to attack any vessel that got in his way.

Sources :

https://www.qaronline.org/

Pirates Code

As we all know, we live in a world where rules must be followed, even if they are something we do not agree on. We have laws that we have to abide by, and although we might consider pirates to be lawless individuals, they had laws they had to live by as well if they did not want to face death. 

In the 1700's, Bartholomew Roberts, also known as Black Bart, set out the Pirate Code. This code consisted of "laws" that each and every pirate had to abide by and honor. This helped keep order on the ships and allowed every pirate a set of rights, as well as restrictions for them. If these codes were not honored, the pirates were put to death or abandoned on an island, which was known as marooning.

These codes were not in any way harsh towards the pirates but served in a positive way towards them that guaranteed them their share of the booty. The Pirate Codes states, “The captain and the quartermaster shall each receive two shares of a prize, the master gunner and boatswain, one and one half shares, all other officers one and one quarter, and private gentlemen of fortune one share each.” This was necessary to make sure the pirates were not being sold short by the Captain.

Although pirates lived off stealing from other people, they were not allowed to steal from each other. According to Pirate Documents, “they contented themselves with slitting the ears and nose of him that was guilty.” This helped keep the men from being tempted to steal or betray each other on board the ships.

While partaking in attacks and the sacking of cities, some pirates tended to get hurt while doing so. This meant that some pirates lost their limbs or were crippled; this is where the Pirate Code, again was beneficial to them. Hurt crew members were offered, “800 pieces of eight of the common stock,” which was like, what we know today as a disability check or settlement check.

One of the Pirate Codes listed in Pirate Documents is, “Every man has a vote in the affairs of the moment.” This meant that the pirates could help make decision, whereas they were not ruled by the captain and had no say in what went on in the ship. They had a democracy form of “government” within them.

Pirate Codes served in favor of all crew members including the Captain and the crew. I believe this allowed their travels together to go smooth sailing and allowed “justice to be served” among themselves rather than acting on emotions and causing unnecessary chaos.

Sources Consulted:

Pirate Documents, “Bartholomew Roberts’ Shipboard Articles 1721.”

https://www.piratedocuments.com/bartholomew-roberts-articles-1721/

The Pirate Code (Provided by Dr. Harris on D2L)