Blackbeard's Last Fight by Angus Konstam

Author:Angus Konstam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Blackbeard’s Last Fight: Pirate Hunting in North Carolina 1718
ISBN: 9781780961972
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

In this dramatic depiction by Howard Pyle of Blackbeard’s last fight, the pirate can be seen locked in his duel with Lieutenant Maynard. Although it is historically inaccurate – for instance, pirates never wore headscarves – it vividly captures the brutal nature of the fighting.

The Adventure lay at anchor off the southern edge of the flat triangular spur on the island where the little town and harbour of Ocracoke stands today. On the far side of the spur lay the landing place the pirates used when they wanted to go ashore, or to refill their water casks from the island’s spring. The southern tip of the island was 2 miles away, at the end of a relatively deep channel, which ran between the island on one side and a long sandbank on the other. It must have been about 7.30am when the small longboat first rounded the headland, and was spotted by the pirates. They would also have seen the two masts of Maynard’s ships, rising from beyond the low-lying headland, and moving slowly forwards into the entrance to the channel.

As there was an incoming tide the bows of the Adventure were pointing south, directly towards the approaching enemy. It was claimed that Blackbeard fired off one of his guns as a warning shot, but given the direction his sloop was facing that would have been difficult. The pirate sloop carried eight main guns, with four guns to each broadside. These would have been facing the wrong way when the longboat came in sight, so a shot from them wouldn’t have scared anybody. However, while Maynard’s report lists eight guns on board, a copy of it published in the British Gazette listed nine guns. While one of these could have been a small swivel gun, if the ninth gun existed it would have been carried as a bow chaser, mounted in the forecastle of the pirate sloop. In any event it was probably the pirate master gunner, Philip Morton, who fired this first shot, at about 7.35am.

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