Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts.
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Speaker 1: of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts
Speaker 1: by Frank R. Stockton, Chapter twenty three. A truehearted sailor
Speaker 1: draws his sword, feeling now quite sure that he could
Speaker 1: do what he pleased on shore as well as at sea.
Speaker 1: Blackbeard swore more, swaggered more, and whenever he felt like it,
Speaker 1: sailed up and down the coast, and took a prize
Speaker 1: or two to keep the pot boiling for himself and
Speaker 1: his men. On one of these expeditions, he went to Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and having landed, he walked about to see what sort
Speaker 1: of a place it was. But the governor of the state,
Speaker 1: hearing of his arrival, quickly arranged to let him know
Speaker 1: that the Quaker city allowed no black hearted pirate with
Speaker 1: a ribbon bedecked beard to promenade on Chestnut and Market streets,
Speaker 1: and promptly issued a warrant for the sea robber's arrest,
Speaker 1: but Blackbeard was too sharp and too old a criminal
Speaker 1: to be caught in that way, and he left the
Speaker 1: city with great dispatch. The people along the coast of
Speaker 1: North Carolina became very tired of Blackbeard and his men.
Speaker 1: All sorts of depredations were committed on vessels large and small,
Speaker 1: and whenever a ship was boarded and robbed, or whenever
Speaker 1: a fishing vessel was laid under contribution. Blackbeard was known
Speaker 1: to be at the bottom of the business, whether he
Speaker 1: personally appeared or not. To have this busy pirate for
Speaker 1: a neighbor was extremely unpleasant, and the North Carolina settlers
Speaker 1: greatly longed to get rid of him. It was of
Speaker 1: no use for them to ask their own state government
Speaker 1: to suppress this outrageous scoundrel. And although their good neighbor
Speaker 1: South Carolina might have been willing to help them, she
Speaker 1: was too poor at that time and had enough to
Speaker 1: do to take care of herself. Not knowing or not
Speaker 1: caring for the strong feeling of the settlers against him,
Speaker 1: Blackbeard continued in his wicked ways, and among other crimes,
Speaker 1: he captured a small vessel and treated the crew in
Speaker 1: such a cruel and atrocious manner that the better class
Speaker 1: of North Carolinians avowed they would stand him no longer,
Speaker 1: and they therefore applied to Governor Spotswood of Virginia and
Speaker 1: asked his aid in putting down the pirates. The Virginians
Speaker 1: were very willing to do what they could for their
Speaker 1: unfortunate neighbors. The legislature offered a reward for the capture
Speaker 1: of Blackbeard or any of his men, but the governor,
Speaker 1: feeling that this was not enough, determined to do something
Speaker 1: on his own responsibility, for he knew very well that
Speaker 1: the time might come when the pirate vessels would begin
Speaker 1: to haunt Virginian waters. There happened to be at that
Speaker 1: time two small British men of war in Hampton Roads,
Speaker 1: and although the governor had no authority to send these
Speaker 1: after the pirates, he fitted out two sloops at his
Speaker 1: own expense, and manned them with the best fighting men
Speaker 1: from the war vessels. One of the sloops he put
Speaker 1: under Captain brand and the other under Captain Maynard, both
Speaker 1: brave and experienced naval officers. All preparations were made with
Speaker 1: the greatest secrecy, for if Blackbeard had heard of what
Speaker 1: was going on, he would probably have decamped. And then
Speaker 1: the two sloops went out to sea with a commission
Speaker 1: from the governor to capture Blackbeard, dead or alive. This
Speaker 1: was a pretty heavy contract, but brand and Maynard were
Speaker 1: courageous men and did not hesitate to take it. The
Speaker 1: Virginians had been informed that the pirate captain and his
Speaker 1: men were on a vessel in Oqucoke Inlet, and when
Speaker 1: they arrived they found to their delight that Blackbeard was there.
Speaker 1: When the pirates saw the two armed vessels sailing into
Speaker 1: the inlet, they knew very well they were about to
Speaker 1: be attacked, and it did not take them long to
Speaker 1: get ready for a fight, nor did they wait to
Speaker 1: see what their enemy was about to do. As soon
Speaker 1: as the Sloops were near enough, Blackbeard, without waiting for
Speaker 1: any preliminary exercises such as a demand for a surrender
Speaker 1: or any nonsense of that sort, let drive at the
Speaker 1: intruders with eight heavily loaded cannon. Now the curtain had
Speaker 1: been wrung up and the play began, and a very
Speaker 1: lively play. It was the guns of the Virginians blazed
Speaker 1: away at the pirate ship, and they would have set
Speaker 1: out boats to board her had not, Blackbeard forestalled them.
Speaker 1: Boarding was always a favorite method of fighting with the pirates.
Speaker 1: They did not often carry, and even when they did,
Speaker 1: they had but little fancy for battles at long distances.
Speaker 1: What they liked was to meet foes face to face
Speaker 1: and cut them down on their own decks. In such
Speaker 1: combats they felt at home and were almost always successful,
Speaker 1: for there were few mariners or sailors, even in the
Speaker 1: British Navy, who could stand against these brawny, glaring eyed
Speaker 1: dare devils, who sprang over the sides of a vessel
Speaker 1: like panthers and fought like bulldogs. Blackbeard had had enough cannonading,
Speaker 1: and he did not wait to be boarded. Springing into
Speaker 1: a boat with about twenty of his men, he rowed
Speaker 1: to the vessel commanded by Maynard, and in a few
Speaker 1: minutes he and his pirates surged on board her. Now
Speaker 1: there followed on the decks of that sloop, one of
Speaker 1: the most fearful hand to hand combats known to naval history.
Speaker 1: Pirates had often attacked vessels where they met with strong resistance,
Speaker 1: but never had a gang of sea robbers fallen in
Speaker 1: with such a bold and skilled antagonists as those who
Speaker 1: now confronted Blackbeard and his crew at it. They went cut, fire, slash, bang, howl,
Speaker 1: and shout, steel clashed, pistols blazed, smoke went up, and
Speaker 1: blood ran down. And it was hard in the confusion
Speaker 1: for a man to tell friend from foe. Blackbeard was everywhere,
Speaker 1: bounding from side to side, and as he swung his
Speaker 1: cutlass high and low, and though many a shot was
Speaker 1: fired at him, and many a rush made in his direction,
Speaker 1: every now and then a sailor went down beneath his
Speaker 1: whirling blade. But the great Pirate had not boarded that
Speaker 1: ship to fight with common men. He was looking for Maynard,
Speaker 1: the Commander. Soon he met him, and for the first
Speaker 1: time in his life, he found his match. Maynard was
Speaker 1: a practiced swordsman, and no matter how hard and how
Speaker 1: swiftly came down the cutlass of the Pirate, his strokes
Speaker 1: were always evaded, and the sword of the Virginian played
Speaker 1: more dangerously near him. At last, Blackbeard, finding that he
Speaker 1: could not cut down his enemy, suddenly drew a pistol
Speaker 1: and was about to empty its barrels into the very
Speaker 1: face of his opponent, when Maynard sent his sword blade
Speaker 1: into the throat of the furious pirate, the great Blackbeard,
Speaker 1: went down upon his back on the deck, and in
Speaker 1: the next moment Maynard put an end to his nefarious career.
Speaker 1: Their leader dead, the few pirates who were left alive
Speaker 1: gave up the fight and sprang overboard, hoping to be
Speaker 1: able to swim ashore, and the victory of the Virginians
Speaker 1: was complete. The strength, toughness, and extraordinary vitality of these
Speaker 1: feline human beings, who were known as pirates as often
Speaker 1: occasioned astonishment and ordinary people. Their sun tanned and hairy
Speaker 1: bodies seemed to be made of something like wire, leather
Speaker 1: and India rubber, upon which the most tremendous exertions and
Speaker 1: even the infliction of severe wounds, made but little impression.
Speaker 1: Before Blackbeard fell, he received from Maynard and others no
Speaker 1: less than twenty five wounds, and yet he fought fearlessly
Speaker 1: to the last, and when the panting officer sheathed his sword,
Speaker 1: he felt that he had performed a most signaled deed
Speaker 1: of valor. When they had broken up the pirate nest
Speaker 1: in Oquercroke inlet, the two sloops sailed to Bath, where
Speaker 1: they compelled some of the unscrupulous town officials to surrender
Speaker 1: the cargo which had been stolen from the French vessel
Speaker 1: and stored in the town by Blackbeard. Then they sailed
Speaker 1: proudly back to Hampton Roads, with the head of the
Speaker 1: dreaded Blackbeard dangling from the end of the bowsprit of
Speaker 1: the vessel he had boarded, and on whose deck he
Speaker 1: had discovered the fact before unknown to him, that a
Speaker 1: well trained, honest man can fight as well as the
Speaker 1: most reckless cutthroat, who ever decked his beard with ribbons
Speaker 1: and swore enmity to all things good our end of
Speaker 1: chapter M