All language subtitles for Pirates Behind the Legends S01E06 Blackbeard 1080p HULU WEB-DL DD5 1 H 264-playWEB_track4_[eng]

[Narrator] Of all the captains
who sailed

during the Golden Age
of Piracy,

few were as feared
as Blackbeard.

[Professor] When you think
of Blackbeard,

you just think
of this towering man

with a huge black beard
and brace of pistols

inspiring terror.

[Narrator] Blackbeard
spent his career at sea

building a powerful notoriety
for merciless violence.

[Historian]
A lot of his reputation

was built on his image.

[Narrator] He takes the helm
of the Queen Anne's Revenge,

transforming it into one

of the world's
most infamous pirate ships

and fills it with a brutal
and bloodthirsty crew.

[Historian] He was happy
to go around plundering ships,

taking treasure,
evading capture,

doing some really
quite daring things.

[Narrator]
Could his fearsome image

have been carefully fashioned
by the man himself?

Or by a Royal Navy

desperate to portray him
as a worthy adversary?

♪ ♪

Blackbeard's short career
triggers drastic change

and marks the beginning
of the end

of the Golden Age of Piracy.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Hannah Cusworth] One of
the really fascinating things

about Blackbeard

is that we actually really
don't know that much

about his beginnings.

There are lots of
kind of myths and ideas.

With a lot of these pirates,

we are never going
to necessarily know.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] Before he became one

of the most notorious outlaws
in America,

Blackbeard was a common sailor
named Edward Teach

who is believed
to have been born in 1680

in Bristol, England.

Like many others at the time,
growing up in a port town,

he joins a merchant vessel
at a young age

and then serves as a privateer

in a career that takes him
across the Atlantic Ocean

to the Americas.

♪ ♪

[David Wilson] From 1716,
piracy is really operating

from New Providence
in the Bahamas.

There is a group of pirate crews
operating from there

which at this point
didn't really have

any form of governance,

so the pirates utilized it
as a key outpost.

[Charles Ewan] It was
a good time to be a pirate

because there wasn't a lot

of real military
or governmental power

in the Caribbean
or the southeastern US

or any of the colonies
at that time.

So, you didn't have
a large naval presence,

so you could be
a successful pirate.

Piracy flourishes

where there are weak
governmental structures.

[Narrator] Edward Teach
has found himself

aboard one of the numerous
privateering ships

of the Caribbean.

His captain
is Benjamin Hornigold,

who preys on Spanish shipping
throughout the Atlantic.

[Ewan] It's important
to know the difference

between being a privateer
and being a pirate.

Hornigold had a license
to prey on Spanish shipping.

Then, when hostilities cease,
that goes away,

and you become a pirate.

[Narrator] Benjamin Hornigold
is the unofficial pirate king

of Nassau in the Bahamas,

a lawless settlement ruled
not by European empires

but by a brotherhood
of cutthroat pirates.

The island becomes his base
for a series of raids.

Edward Teach,
now in his late 30s,

rises through the ranks,

becoming ever more valuable
to Hornigold's crew,

but his ambitions are starting
to outgrow his captain.

He adopts a fearsome new
nickname: Blackbeard.

[Wilson] Benjamin Hornigold
wants to continue

just attacking the Spanish,

and then members of his crew

want to continue and attack
anyone that they come across.

[Ewan] Blackbeard said,
"I think we can really increase

our wealth
if we go after everybody,"

and is able to convince
the majority of the crew

that that is the way to go.

That's how he becomes
the lead pirate, if you will,

of this small flotilla.

[Narrator] When Hornigold
refuses to attack

a vulnerable group
of British merchantmen,

there's a mutiny.

Blackbeard and the crew
depose Hornigold as captain

and strike out on their own.

♪ ♪

Now Blackbeard is in charge,
any vessel is fair game,

those belonging
to fellow countrymen

and even rival pirates.

He wants them all.

♪ ♪

A tempting prize
sails into view.

It's a well-armed 10-gun sloop
named The Revenge,

led by 29-year-old
Stede Bonnet,

a wealthy gentleman pirate.

[Kevin Dawson] Stede Bonnet
was a Barbadian sugar planter

who was actually wealthy.

And for some reason he decides
to become a pirate.

And so unlike other pirates
who steal their ships,

who capture their ships,
Bonnet ends up buying a ship.

He hires a crew,

he goes off to the coast
of North America.

He has some success
at capturing merchant ships

off the North American coast,
but he has no maritime skill.

[Narrator] To embark
on ambitious raids,

Blackbeard needs to build
his fleet and crew

by any means possible.

Blackbeard sees an opportunity

to take advantage
of Bonnet's naivety

and persuades him
into a partnership.

Bonnet believes he is
the captain of his ship,

but, in reality, he's
little more than a prisoner,

a pawn, to build
Blackbeard's pirate fleet

and give his growing army
the firepower

to attack bigger,
bolder targets.

[Ewan]
After Blackbeard takes over,

we see that he terrorizes
the Caribbean.

[Wilson]
From there, he then moves

to the North American coast

and he's one of
the first individuals

that starts operating
off the coast of North America.

What they're attacking
is mostly English shipping.

[Narrator] Blackbeard
spots an opportunity

to plunder the British colonies

dotted along the eastern coast
of North America.

There's only one problem.

If threatened,
the colonists can summon

the mighty Royal Navy
for protection.

Blackbeard and his crew will
never have a fighting force

strong enough to challenge
the British Crown.

However, the cunning captain

has already begun cultivating
his own image,

allowing tales to spread

of a supernatural, immortal,
unstoppable pirate

in league with the devil.

It's the greatest,
most powerful weapon

in Blackbeard's arsenal:
terror.

[Wilson]
So pirates at this point

are employing fear as a weapon,

and part of that is
by making yourself recognizable,

by ensuring that people
know who you are

and your sort of notoriety.

[Margarette Lincoln] When they
were chasing merchant ships,

he would put lighted matches,

which were essentially
lengths of rope

that you would set a cannon
alight with, into his hat

so that he did really look
like the devil incarnate.

[Wilson] His victims,
they were often tortured

to reveal where their
sort of stashes of treasure are.

They're tortured
to reveal more information

of other vessels
that might be nearby.

[Narrator] Blackbeard's
horrifying legend swells

as he sails from the Caribbean
to North America,

terrifying stories
from survivors

spreading through the colonies.

His plan is working.

Those who cross his path

almost always opt
for a swift surrender

over a violent death at
the hand of the devil's pirate.

But now he's using
the same tactics

to rule over his own crew,

controlling them
with fear and theatrics,

with little regard
for their lives.

[Ewan] He says, let us make
a hell ourselves

by lighting pots of brimstone
and putting them in the hold

and staying in there
with the sulfur burning

until they couldn't
stand it anymore

and see which of us
could last the longest.

[Lincoln] One drunken bout,
Blackbeard loaded his pistol

and fired at random
under a table

where he and two others
were playing cards,

and he kneecapped his
second in command, Isaac Hands,

who was lame
for the rest of his life.

[Narrator] Fear has become
Blackbeard's greatest ally.

By October 1717,
Blackbeard takes control

of Stede Bonnet's ship,
The Revenge,

and plunders his way
from Nassau

to the coast of North America.

He sails as far north

as Virginia, Philadelphia

and New York,

attacking and seizing ships
as he goes.

In a two-week spree,
he captures 15 vessels,

ransacking their valuables

and dumping everything else
into the sea.

His men dismantle and sink
some of the ill-gotten ships.

His plan has worked;

Blackbeard is now the most
infamous pirate in America.

But Blackbeard is
only getting started.

Although they're strong enough

to tackle merchant
and fishing vessels,

to take on
the Royal Navy frigates

patrolling these waters,

he needs a formidable ship.

As they continue south
towards the Caribbean,

where transatlantic
shipping lanes converge,

he spots the ideal prize:

a huge 250-ton French
slave ship named La Concorde.

[Wilson] Pirates often targeted
these larger slaving vessels

because they were so large,

which meant they could have
larger manpower on board.

But they could also mount
more cannons on board as well,

which meant they had
more firepower

and they could attack bigger
and more lucrative prizes.

[Narrator] Blackbeard closes in.

When La Concorde's crew
recognize their attacker,

they surrender immediately.

Blackbeard seizes control
of their vast ship, crew

and its cargo of almost
500 enslaved Africans.

[Ewan] The point is that you
didn't want to have a big battle

with the ship
you were trying to take.

You wanted to scare it.

When you came in contact
with a vessel

that you wanted to capture,

you would have your cannons
all run out,

and then you would pull up
a skull and crossbones

or a skeleton with an hourglass
saying your time is up.

You wanted to scare them
into just giving up.

That way you didn't have
to fight or damage the vessel,

and you could take all their
stuff relatively unharmed.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] Blackbeard takes
his new prize, La Concorde,

to Bequia, a secluded island
in the Grenadines.

Here he sets to work
adapting the former slave ship

for all-out war.

He names her
the Queen Anne's Revenge,

the pride of his fleet.

[Ewan] Queen Anne's Revenge
was a bit over 100 feet long,

30 feet wide, had several decks.

We think it had
at least 40 cannon.

[Lincoln]
And that he used this ship

as part of a big fleet
that he was building up.

At which point he called himself
a commodore.

[Narrator] Blackbeard
now has control

of seven heavily armed ships.

He's building
his vast pirate army

and has established
his reputation

in a matter of months

as the world's
most dangerous pirate.

[Narrator] To operate
the Queen Anne's Revenge,

Blackbeard needs more men.

He turns to the captured crew
of La Concorde,

forces the strongest 61
enslaved Africans

and 10 French captives

to join his crew

and banishes the rest.

[Mark Hanna]
During this time period,

a large percentage of the crews

were forced men, they did not
want to be on these ships.

So how do you force someone
on board a ship?

What do you do when you
attack another vessel?

That creates
a really tricky problem

for someone like Blackbeard,

because he might have
a majority of his crew

don't really want to be there
and he needs them to fight.

So one way of doing this

is to get them to sign
some sort of document.

What they're typically known
as, articles.

And the articles could be
rules of how to live.

A lot of historians
have depicted pirate articles

as being very forward-looking,
brilliant ways

of getting societies
to sort of come together.

But in fact, you could see it
the opposite.

Pirate articles could be
perceived instead

as ways of getting
a forced crew member to fight.

Because if you sign your name
on those articles,

it means legally you've said
that you are joining this crew,

and if you're captured
by the Royal Navy,

you'll be executed.

You signed your name
to that document

saying you're part
of Blackbeard's crew.

That means that,
no matter how happy you are

to be part of the crew or not,
you better fight or die.

[Lincoln] By this period,
the crew was highly diverse.

[Mélanie Lamotte]
Probably a majority of pirates

sailing across the Pacific,
the Indian Ocean

and the Atlantic

were not white European men.

A lot of them
were actually African

or of African ancestry
in this time period.

Some of them were
formerly enslaved.

Others were actually
marooned slaves,

so basically they had run away
from their plantation.

I have read that a significant
proportion of Blackbeard's crew

was actually Black.

[Narrator] History speaks of
a pirate on Blackbeard's crew

who goes by the name
Black Caesar.

[Cusworth] We definitely know
that there was

a Black person called Caesar
who was with Blackbeard.

That is
in the historical record.

It seems like it's actually
maybe a conglomeration

of a lot of different
Black pirates

from across that time period.

So sometimes we have him
in Florida,

sometimes we--
he's described

as having this kind of harem
of women on some island.

He's described as then having
an alliance with Blackbeard.

What is really fascinating
for me about Black Caesar,

it's clear that at this time
being a Black pirate

wasn't incredibly rare,

and that we have a huge number
of different people

whose lives and stories
have all come together

into this larger-than-life
character of Black Caesar.

[Narrator] To Blackbeard
it doesn't matter

where his pirates come from,

so long as they're able,
strong and fierce.

Within a single year

he has assembled
the wildest men at sea

and transformed them
into a pirate army

ferocious enough to operate
in the same seas

as the mighty Royal Navy.

♪ ♪

Months of raiding
in tropical waters

and fortifying their ships

has taken its toll
on Blackbeard's growing crew.

Life at sea is treacherous.

♪ ♪

[Lincoln] They did suffer
ill health.

They did suffer malnutrition.

They did suffer a life
where they were exposed

to the elements and to shipwreck
and running out of supplies.

This is one of the things that
you don't really think about

on pirate voyages,
how awful it must have been.

[Narrator] For a pirate
on the open oceans,

the hunt for food, water
and other supplies

can eclipse their appetite
for silver and gold.

♪ ♪

Blackbeard and his crew
are suffering--

hungry, thirsty,
and riddled with disease

from the brothels of Nassau.

They're in dire need
of medical supplies.

[Wilson] Whereas the pirates
of the 17th century

would have been able to sail

to colonial ports
that supported them

and gain access
to these supplies,

the pirates of the 18th century

are now isolated
from those markets,

from those colonial ports.

So they have to find
more inventive ways

to gain access
to the supplies they need.

[Narrator]
Desperate for medical supplies,

Blackbeard and his ailing crew
are about to embark

on their most daring
mission yet.

They set sail
for South Carolina,

a rapidly expanding
British colony

on the American East Coast.

Their target: the well-stocked,
developing port city

of Charles Town.

It's heavily fortified,

with walls making the city
impenetrable by land,

but it's vulnerable
to a blockade by sea.

With the Queen Anne's Revenge
leading his mighty flotilla,

Blackbeard and his men are
strong enough to wreak havoc,

but the captain hopes
his devilish reputation

will lead the city
to give in without a fight.

Pirates sail through
the narrow mouth of the harbor,

making it impossible for anyone
to enter or exit the port.

This is a nightmare
for a port city

reliant on trade.

Blackbeard's plan is designed

to get the governor's
attention.

♪ ♪

[Wilson] Blackbeard
blockades this harbor

for around one to two weeks,
taking all vessels

that are trying to come in
and trying to get out.

[Narrator]
Strategically positioned,

Blackbeard draws a net
around Charles Town harbor.

Boats immediately begin
to fall into his trap.

He captures his first ship
before it can raise the alarm.

♪ ♪

He seizes another five vessels,

taking their passengers
as prisoners.

[shouting]

♪ ♪

[Ewan] He has the most
formidable naval force

in the vicinity.

His Queen Anne's Revenge
had 40 cannon,

his smaller vessels probably had
10 to 12 cannon a piece.

He captures some
of the more prominent citizens.

He demands ransom from the port.

[Narrator] Blackbeard has
a powerful bargaining chip--

many of these captives

are wealthy residents
of Charles Town.

[Wilson]
What he's really wanting

is an exchange
of prisoners that he's taken

for medical supplies.

[Narrator] If the governor
fails to provide them,

he threatens to execute
all 80 hostages,

sink every last ship
in the harbor

and even attack
the town itself.

[Lincoln] And he sent two
of his crew off to Charleston

with the list of medicines
to get the chest.

[Narrator]
Several long days pass.

Blackbeard still hasn't
received a response.

He prepares to attack the city
and murder the hostages.

[Lincoln] Two crew members
he sent off to Charleston

immediately got drunk.

So although citizens
rustled up the medicines

as fast as they could
to send out,

they couldn't find
the two drunken crew members

to go back with them.

And they knew they couldn't
just send the chest,

because Blackbeard
would think it was a trap.

[Narrator] Eventually
the drunken crew members

are located,
and the medicine is delivered.

Blackbeard calls off
his assault on Charles Town

and releases the hostages,

but not before stealing
their valuables.

Nobody has been injured
or killed.

But for an entire week,

one of the wealthiest ports
in North America

has been brought
to a total standstill

by the fearsome reputation
of a single man.

His plan has worked flawlessly.

[Wilson] It shows what impact
even a small number of pirates,

even a small number
of pirate vessels,

can cause for colonial shipping
throughout the Americas.

[Narrator]
Blackbeard slips away,

his legend spreading
across the East Coast.

[Wilson] At this point,

because of the way
the colonial governments worked,

there were individual colonial
governments per colony,

so they're all responding in
their own ways to these attacks.

Sometimes they collaborate,
sometimes they don't,

but what that means

is that the responses
to these individuals

is pretty fragmented
and detached

depending on when and where
they're operating.

[Ewan] And it doesn't get
under control

until the merchants go
to the Crown and say, look,

you are losing a lot
of tax money, a lot of revenue.

And that's really
what gets the government

to kind of step in
and declare a war on pirates.

[Narrator] Blackbeard must move
on from South Carolina quickly.

Whilst the blockade
of Charles Town

was a great success
for Blackbeard,

its repercussions
will make the future harder,

not only for him,
but for every pirate.

[Lincoln]
There was a huge movement

to clean up the islands,
the Bahamas and piracy.

[Narrator] Blackbeard
has nowhere to hide.

Even his former base,
the lawless city of Nassau,

is no longer safe.

The new governor,
Woodes Rogers,

is a formidable pirate hunter,

sent by the British Crown

with a mission
to clean up the island

and capture outlaws
like Blackbeard.

[Lincoln]
Pirate hunter Woodes Rogers,

who had himself been
a privateer,

got a commission to do this.

He arranged that he would get
some kind of payment

for putting down piracy
in this pirate lair.

[Ewan] One of the ways
they try to stop this

is by saying, look,
if we catch you, you're dead.

It's a death sentence
if you're convicted of piracy.

♪ ♪

We'll put your body in a cage

and we'll hang it
out in front of a harbor

to show what happens to pirates.

If you give up being a pirate,
we will give you amnesty;

we'll forgive all
your past transgressions.

Clean slate.
You can move forward.

[Lincoln] Then he went armed
with a pardon

so that anybody, any pirate
who gave himself up

would be pardoned,
get the royal pardon.

And then he used the pirates
who surrendered, effectively,

to chase other pirates.

[Narrator] Blackbeard
has escaped Charles Town,

and without the safety
of Nassau,

he scours the East Coast,
seeking a new hideout.

But then his flagship,
the Queen Anne's Revenge,

suddenly runs aground.

It is completely destroyed,

just as the pirate hunters
are closing in.

[Narrator]
Blackbeard's flagship,

the Queen Anne's Revenge,
is stranded,

run aground
in the shallow sands

of the Topsail Inlet
on the coast of North Carolina.

For almost three centuries

little has been known
of his fate,

following the Charles Town
blockade.

But in 1996, archaeologists
made a remarkable discovery:

the wreckage of
the Queen Anne's Revenge.

[Ewan] They found a number
of cannon that were down there,

coin weight that had
Queen Anne on it.

It was clearly from her reign.

It was a couple of years
before the archaeologist,

before our team,
was able to say, yeah,

we're pretty sure this
is the Queen Anne's Revenge.

[Narrator] It is one of only
a few confirmed pirate wrecks

ever to be found.

This incredible discovery
offered archaeologists

a unique window
into Blackbeard's life at sea

and an opportunity to see
if the tales of old

matched their findings.

[Lamotte] Thousands of artifacts

were actually excavated
from this ship.

One of those artifacts
was actually a book

which was a travel narrative

written in the early
18th century

which could be a confirmation
that Blackbeard

was actually educated
and that he was literate.

[Ewan] The Queen Anne's Revenge
is a treasure trove

of early 18th century artifacts.

There's pewter plates, weights
for weighing gold dust.

In fact, about 20 grams
of gold dust

have actually been recovered.

We knew that there had been
20 pounds of gold dust on it.

We assume that Blackbeard took
most of that when he left.

Interesting things

that distinguishes a pirate ship
from, say, a merchant vessel

is when we were excavating

in the forward part of the ship
where the crew was,

you find a lot nicer things
than you might expect.

There was this crystal stemware.

What's a pirate doing
with crystalware?

They should be drinking
out of pewter

or, or just out of the bottle.

Well, this was stuff
that was stolen.

There were a number
of navigation instruments

which kind of helped us
identify this as a pirate ship.

One of the things that you did
when you robbed a ship

is you took things of value,

and part of that was
navigation instruments.

There were medical instruments
that were found.

One of the things
that Blackbeard demanded

when he besieged Charleston
was a chest of medicine.

There was a urethral syringe

used for treating
venereal disease.

It still had traces of mercury
that would have been used.

There were shackles
that were found

that we might be able
to trace back

to when this was a slave ship.

It was a slave ship
for about seven years;

it was only a pirate ship
for about six months.

It's unknown how much treasure

was actually
on the Queen Anne's Revenge

when it ran aground.

I would imagine that Blackbeard

would have taken anything
of any real value with him.

The question becomes, was it
an accidental running aground

or did Blackbeard
do this on purpose?

The archaeology of it suggests
that it did run aground,

that it wasn't lost in a storm
or any other mishap like that.

Looking at the surviving parts
of the hull

suggests that there were a lot
of lead patches on there,

that the ship was not
in terribly good shape,

that it was getting pretty leaky

from being
in the tropical waters.

And Blackbeard had up to 300
pirates under his command.

This was a way of sort
of reducing his crew size,

corporate downsizing,
if you will,

by running his ship aground,
perhaps on purpose,

accidentally on purpose.

♪ ♪

[Wilson] At this point in time,
King George I has issued

a royal proclamation
of pardon for pirates.

[Narrator]
The offer of a royal pardon

is attractive to Blackbeard;

his actions have made him
a prized target

for pirate hunters
and the Royal Navy.

By choosing to run
the Queen Anne's Revenge

aground himself,

sacrificing his own flagship
and most of his pirates,

Blackbeard slips away with
as much plunder as possible

and a smaller, elite crew.

[Wilson] The problem is so large
and so vast and so impactful

that a pardon is seen

as really one of the main ways
to deal with piracy.

It's expected that if pirates
are allowed to return

to colonial society
without repercussion,

then they'll do so, and that
will end the pirate threat.

[Narrator] Seeking this pardon
from South Carolina

would be unwise,

the governor still reeling
from the humiliation

of Blackbeard's blockade
of Charles Town.

His best bet is Charles Eden,

the governor of neighboring
North Carolina,

one of the poorest colonies
in British North America.

But Blackbeard must be careful.

The offer could be a trap.

He sends Stede Bonnet

to the town of Bath
in North Carolina

to claim a pardon as a test
of the governor's sincerity.

[Ewan] Blackbeard, I think,
really is a calculating person.

Certainly in it for himself.

[Narrator]
Bonnet's mission is a success;

he secures a pardon
for himself.

News soon reaches Blackbeard;
the offer is legitimate.

But for Bonnet,
the good news is short-lived.

He returns to find
his ship ransacked

and his crew marooned.

Blackbeard has betrayed him.

Blackbeard selected
a small group of loyal pirates,

took most of the valuables
and vanished.

Those who remain--
250 men--

are left stranded
with little to survive on.

Blackbeard and those
lucky enough to join him

receive their own pardon
from Governor Eden

and a commission making them
legitimate privateers.

[Hanna] Privateering becomes
an acceptable act.

It becomes regulated, formally,

there's rules
that are administered.

So that means
that plundering at sea

is a thing that one can do,
but they can do it legally.

[Narrator]
Blackbeard splits his time

between the town of Bath,
Ocracoke Island,

and the high seas.

But it doesn't take long for
concerning reports to circulate

which suggest
the former pirate captain

may not be so reformed
after all.

[Wilson] He seems to be
going to traders

and taking whatever goods
he wants

and giving them whatever money
he expects to give them.

So sort of give them
a little bit of money,

but not as much
as the goods are worth,

sort of committing piracy
by other means,

basically abusing
the traders of that region.

[Ewan] For the inhabitants
of South Carolina and Virginia,

they hated him because preyed
on their shipping,

but North Carolina
was a different story.

North Carolina
was this backwater

between these two
vibrant economies

in South Carolina and Virginia.

So, when Blackbeard shows up
with a lot of stolen goods

that were available
at a decent price,

well, of course we liked him.

What's not to like?

There's someone
bringing you goods

at a price you can afford.

[Wilson]
The governor of Virginia,

as well as the naval officers
in Virginia,

are gathering intelligence
on Blackbeard.

They know about the blockade
of South Carolina.

They're not that enthused
that right next door

is this notorious pirate
who may have taken a pardon,

but they don't really
accept that.

One of the naval captains

employs agents
in North Carolina,

basically to keep track
of Blackbeard and his movements.

[Narrator] Blackbeard is unaware
the governor of Virginia

has dispatched naval officers
to track him down.

♪ ♪

Blackbeard spots
two French merchant ships

bound for the Caribbean.

He scans the horizon;
there are no witnesses.

He cannot resist.

Blackbeard captures
the merchant ships,

crew and cargo,
a clear act of piracy.

He takes one ship for himself,

transfers the prisoners
to the second

and orders them to sail away.

When Blackbeard arrives
back in North Carolina,

he claims to Governor Eden
that the ship was found at sea,

drifting aimlessly
without a crew,

making it a legitimate prize.

[Ewan] The governor says, huh?
Well, that's pretty amazing.

I guess you can sell the cargo
and give us our share of it.

[Wilson] There were members
of the North Carolina government

who seemed to support
Blackbeard.

[Narrator] With word of
Blackbeard's piracy spreading,

naval officers from Virginia
arrive in Bath,

seeking evidence
of stolen goods.

[Wilson] They find the goods
of that vessel

within the barn of
the chief justice of the colony.

So the very person that should
be cracking down on piracy

has the goods of the pirate
stashed in his barn.

And it's really
from this point on

that the Virginian governor
and the naval officers

start to move against Blackbeard

because they see the fact

that he is intending
to continue piracy.

[Narrator] Blackbeard thrives
in his new career

as a not-so-secret pirate

enjoying the protection
of North Carolina's governor

as he builds up his base
on Ocracoke Island.

Blackbeard hosts
a raucous celebration

for his crew and
some visiting merchants.

They drink and gorge
themselves,

unaware that powerful forces
in neighboring Virginia

are already moving
against them.

Virginia's governor,

outraged by Blackbeard's
unrepentant piracy,

sends two sloops led
by Lieutenant Robert Maynard

to invade Blackbeard's hideout.

[Lincoln]
Maynard sailed very cautiously

up to the mouth of this creek,

where he had intelligence

that Blackbeard
had anchored his ship.

[Wilson] What's important
is that on these two sloops,

there are no mounted cannons,

so they are going into this
battle purely with small arms,

without any ability to fire
broadsides into Blackbeard.

[Lincoln] Blackbeard,
who was already quite drunk

by the time that he got news
of Maynard's coming,

was alerted to the fact

and suddenly realized
he'd have to shoot it out.

♪ ♪

[Wilson] The first sloop starts
to sail into Ocracoke Inlet

but is then beached.

So the second sloop proceeds
and is engaged by Blackbeard.

[shouting and gunfire]

[Lincoln] Maynard's sloop
and Blackbeard's ship

exchanged fire.

And at close range, of course,
this was just terrible.

A great proportion of Maynard's
crew were just mown down.

He was very sensible, though;
he kept the rest out of sight.

[Man] Surrender!

[Ewan] They finally
get close enough

that they can grapple
with one another.

[Lincoln] Blackbeard thought

that actually he had
a clear way,

that Maynard didn't have
very many men left,

and so he jumped onto the ship,

and at which point, of course,
Maynard's men jumped up,

and Blackbeard found
that he had many more to fight

than he thought he had to.

[shouting]

[Ewan] The crews
fight hand to hand.

[shouting]

[gunshot]

Blackbeard is shot by Maynard
but keeps fighting.

He suffers 25 sword cuts
and shots.

[Lincoln] And he was just about
to mow Maynard down

when somebody jumped behind him
and slit his throat.

[shouts echoing]

[Wilson] Blackbeard's head
is then taken from his body

and hanged from the bowsprit
of the sloop.

[Ewan] Depending on which legend
you want to believe,

at that point, Blackbeard's body
is thrown overboard

and it swims around the ship
five to seven times.

[Narrator] Maynard,
an officer of the Royal Navy,

has defeated
the infamous Blackbeard.

[Narrator]
It had only taken two years

for Edward Teach to evolve
from a common privateer

to Blackbeard, the most feared
pirate on Earth.

But now he's met
his bloody fate

at the hands of the Royal Navy.

So how did his legend
continue to grow,

his brutal reputation

gripping the world's
collective imagination

for centuries to come?

♪ ♪

[Wilson] What happens after the
battle and after the skirmish

is that the accounts
of this attack

are then printed
and widely disseminated

in Europe and London
and in the Americas,

really to show the formidity
of the Royal Navy,

really to show
that if you are a pirate,

the Navy will come
and hunt you down.

It's to show the successes
against piracy.

That starts to build up
the myth of Blackbeard.

[Narrator] The Royal Navy
had a lot to gain

by encouraging
Blackbeard's reputation,

building him up
as a brutal adversary

that only the fiercest
naval officers could take down.

The more ferocious he sounded,

the better the Navy looked
for defeating him.

[Lincoln]
The myth of Blackbeard,

which is this huge man,

devil-like, that you
couldn't really kill,

who was able to withstand
numerous wounds

before he finally keeled over
onto the deck.

This could have been done just
to big-up Maynard's reputation,

because at this point
in the pirate wars

it was very important
that naval officers

came out of it
looking as heroes.

[Wilson]
They sort of want Blackbeard

to seem like a notorious pirate

that they have managed to
suppress through the Royal Navy.

They're quite lucky
to encounter him

with such a reduced number
of individuals.

If they had encountered
Blackbeard

on the Queen Anne's Revenge,
for example,

with the 40 cannon
and with this full crew,

these two sloops would not have
been able to match him at all.

It's only the fact
that they are able to engage him

in this small inlet
and catch him by surprise

that it seems
that they find success.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] Blackbeard also
had known the strength

of his own terrifying legend.

He'd mastered
shock-and-awe tactics

which allowed him to spread
frightening rumors

of his hellish mystical powers,

aware that these would haunt
God-fearing men.

The wilder the tale, the more
effective his use of fear.

[Ewan] A lot of the lives
of pirates was sensationalized,

and that's what we get
from Blackbeard.

[Cusworth] Often it was
about inspiring fear

in the heart of your enemy.

If you think about pirate ships,

they actually didn't always have
the best record

against the Royal Navy when
they actually went head to head,

and so it was much more
about your kind of image

and rumor and reputation.

[Ewan]
The most interesting things

about Blackbeard and his legend

is that we have no record
of him killing anyone

until the final battle.

I find that curious.

[Wilson]
He tortures individuals,

he does attack them, he does
seem quite brutal in doing so.

There was no real justifications
for what he was doing.

But really I don't think
he's any more brutal

than any of the other pirates
at this point in time.

[Ewan] I think he
certainly was self-serving

and had an agenda
to enrich himself.

If you could help him do that,

like the governor
of North Carolina,

well, then, that was great.

[Cusworth] People are very
interested in Blackbeard's tales

because of this
romantic side of it,

of the adventure, of the drama,

and people are really drawn
to those kind of stories,

and I think for all
of those reasons

he is that kind
of quintessential pirate.

[gunshot]

[Narrator] Blackbeard's
piratical career

may have been short-lived,

but his name carries weight
to this day,

his legacy steering the myth

that pirates were
mystical beings,

spreading the fallacy that
sailors could be cursed at sea.

Blackbeard understood
the power of fear;

he built his reputation on it.

But when the Royal Navy
finally defeated him,

they used the same stories
to prove their strength,

bolstering their own image.

In doing so,
they verified legend,

securing Blackbeard's legacy.

[Ewan] You wanted to be
as terrifying as you could,

just made you more successful.

I'm sure had Blackbeard
had been alive,

he would have reveled in it.

[Narrator] In only two years,

Blackbeard had stirred
enough chaos

throughout the Caribbean
and the Americas

to push the Royal Navy
to secure their waters,

forcing other pirates
to look east,

across the Atlantic
to unprotected shores.