Edward Deitch, the man who became a pirate, had a relatively normal childhood.
His criminal lifestyle on board ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, brought him fame in his later years, Edward was born into a well-educated aristocratic family and had the ability to read and write, a skill he hardly possessed in his lifetime.
Edward was an equally educated young man who spent much of his childhood immersed in stories of privateering and New World exploration.
Before Edward became a pirate, he was a privateer in Queen Anne's War (1702-1713).
This war was one of several fought between England and France for control of the North American continent.
During the war, both sides raided each other brutally for land and booty, and it is likely that Edward became obsessed with looting and amassing personal wealth during this war.
1736, Oliver Payne (Public Domain), at the end of the war, engraved in bronze with the colorful seal of "Captain Blackbeard", Edward returned to civilian life, which is not easy, nor is it adventurous to imagine.
For a boy who spent most of his youth fantasizing about the life of a pirate, he wanted to get more out of this privateering experience.
He got his wish in 1716 when he met a man named Captain Benjamin Honigold.
Edward became Honigold's second-in-command, learned the skills of a pirate from him, and took the name Captain Blackbeard.
Because of his aristocratic background, Blackbeard was very educated, so it didn't take long for him to absorb all the knowledge that Honigold had imparted to him and adapt to the life of a pirate.
Blackbeard captured his first ship, the Betty, in September 1717, and nearly a month later he captured the Robert and the Goodheart.
At the end of the same year, Blackbeard targeted a French slave ship called the Concorde.
The Queen Anne's Revenge and another ship.
(Wave of War) Blackbeard was not interested in the human cargo on board, however, he was more interested in the ship itself, as slave ships were faster and more reliable than most ships on the high seas.
This is because the cargo it carries is more prone to "rot" and therefore needs to be transported from one continent to another as quickly as possible.
In addition, these ships were usually well-equipped, as human cargo was very valuable and needed to be well-protected so that it could be delivered in perfect condition in order to make a profit.
Blackbeard believed that powerful ships like the Concorde would give him the ferocity he needed to rule the marine world.
Indeed, it did make him a force to be reckoned with, but to make the ship even more ferocious, he tricked it out with more cannons, created more deck space, and named it the Queen Anne's Reverence.
Blackbeard in Smoke and Flame
Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972).
(public **** domain), Blackbeard's ship was his prized possession.
He used Queen Anne's Revenge to plunder other ships throughout the Caribbean.
On one of his many voyages, he met Captain Steed Bonnet, who would become his partner in crime, as these two pirates and a crew of nearly 300 other pirates terrorized the Atlantic coast, taking food, supplies, weapons, and anything of value they could steal.
One of these attacks involved the seizure of the passenger ship Crowley, where Blackbeard demanded a ransom of medical supplies in exchange for passengers.
Once he accomplished this feat, he sailed on across the Atlantic looking for more opportunities to seize cargo.
Illustration from The Revenge of Queen Anne, published in 1736.
(Public Domain), Queen Anne's Revenge and all its glory was short-lived.
A few months after it was seized, the ship ran aground in what is today known as Beaufort Bay.
It is believed that this was no accident either.
David Herriot, an eyewitness and former captain of another expedition ship that also ran aground, believes that Blackbeard may have deliberately run the ship aground in order to do what he was infamous for, and that shortly after the ship ran aground, Blackbeard met his demise under the command of Captain Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy, shooting Blackbeard five times and stabbing him nearly 20 times.
He returned to Virginia and delivered the captured pirate and Blackbeard's head to Governor Alexander Spotswood, Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718, depicting Blackbeard the Pirate and Lieutenant Maynard at the Oracoke Bay Bay (Jean Leon Gerome Ferris).
(Public **** domain) On November 21, 1996, a search party from the private research firm Intersal, Inc.
found a pile of cannons and anchors on a sandbar in Beaufort Bay.
The area is believed to be where Edward "Blackbeard" Teach ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground in 1718.
After grounding her, the crew began to resupply, and it is speculated that some of the bounty was transferred to smaller ships, suggesting that Queen Anne's revenge had failed.
(North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources) Since the initial discovery, tens of thousands of artifacts have been retrieved from the underwater site, although this number may be inflated by the large number of gunshots found.
Some of the finds are from the 18th century and include gun barrels, a bronze bell from 1705, a sounding device, a British cannon barrel and two large anchors.
All of this makes it possible to date the wreck, although no absolute proof has been found, as the Queen Anne's Revenge is the only large warship known to have been lost in the area, and it is widely believed that the wreck was a famous pirate ship, and other items found on the wreck are consistent with the history of the Queen Anne's Revenge.
A considerable amount of medical equipment was found, which is related to the blockade of Charlestown, South Carolina by Blackbeard and other pirates.
During this blockade, they held passengers, including several prominent citizens (on the Crowley) for ransom in exchange for medical supplies.
This was shortly before she ran aground in Beaufort Bay.
Thus, the artifacts found here are historically accurate and reinforce the idea that this is the site of Queen Anne's revenge.
Other artifacts found include a gilded sword hilt that may be attributed to Blackbeard's Sword, as well as a leather horn that could have held the lips of the infamous pirate at the same time.
Speculation about such items is widespread, namely the stranded Queen Anne's Revenge. Painting. Recently, a legal case has arisen around video and photo documentation of the Queen Anne's Revenge salvage project by filmmaker Frederick Allen and his company Nautilus Productions.
According to Reuters, "Allen and Nautilus sued the state of North Carolina in federal court after state *** officials used some of the documentary material on YouTube and the state *** agency's website.
The state also passed a law converting the material into public **** records.
"The case is set to go to trial in October, and although Blackbeard's ship and his life as a pirate were short-lived, stories of his life and afterlife continue to circulate.
One legend passed down to this day is that Blackbeard's ghost still haunts the North Carolina coast on Ocracoke Island near Teaching Hole.
Some believe that Blackbeard's ghost swims in the ocean off the coast looking for his head, while others believe they can hear Blackbeard's voice during storms.
Perhaps, just as Blackbeard marooned his crew as punishment for their mutiny and desertion, his ghost is trapped on the shores of Virginia and North Carolina, lying on the chests of his own dead, the wreckage of Queen Anne's revenge.
Above: a pirate ship on the high seas at sunset.
Representative image of Queen Anne's Revenge.