Blackbeard

Epic card · No. 6971

Edward Teach (or Thatch; c. 1680 – 22 November [3 December N.S.] 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. He remains one of history's most well-known pirates. Little is known about Blackbeard's early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateering ships during Queen Anne's War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop that he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but Hornigold retired from piracy toward the end of 1717, taking two vessels with him. Teach captured a French slave ship known as La Concorde, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, equipped her with 40 guns, and crewed her with over 300 men...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Joseph Nicholls (fl. 1726–55).[1] Although James Basire (1730–1802) is attributed as the engraver based on the signature "J. Basire", unless he engraved the item at the age of 6, it is likely his fat…, Public domain