Ten Little Known Facts about Blackbeard, America’s Most Notorious Pirate

	While most accounts give Blackbeard’s real name as Edward Teach, the truth is we don’t know for certain who the man really was. Most historical records call him Tatch, Thatche or Thatch, and one source even gives him the surname Drummond! Its probably easier just to call him “Blackbeard”.
	His nickname reflected his appearance – the pirate sported a long, thick black beard, which he pleated using strips of ribbon. His whole scary appearance was designed to intimidate anyone who crossed his path. After all, if your opponent is half terrified, the battle is half won!
	Blackbeard was probably born in Bristol in south-west England around 1680, but the historical records are a little thin on the ground, so we can’t say that for certain.
	Blackbeard began his piratical career in New Providence in the Bahamas, where Nassau now stands. He signed on with another pirate, Captain Benjamin Hornigold, and within three years he had his own command.
	Blackbeard operated off the Atlantic seaboard of North America from Long Island down to the Florida Keys. He also cruised in the waters of the West Indies, Cuba, and Honduras.
	Until his last sea battle there’s no evidence that Blackbeard actually killed anyone. As pirates go his bark was most definitely worse than his bite.
	When the Governor of Virginia sent a naval expedition to hunt down the pirate, Blackbeard and his men were holed up at Ocracoke Island, in the outer banks of North Carolina. The Governor overstepped his authority, and his expedition was little more than an unauthorised invasion of a neighbouring colony!
	When Blackbeard was attacked he had accepted a royal pardon, and had promised to turn his back on piracy forever. Although the Governor of Virginia wasn’t convinced, his counterpart in North Carolina accepted the pirate’s word. This meant that officially the naval attack against him was an illegal act!
	There is no evidence that Blackbeard buried any treasure, despite a throwaway line he was meant to have said the night before he was killed. Treasure hunters have been looking for his plunder ever since.
	Blackbeard’s skull was saved, as after his battle against the pirate Captain Maynard of the Royal Navy tied the grizzly head to the bowsprit of his ship. Once the ship returned to Virginia the head was stuck on a spike near Newport News – a warning to other mariners not to follow in the pirate’s footsteps. Some time later the skull was taken down and converted into a drinking bowl! A skull bowl fitting the description in now in the collection of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.