[wind whistling] [wind whistling] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ usket fire and sounds of ttle] ♪ usket fire and sounds of ttle] ♪ (Julie Berry) The adventures and exploit of pirates and buccaneer These sea baits roved the ocean lane in all parts ofhe world, to the Caribbean and off the coast of North America.

Since the middle 1500s the North anSouth Carolina coasts have been popular stomping grounds and rendezvous point for many of thworld's most notorious pires and privateersmen.

The names Stede Bonnet Charles Vane, Henry Morgan, Calico Jk, and Blackbeard alcome to mind.

Duringhis period, Spanish treasu fleets, and ter merchant ships, transpted their valuable cargo and their riches in gold, silver, and jewel across t Atlantic.

These shipbecame easy and unwitting py for gangs of rhless pirates, and fortun were being made from the under of these vessels.

Who were these scounels who terrorized the Colina coast, sailing under the dreaded ack flag?

♪ Most pirates started out as rular sailors.

Usuay they grew up in a city at had waterfront... London, CharlestonBoston, New York, somewhe like that.

They would sign on to wk on a fishing or a mercht ship, or perhaps they would ev join the navy.

But eventually somethg happened that would cause theto leave the legal life oa sailor and to become an olaw.

Maybe on t fishing boat, they got bed.

Or phaps while working on a mercht vessel, ey decided that they simply weren't making enough money.

Or maybehey were in the navy and bre one of the rules, anthe punishment was that thewere whipped, For alof those reasons and more, ilors became pirates.

♪ onof the primary reasons was they were just trying to escape, in some instances, the harsh reities of life at sea.

with the variousroyal navies of t various seafaring nations ofhat time, but primarily the Dutch, French, Spanish, glish to be sure.

And merchant captains were at times extremely hah disciplinarians, and I ink they were just tryingo get away from that ide breaking softly] (Berry) Piras seeking sanctuary fromirate hunters ofn found it in the serene ckwaters near Charleston and elsewhere along the Carolina coast.

Inlets in South Calina's Bull's Bay and McCllanville, Murrells Inlet and Geortown, and North Carolina'seaufort Inlet and the Ca Fear River were all farite pirate haunts and, often, baseof operations.

(Moore) We, the entire eastern seabrd, really-- and, for that matter, throughout the Caribbean-- made it extremely diffict for the Royal Navy or any of the vernment forces to track down these pites.

But particularly right her along this stretch of cot-- North Carolina, uth Carolina, pa rticularly with the barrier island stem squeezing up ainst the mainland the wayt does affords a lot of really interesting opportunities for those pites to have gotten into the shallow-wat sounds, rivers, creeks.

So many of these pates that were operating in this area at that time were from this are originally, so they had that, at... home town knledge, if you will.

Geographicly, in terms of the terrain, the coast is an intricate series of marshes and crks and inlets, ny of which were too shall for ships witharger drafts to be able tnavigate.

So for pirateswho generally tended to e ships with a lighter dft, it was easiefor them to get into these lets and essentially disappear into the swamps and not reappear until th were ready to go out nting for more prey.

(Ber) In most cases, pirates did not desire a fight when ortaking and commandeering eir prey because a fight alwayseant death for someone.

(Brown) Well, pirates cognized that if they engaged in a fit wi th the crew of a shi en a merchant ship, the was the potential for me of the pirates to be jured or killed.

Their hope was that they cod scare the crew of the mercnt ship so bad that resistance would just collapse before the pirates ev even boarded the ship.

They weren't necessari looking for a fight.

They always ew that, going into a fig, there was the potential for cannons firing, and towards the crewthat they were attacking, and you have to keep mind that these pirates wernot looking to sink ships.

Th were looking to capture shi.

(Berry) Black ags bearing gruesome imag of skulls and skeletons were hoisted up high atop their main masts, transfing potential victims anstriking terror into theihearts.

(Brown) The black the traditional pirate fla and the d of the bloody banner The black represented deat the red represented bloo anboth sent a very clear snal the crew of the merchanship as to what their fate would if they resisted the pires.

The crew of a merchantvessel that didn't have ything invested in the cargo would want no part of a real fight when they saw pirates because they had no real terest in defending it.

They wld be just as happy to givit over without a fight the pirates would st take whatever they coulload off the ship and let them go on thr way.

If theput up a fight, they were aranteeing their own demise (Berry) Rarely were innont sailors on targeted shs willing to risk rture and death at the han of bloodthirsty pirates just to save a merchant's cargo.

When faced th almost certain death or, as was often the case, accepting an offer tooin the pirate crew, These ce law-abiding sailors thselves became pirates.

(Mre) I think more often tn not, when tse ships were captured, the piras gave the crew an oppornity to join up d, in some cases, would rce members of the crew join, particully if they had some sort ofkill or function that waseeded aboard their own vesse We know when Blackard captured the "Concorde thate grabbed three of the sgeons, the surgeon and e two surgeon's mates.

(Berry) When pirates did enga in battle, often leaving the ip's deck looking like alaughterhouse.

(Brown) The pirates wod attack with cutlasses, ich were swords that hadery heavy blades.

what a meacleaver is to a knife.

It was a weapon thatas designed not for fenci, Wh they actually boarded thships, it got very messy.

There wasn't anyand-to-hand combat that nt on for long.

Th simply tried to slaughter the crew of the ship.

(Brown) In an engagement, especial if facing Royal Navy sairs, in a battloftentimes if they can sethe pirates approaching, they might spread sand the deck of the ship in order to absorb thblood because in these types of hand-to-hand battles, with the types of sketry and th e cannons thatould be used, if you get blood on the ck, the deck's gonna getlippery, d that's gonna make it evenarder to defend.

It's reallkind of a gruesome thing think about.

But these ships engaged inhe midst of a battle could real become carnal houses.

♪ (Berry) Conduct aboa most pirate ships was rulated by a list ofrticles drawn up by the ctain and crew.

Th strict list of articles,r laws, was to be signed by each member of the crew befo a voyage began.

rown) The pirate crew wagoverned by aery specific set of rules and they were rules that were agreed upon fore the pirate ship everegan its voyage.

Thosrules governed who would t how much of whatever treasure was captured, down to the specific amnt each person would be arded.

Those rules governed thr conduct while on boardhe ship, for exampl specifying that they we required to maintain thr weapons, specifyi that they were not allod to keep any so of written material on ard the ship just so they di't have to worry somethinthat might turn up at a laterrial.

(Berry) Remarkably, these piraterticles re reasonably democratic mpared to the rules penned by some captains of na s or civiamehant vesls.

to do what would be called workman's compensation.

They were the fit ones during that time that allowed for a pern who was injured on theob, who lostn eye or a hand in an engament, to be ven a cash stipend for thatamage becaus reasonably, he could not ntinue to be a pirate.

He would havto go ashore and would needhat help.

So hwould be put ashore with an ount of money to help him gestarted.

They elected theicaptains.

The captains werchosen by the crew of the sp and could be deselted at any time.

If theaptain made a decision th the crew didn't like, ey could vote him out as eily as they voted him in.

It's not uncomn to see pirate ships that will go throu a number of different captains in a voyage.

That's something tt makes a pirate like Blkbeard a t out of the ordinary, in that he ercised an inordinate amou of control over his crew much more so than the normapirate captain.

(Berry) Foa crewman, breaking some of tse rules could mean a seve flogging, mutilation, hangin being shot, or phaps being marooned on aemote island or sandbar with nhope of rescue.

(Mre) One of the primary tngs the pirates would do if a of the articles were bron, any of tir rules broken, woulbe what they called "being ma governor" of an island.

In a lot of cases, theyould be marooned on these dtant shores and basilly left there with a pisto possibly a cante full of water, and wi one shot, one lead ball.

If they want to end it, they could.

In ft, Blackbeard himself whene got rid of "Queen Anne Revenge" and split his compy up.

That punisent was considered to be the worst fate that a pirate could suffer.

♪ (Berry) ackbeard, perhaps more thanny other pirate, cultivatednd promoted a persona ofear and terror.

One need onlutter his name... Bl ackbea!

It sent shudders down an emy's spine.

He w the embodiment of evil, some said the reincarnatio of the devil himself.

(Brown Blackbeard was one of the most infamous pirates.

They think his real name s Edward Teach, anhe is believed to have been from Bristol, England.

A very tl man for the time perio in a time when t average person was shorterhan now, Blackbeard towered at somhere over 6 feet tall.

s nickname came from a beard whicstarted at eyebrow level anwent down to his belt and that he pposedly tied up into braid He wn't necessarily as succeful as some other pirate captas.

Bartlomew Roberts, for instan, known to have taken er 400 ships.

But we pick up, sentially, a paper trl on him in the historical rerd in early 1717. weet about a year and a half where wean actually track the acvities of Blackbeard as airate, by name, wre his name actually appes in the documentation.

It could have been a ltle earlier and probablyas 'cause when we pick that trail up, he was already ship captain, a pirate capta and commander.

And so he was almost ceainly sailing as a pirate elier than that and possibly en as a captain.

In battle, according some stories, he would tie caon fuses in his hair, slow-burning fuses, and light them so that his face would be surrounded in a ho of smoke and flame, making him appeaalmost demonic in the mid of battle and terrifying sailors o were already a very superitious group of people anyw.

(Berry) Bl kbeard encouraged ferocious tales of his bloody exploits.

These oftentime bigger-tn-life stories circulated wdly throughout North and South Carolina's port cities.

(Moore) Partularly in and around our ast right here, North and South Carolina, the tales of these pirates abound.

In many cases, it's extremely difficult to determine what wasruth and what was fantasy ere's so much folklore suounding these pirates, particular Blackbeard, from Charlestoto Ocracoke.

Even his own men felt that Blackbeard was sometime the reincarnation ofhe devil on the ship withhem.

And adually, they had begun to not onlhave a healthy awe of him Blackbeard terrorized s victims to such an extent at, that...they would ju be paralyzed with fear, Blackbeard was so ccessful at psychologicalarfare, there's no documentation of m ever having had to kill ybody, which is amazing foa pirate.

♪ (Brown) It meanthat he could take ships without having to lose crewn in the process, and in fact his reputaon was so pervasive that he might beble to recruit new pirat fr amongst the crewmen of th ship that he was attacking.

In early June of the year 1718, Blackbeard arrived at the entrance to Charleston Harr with four ships and er 400 pirates.

He sealed off the harb for a week.

No one could get in, no o can get out, and every ship tt tried to enter or leave s captured.

It was o of the largest pirate atcks to have ever occurred the American coastline, and Charleston was the firsAmerican city to be blockaded by not just a pirate ship, but an entire pite fleet.

Thransom he demanded was nofor money.

It was foredicine.

Some speculate that there mayave been an outbreak of syphilison board the pirate ships and that Blackbeard hoped to take on board a quantityf mercury that he could us to alleviate the symptoms.

A pirate like Blaceard didn't even ve to fire a shot to take a sp.

All he had to do was light his beard, you know, and generate some smoke toave the ship surrender righaway.

On one occasion he shoone of his own men through e kneecap.

When asked why he did it, he said, "If I didn't kill one you once in a while, you'd forget w I was."

(Mre) A lot of the truth m have been actually hidde in smo and mirrors, so to spea I think Blackbeard was definitely pursing that type of thing, basically trying toide who he was bu at the same time, manifest that reputationthat scared a lot of people.

a wealthy and well-respected sugar plantation owner fr the tiny West Indian isnd of Barbados, using his own resources outfitted a sloop he chrtened "Revenge."

With ten guns and 70en aboard, he abruptly left h life of wealth and ease to go a-pirang.

The reason was said to have been...a nagging we.

has e reputation of being a irly lightweight pirate.

He w obviously in a hurry to geaway from the land and e life that he had on Barbas.

Stede nnet was probably even more of an enma than Blackbeard.

He, more than most had no real reon to become a pirate, Stede Bonnet w a bored young rich man, and Stede Bonnethad received erything he ever wanted, and he began to long r a life of adventure d to be like some of the rates that put in at Barbados and that he had seen swagging along the street.

But what's odd about Boet was the fact that he went ou and bought a sloop rather than capted one.

He was wealthy and deced he would buy a piratehip.

Now, this seemed ridiculous to some of t pirates who hear about Stede Bonnet later that any man had to buy a sh to be a pirate?

He wt about being a pirate That meant buyina ship and hiring his crew.

Bonnet'sroblem was, he didn't rely understand what he wagetting into.

He didn't understa how a pirate ship worked and he didn't understand the danger of the suation he was becoming inlved in.

(Berry) Although males, young anold, comprid the great majority of rates, some wom seeking the same adventu and plunder disguised themselves as males and alsoigned aboard pirate vesse.

♪ An Bonny and Mary Read were two othe best-known female pires to have er sailed the high seas.

It was observed th both Anne Bonny and MarRead, although of the fairer se were in battle just as cious and blood-thirsty as any male pirate.

(Brown) Intereingly enough, in the hisrical record, Anne Bonny and Mary Read would dress as women at se The only time th would dress as men would be when they wereactually in the process attacking a ship.

And it'snteresting because when t witnesses, the ctims on the ships these male pirates would attack, when they would goo trial, wh some of these pirates habeen captured and they wld testify, they talked about how being attacked by the male pirates on these ships was bad, but that theomen-- Anne Bonny and MarRead-- that they were crazy and that they were alst homicidally insane.

(Ber) One story goes that Ma Read feared for theife of her new lover o, because of a disagreement, had been called out to a due a burly pirate aboard Caco Jack Rackham's ship.

Read, fearing he lover's life was in peri tookatters into her own hands by challenging this troublemaker to a duel herself and she dended immediate satisfaction I demand we settle ts at once.

Aye, very well.

Then settle it we will, Mr.ead!

♪ She stepped in, esseially challenged this samguy to a duel before her boyfriend could become engaged in that activy.

(Berry With pirate law being very clear on this matter, the combatants re rowed ashore.

Pistols were discharge and they both missed.

th a clash of blades, Mary, being age and cunning, paced herself and wait for her adversary to make mistake.

The moment came when t sturdy seaman lunged at ry, his cutlass direct for the kill.

The pira turned quickly in an efrt to recover.

Mary seized this oortunity by ripping open r shirt.

♪ As he gaped inisbelief that he was dueng with a woman, Mary swung oe, nearly taking his head off, killing him instantly.

As fars that incident is concern with Mary Read, I'm at the mercy of the story books on that, like eryone.

Maryead had a reputation before she fell io the company of Anne Bon or Jack Rackham as a very effective fiter.

They used to work weapons.

It certainly would not be surprise ifhe were confident enough , as it is reported, schedule duel with her lover's opnent two hours previo to that scheduled duel and to go ahead and dispch the man early so that her ver would not have to faceim.

She would certainly have bn capable of doing it.

Mary Rd knew she was a better fight than her lover.

Evidentlhe wasn't too handy with wpons, and she was prettyonfident of her skill and that she would bable to best this other flow with both swd and pistol.

And shdid.

♪ (Berry) For a time, piracy was tolerated.

based on the actions of many public officials in Carolina's port cities.

Bargn prices were often paidy town merchants for ill-gottenains, looted on the higheas and hauled in by pire ships.

Blackbeard's crew brenly sauntered through thstreets They brought in their specie or "hard coin," to spend at town shopsand taverns.

oberts) When the pirates entered Charleston or Bath they were big enders.

(Ber) This free flow of mone regardless of its origin delighted local proprietors, who raked in the profits.

To these tavern epers and merchants, pirateold and silver spent justs well, or maybe even better, than the next man's.

(Roberts) Fothe local merchants, this was just a flow from a group of men.

They didn't ve this happening every y, ere groups of men would agger in with bags fi lled with llion.

The pirates wod usually spend their money on a few things.

Number o, they would gamble with thr money.

Nuer two, they would spend thr money And finally, they would spend their money so they wod have company for their rousing while they were re in the city.

In addition to that, the pirates would sell loo to the local merchants.

There were ba-room deals going on, where merchants would acire items in the early ds mainlyrom Spanish ports where e pirates looted them.

And they wou pay bargain-basement price for these treasures.

Then the mchants could turn around and jack the prices up and sell them to the local inhabitants.

Plus, the coin tt the pirates brought in, e gold doubloons, ose became, in the earlyears, currency.

It's interesting that Charleston in the 1600s, the official coin of the rea was Spanish currency, all of it looted by pites from the Spanish.

(Berry) It was whiered that certain officls were in fact in league th the pirates.

Storiecirculated that, among otrs, Blackbeard himselfas known to have shared h loot with North Carolina governor Charles Eden to gain Eden's proteion from the hangman's nse.

Blackbeard once boasted at he wa s so popular and wl known, there was noa home in North Carolina into which he could not be invited for dinner.

(Moore) There was a rtain number of governmenofficials at were not necessarily st turning a blind eye tohese activities that the rates were engaged in, but alsoery active with them.

ey weren't necessarily jumpg on board these pirate shi and going out help capture ships, but they were certainly willg pa rticipants in the liquation of a lot of these soalled black market goods ce they came back into the lonies.

I don't think, necearily, Eden w in direct collusion withlackbeard.

Now, that y have been by design.

ing the governor and beinexactly who he was, I think he was kping a fairly hands-off aitude.

But at the same time, I think he was essentially rning his back on what Blkbeard was doing and allowing him to dit.

♪ (Berry) Eventually, piratical activi had grown to such an extt that it had become more than simply an annoyanc to loc officials in the Carolin.

Piras cruising the vast blueaters in the Atlantic now numbered inhe thousands.

Disruption of transatlantic commerce had grown uncontrollably, ship after ship wa s being ken by the pirates.

Pite business was now no lger welcome, ♪ (Glass) In 1718, some eimate over 2500 pirates erated just along the east coast.

At that point, they gan to intercede commerce to the poi where the average merchantas losing money, and oppounities did not exist of teenough for them to meet with pirates and buy goods at wholesale prices.

And so the merchants began to put me pressure on the governmen the government began to putmore pressure on the pirates and the Royal Navy expended lot more effort in that period to find and elimine pirates.

(Berry) Byow, Stede Bonnet had soug and received a pardon from Governor Eden at Bhtown, North Carolina, and a privateering letterf mark from the Danish governor at St. Thomas in the West Inds.

This should have end his buccaneering days.

wever, he soon dangerousldetermined to return to the irsistible life of piracy.

In late November of 1718, Bonnet, now ing by the name of Capta Thomas, d his newly named ship, e "Royal James," lay hidden near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

An expeditionary fce, led by Colonel Willi Rhett, was now diatched from Charleston by fed-up and angry South Calina governor, Robert Johns.

Two sloops, the ea Nymph" and the "Henry," were outfitt with eight guns apiece.

Their jective was to track dowand wipe out the pirates the Cape Fear.

The Soh Carolina forces, Colonel lliam Rhett had already received telligence that there was pirate in the Cape Fear Rer.

That pire would ultimately prove tbe the Gentleman Pirate, Stede Bonnet.

Bonnet had his ship, as ll as a couple of capturedhips, ere in the Cape Fear River, and he w careening them, making sure tocrape the bottoms to remove baacles and whatnot that wld affect the seaworthins of the vessels.

Bonnet had just finished that process when Colonel Rhett's fleet rives in the river.

A six-hour battleensued.

Both ships ran agund, and unfortunely for Rhett's crew andessel, they were slted over on one side, taking their guns out of play, wheas the pirates had run round and listed over an appropriate position to continue the fi at his crew.

(Brown) Whatventually decided the fit was which ship the te would bump to the sandr first.

It happened to be lonel Rhett.

The rates are forced to surrder, and they're ought back to Charleston.

(Berry) Uponapture by Colonel WilliaRhett September 27, 1718, Stede Bonnet men were taken to Charlest and held in the blic watch house there.

As a gentleman by birth Bonnet himself was afforded the privilege who allowed e pirate captain quartersn his own home.

He was underouse arrest because the arlestonians consered that he was a gentlema nnet had been imprisoned inhe sheriff's house, a sheriff the name of Nathaniel Paridge.

But ree days before the trial s supposed to begin, Bonnet disapared.

According to the sto, he and David Herriott, a mawho Bonnet had captured in e past and who had join with the pirates, they sposedly escaped the sherifs house by dressing up.

David Herriott dressed u in the sheriff's best clots, and the Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet, dresd up in a set of the sherifs wife's best clothes.

And they slipped out of the city completely unnoticed, like a couplgoing out on a late-night roll.

It was the next dabefore anybody realized whahappened, but by then it was too late.

The GentlemaPirate had escaped.

d they made their way to Slivan's Island.

Rhett was sent back ou to recapture Bonnet, whh in fact he did.

During that engement, Herriott was killednfortunately, or he may have been able provide us with even more infortion about some of the piratectivities.

BuBonnet was recaptured and ought back into Charleston.

When he waretrieved, he was treated no longer wit any special sort of courte.

He was jailed.

(Berry) As Sde Bonnet's troubles mound in Charleston, Virginia's governor, Axander Spotswood, at his n expense, sent out a sect expedition under Captn Ellis Brand on November , 1718.

Brand commandea British warship calledLyme."

Royal Navy lutenant Robert Maynard the rger of the two well-arm sloops.

Their mission,o sail to the North Carola coast ♪ (Glass) Lieutenant Maynard arrived f the inlet at Ocracoke, and heould see the top of the ma of Blackbeard's vessel inside the inlet, over the sand dunes.

However, he chose to wait til the next day to go in.

♪ (Moore) Maynard sailed into Oacoke Inlet and basicallymaneuvered around, ran aground once or twe, was able to get off, and got into aosition up close to Blackbrd's sloop.

Blackbeard let lse with a couple of broadsis and killed a numb of people on botof the two sloops under Maynd's command.

Grenades were tossed, and Blackbeard l his men on the Virginia ip.

A fiercehand-to-hand battle took ace.

In the endLieutenant Maynard and himen were able to bring down Blkbeard and his crew.

(Berry) ter finally toppling ovedead, from 20 cutlass gashes an5 pistol ball wounds, Blackbrd's head was severed fr his twisted body and suspended from the bowrit of Maynard's ship as a gruesome trophy.

♪ (Rerts) Maynard was also n, uh... uninfluenced by e prize money for Blackbeard, because there was considerable price upon hisead.

And I think we know that thterm "upon his head," we're already aware of what they did in that piod of history if they captured criminal.

They wer't trying to be cruel, but it was always necessy to behead him.

And that wasn't becae they were mean, but they had noameras there.

ey had to have a positive rm of identification before they woulpay a large sum of money aa reward.

♪ (Berry) gend holds that upon beintossed into the ocean, Blackbeard's adless body swam arod Maynard's ship several mes before disappearing in the depths.

♪ (Brown) Another interesting thinabout pirates, crews who didn'teven know each other, there was definite sense of community anit was common that piratesould seek revenge against a gornor or a city if that goveor or that city had been insumental in harming anotherirate.

Blkbeard was known himself to burn ships from cities that had hanged pirates.

And so now tha Governor Spotswood of Viinia had be responsible for killing Blkbeard, the governor hado worry that if he ever ft shore, ife ever headed out to sea d was captured by pirates, that they migh torture or kill him in revenge for Blackbeard.

♪ (Berry) In Chaeston, Stede Bonnet, the ntleman Pirate, ood in disbelief as his sennce was read by Judge Nichos Trott.

His pleafor mercy had fallen upodeaf ears.

His fate would be to "nce the hempen jig," a pira's term for being hangedy the neck until dead.

(Bwn) It was the tradition that pires should always be punied close to the water, which was where they committed their crimes, and it was also thtradition that pires should always be hanged.

(Berry) Onecember 10, 1718, one month after 29 of s men had been hange at Charleston's White Pote, Stede Bonn was paraded to the same sp and met with the same fate.

(Bwn) A gallows was erecte close to the shore, and the veict was read, and Bonnetas hanged there.

And left hanging.

sotimes for days or even wes so thaships coming in and out of e harbor would see the bodies display and would peaps take that as a warni as to what t fat of those who became piras ultimately would be.

But like his crew, after Boet was dead, his body was bied in the marsh.

Usually pirates woulbe buried somewhere tween the high water mar and e low water mark, and they woulbe denied any sort of Christn burial, rituals, or ris.

Th was considered part of thpunishment, an effort toake sure that, even in deat their souls would never prerly rest.

(Berry) With the deaths Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet and other disreputable sebrigands, the winds had been stolen from the sails of piracy.

The Golden Age of Pira had drawn to a close.

Pirates wereo longer foolhardy enough (Moore) In short order in 1718, a mber of big-name pirates re basically removed fr the piratical seas, and that did ite a lot in, uh... suppressg piracy and essentially settg up a situation wherebthe golden age was coming tan end.

destroyed piracy on the Arican coast.

After Bonnet, afr Blackbeard, therwould still be pirate attks, but they would invve one ship, at the most o.

The piras would appear, they wou attack the ship, and then they wouldisappear.

Never again wod you have another pirate fet appear before an American ci and start capturing ships anmaking demands of the Colonl government.

Those days we over.

(Bry) In November of 1720, rate captain Calico Jack ckham, o had been imprisoned wi Anne Bonny and Mary Read, met his end at the glows in Port Royal, Jamai.

who had once been his lover.

Bonny reminded him of the iident earlier aboard his sp, which had landed them in this predicament.

(Brown) Eventually theirate ship of Calico Jack and ne Bonny and Mary Read end up off the coast of Jamca, where they re approached by a British sp, wh o realized they were pates.

When the British slors scrambled on board expeing another big battle, like that which had occurr with Blackbeard, ready to defene ip Anne Bonny andary Read.

All the men we drunk below deck.

(Bry) Rackham and most of s men had shown cowardice in the face of their captors, while Bonny, Mary Read, and one other crewman had fought bravely.

The only words she could offer Rackham at this moment before hisxecution were, "I am sorry toee you here, "but if you had fought like a man, you need not be nged like a dog."

Both Anne Bonn and Mary Read, being discovered pregnt, escaped the gallows.

But Mary died while still in prison d lies buried in Port Roya The story of Anne nny ends here.

What became of her after being held in Jamaica is not kno, though it is certain she wanever executed.

(Moore) Bonny ssibly ended up in South Colina.

There is one contention that says she mahave ended up actually in rginia.

But Mary Read appears not to have survived long afterward ♪ ♪ (Berry) On alear but blustery Novemberay in 1996, divers representg the private re search gro Intersal Inc. were concluding th first stage of their search of 18tcentury shipwrecks in Be aurt Inlet, North Carolina.

rmally known as Topsaile let, this was the body of wer where, in 1718, Blackbeard's flagship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge, was known to have been lost.

(Brown) The "Queen Anne's Revenge" was unusual for a pirate ship.

The typical rate ship was a sloop.

They were small; they were fast.

The "Queen Ae's Revenge" was a much lger ship.

Whereas a normal piratsloop might have carried2 cannons, the "Queen Anne's Revenge" was armed with 40.

And as such, itas almost like a warship.

It was big, and it wasowerful, and of course was an apppriate ship for a fleet like that whh Blackbeard was commandg.

But timately Blackbeard, aftehe left Charleston, knew that the things th had made th"Queen Anne's Revenge" su a powerful ship in theftermath of a massive pire campaign like that which he led against Charleston, and henew he had to get rid of e ship.

It washortly after Blackbeard d his pirates left Charleston that he sank the "Queen Ae's Revenge" near what is today Be aufortNorth Carolina.

The sech for Blackbeard's shipwres re in North Carolina, here off Beaort Inlet, North Carolina, began back when I was a graduate student at East Carolina University to be a gradua assistant on a shipwreck pject.

We were gonna come outo Beaufort/Cape Lookout anlook for shipwrecks, and it just made sense to me to do my proposal on Bckbeard.

found out that he had left a couple of shipwrecks here, including s flagship, "Queen Anne's venge."

And interestiny enough, nobody was really inrested, once we got out re, in loong for these shipwrecks.

It was almt like Blackbeard was more legend than fact.

But the histical documentation is there He was indeed a real pate.

He did indeed lee a shipwreck ou t here offf North Carolina.

(Berry) After only1 days, while investigating e old 18th-century entran to the inlet, divers reeled in excement as balst stones suddenly appead... then ahors, a ship's bronze be, then a room-sized mounof cannons.

Was this the agship of the legenry and infamous Blackbeard?

(Brown) Everythi seemed to fit.

The locationf the site was fairly approprte as far as what the storical documentation d provided us with.

The type of anchor and the cannon all seemedo fit an appropriate siz ship for "Queen Ae's Revenge."

The two smler vessels, the pirate sop "Adventure" and the Spanish treasu ship "Salvador," were a littlsmaller than "Queen Anne Revenge."

So they would have had smaller anchors, aller cannon, and fewer nnon.

So the lge number of cannon and e larger anchors seemedo point a finger in the dirtion of "Queen Anne's Reven," and so that's what had everybody excited.

♪ en once we came out withhe archaeological crew and started to look closert the site and recover merial, it all started datin The material ielf started dating to the early 18th century which put us in thballpark fairly quickly as to what ts ship represented.

♪ We're continuing excavation.

Just this st year, we were able to rk about five or six week out there and add emendously to the volume of merial that had been recored and the amount that we h been able to excavate.

And we moved fromoughly 5% up to around somewhere beeen 15 and 20% of the site being excavad.

One of the problems wee been having with the pject has be the number of storms, paicularly hurricanes.

Thiss a fairly shallow-water te.

It's only about foot of water.

So these storms tendo scour out and very probay remove some of the cultural material that's been deposited ther So what we're ying to do is essentially remov th is shipwreck from harm'say, anrecovered and into the labatory.

And then we n take our time.

We c open up concretions and it'sn a safe, secure environnt.

♪ Evything just seemed to fit and to date, we ha found no conclusive evidce th it is indeed "Queen Anne'Revenge," but everything ccumstantially just seems tadd up strongly suggest that we e dealing with the remains of Blackbeard's flagip, "Queen Anne's Revenge."

♪ erry) One bizarre story of Blackbeard hos that, after his death, ceremonial drinking cup was fashioned from the upper half of his skull.

The cup was plat with silver and bo on its side th e roughly caed inscription, "Death to Spotswood."

Some claim thave seen it, even to ha drunk from it.

(Walker) The cup was supposed have been used in frarnity drinking ceremonie Any brave soul wh o waed to join a fraternity uld drink from the cup of ackbeard to more or less seal h oath.

Oh, there ha been some interesting rums about Blackbea's cup.

d sometimes, with some wrers, it seems to have come tantamount to the Holy Grai.. the holy trophy, you might say, and various people have srched for it.

I started looking fothe cup in the early 1990s and throh my searches I found th there was a cup beloing to a New England persality, Edward Rowe Snow, which he alleg was the skull of Blackbed the pirate.

I saw pictures that I had tten from his publisher, and one thing that bothed me about it s the pictures of the skull that Edward Rowe Snow had didn't match the descripti of Judge Whedbee's cup.

Judge Whedbee was a writer and historian who ote a lot of stories ofape Hatteras and the Caroli coast.

First of all, Edward Re Snow had a complete sll except for the bottom w. Judge Whbee's cup was just the toportion of the skull, starting jt below the eye sockets, and it w engraved with the words,Death to Spotswood."

(Moore) Snow's widow donat it, the skull, and a number of other pirate paraphernalia to the Peabody Essex seum.

A number of researchers o were involved in getting terial for the Newpt News Mariners' Museum exhition got hold ofhe skull and wanted tuse it for the exhibition and the Peabody Museum didn't want to let it go.

d they said, "Well, this not Blackbeard's skull."

"Who's sll is it?"

"We don't know "Tn how come it can't be Blaceard's?"

and sure enough, that's wh really brought people out, was e skull of Blackbeard, this purportedkull of this infamous pirate.

I goa chance to look at the sku while it was on exhit.

And looked at the skull, anI said, "This does not lk like the skull "of a man over 6 feet taland 250 pounds.

It's too small."

And it doesn'took like it's covered witsilver.

It looks like it's vered with silver paint.

the meantime, I had gotten t letters from two different srces, different parts of t country, who to me that Edward Rowe Snow d purloined the skull from science lab and painted it sver with silver radiatoraint.

The only sll that we had with any kd of reputation as being Blackbeard's sll is now a hoa as far as I'm concerned, and I haveno other place to look, so'm back to square one.

very much interest in the lure of the coast and pirates in partilar.

One day ward Rowe Snow gave Robert smith annvitation to come up and end some time with him so thecould go over some of thr stories.

Well, bert Nesmith was at Edward'house, ondark and stormy night.

ward took him aside and owed him his prized posseion.

He had this wooden ce, and he opened it, and there inside wathis skull, which he said is thekull of Blackbeard the pite.

Robert was a lile skeptical, and he asked Edward how he knew it was Blackbeard's.

And Edward Rowe proceeded to tell him he was Blackbeard's sll.

ey'd had a conversation and discussed, among other thing how he came to be Edward's possession and how was, in fact, the skull of Bckbeard.

There's two trai of thought as twhat happened to Blackbea's skull ultimately.

One, it's still around inomebody's collection as ailver-plated drinking cup with the wds "Death to Spotswood" onhe rim.

Or it just disingrated and fell apart and gotestroyed being stuck up on the pole at the mouth of the harbor a solid trail that led to Blackbeard's cup and the silver plating of his skull I could never find sufficie evidence.

Stories keep cropping about the cup every 75 to 100 years oro, and there' more than one story.

There are seral stories out there, so I kind of think at there is a cup somewhere.

And I'll keep looking for it.

(Berry) Although pirates like Blkbeard and Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonny anMary Read sailed theceans nearly 300 years a, their legends ve continued to grow.

Their explts and adventures on theigh seas still fascine us and capture our imagations, peaps more so now than evebefore.

Whenev they took a prize and so it ashore and had money, they spent thamoney as joyously anas quickly as they could.

So theeputation for having lots fun, drinking as much as they liked pa rtying as much as they led, is attractive many people, having thaattitude.

And so I think the araction for pirates thesdays, ke it always has been, is based on e attitude that a pirate uld have.

A lot more than his weapons or his clothes or his history ornything else, it is the attitude of airate at's attractive still today.

e glamour for most of us wi the life of piracy the freedom that it implie I think strong cracters live on.

Whether th were wicked people or wheer they were outstandinglgood people, if they had character that was colorfu I ink they live on through the years of histo.

(Brown) One ofhe interesting things abo pirates is that th're such larger-than-lifeharacters.

Someone like Blackbeard really kind of just explodes out of the pages ofistory.

The stories of wt these pirates go throu, they're basically just old-fashioned adveure stories.

I me, granted, some of the reaties of piracy are much harsher, much mo violent, much grittier than we would normally eect.

There's an element of heroism to it.

It's one othose moments in histo where thgood guys and bad guys sare off and it's last man snding.

There's no negotiation no surrender.

It's a fight to e end, and I think that'something that we can't lp but find fascinating.

(Berry) As the Golden e of Piracy drew to a close global marite trade gradually resume without the old fears ofeing relentlessly attack and looted.

racy didn't just stop.

But with the pirateests rooted out along the rolina coast by well-armed revenucutters, the days of piratical buying and their command of t high seas ♪ Thesbold and colorful, but ruthss pirate captains and the crews now belong to a vanished age.

But someay the spirits ofhese great nefarious pirateof long ago scour the seas still, seeking new ships to plund, forever inearch of treasure and bodless adventure.

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