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In November 1717, in the eastern Caribbean, Hornigold and Blackbeard the Pirate took a 26-gun, richly laden French "guineyman" called the Concorde. Soon after, Hornigold accepted the British Crown's offer of a general amnesty and retired as a pirate. Blackbeard rejected a pardon, made the Concorde his flagship, increased her armament to 40 guns, and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge (QAR).
Not long after, Blackbeard the Pirate hooked up with Stede Bonnet, also known as "The Gentleman's Pirate", sailing a 10-gun sloop named Revenge. Realizing that Bonnet was not cut out to be a pirate, Blackbeard put another pirate in charge of the Revenge, and Bonnet became a "guest" aboard the QAR until she wrecked six months later.
By the time Blackbeard sailed into the port of Charleston, S.C. in 1718, he was in charge of four pirate ships and over 300 pirates.
Blackbeard's reign of terror climaxed in a week-long blockade at the port of Charleston, S.C. in late May 1718. Blackbeard commandeered 8 or 9 ships as they sailed into and out of the Charleston port. One week later, the QAR was run aground at Beaufort Inlet. One of the smaller vessels in Blackbeard's flotilla, the ten-gun sloop Adventure, was lost the same day while trying to assist the stranded flagship.
Before leaving Beaufort Inlet, Blackbeard marooned about 25 disgruntled pirates on a deserted sandbar, stripped the Revenge of her provisions, and ran off with much of the accumulated booty aboard another smaller vessel. Bonnet rescued the marooned men and with them, resumed his lawless ways aboard the Revenge which he re-named the Royal James.
In October 1718, Bonnet and his crew were captured near present-day Wilmington, North Carolina, and taken to Charleston, where they were tried for piracy. All but four were found guilty and hung that November. The record of that trial, published in London in 1719, provided researchers with important clues to the location of the QAR site.
Meanwhile, Blackbeard and his buccaneers had sailed to Bath, then the capital of North Carolina, where they received pardons from Governor Charles Eden. In November 1718, Governor Alexander Spottswood of Virginia, knowing that Blackbeard and his men had continued taking ships long after the period of amnesty had expired, sent a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina where Blackbeard was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke Inlet in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on November 22, 1718.
In his final battle, Blackbeard received five musketball wounds and more than 20 sword lacerations before he died. Blackbeard had captured over 40 ships during his piratical career and his death represented the end of an era in the history of piracy in the New World.
The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina, exhibits artifacts recovered from the shipwreck believed to be Blackbeard's flagship, the QAR, discovered in 1996.
The museum has a branch on Roanoke Island, just north of Rodanthe, dedicated to maritime exhibits.
Graveyard of the Atlantic maritime museum, located in Hatteras, North Carolina, is dedicated to the myriad of shipwrecks on the coasts of the Outer Banks.
Teach's Hole Blackbeard exhibit and pirate shop on Okracoke Island offers over 1000 items relating to pirates, including pirate books, pirate toys, pirate flags, pirate t-shirts, pirate maps, and other pirate wares. The exhibit features a life-sized recreation of Blackbeard the Pirate in full battle dress.
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