Real
Name: Unrevealed, perhaps Edward DrummondBlackbeard
Real
Name: Unrevealed, perhaps Edward Drummond
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Pirate
Group Membership: Crew of Adventure (Israel Hands, others); formerly crew of Queen Anne's Revenge (Lt Richards, Mr. Marks, others), Benjamin Hornigold's crew (Benjamin Hornigold, William Howard, others), crew of Revenge
Affiliations: (fellow pirates) Calico
Jack (John Rackham), Robert Deal, Charles Vane; (others) Governor
Charles Eden, Tobias Knight
formerly Stede Bonnet
Enemies: Stede Bonnet, Robert Maynard, Alexander Spotswood
Known Relatives: Mary Ormond (alleged wife)
Aliases: Edward Teach, Edward Thatch; possibly Captain Kentish
Base of Operations: West Indies, Caribbean
First Appearance: (born) circa 1680;
(prose, supposedly accurate biography) A General History of the Robberies
and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (1724); (prose, fictional)
Blackbeard: A page from the colonial history of Philadelphia (1835)
Died: November 22nd, 1718 at Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Powers/Abilities: Blackbeard was an experienced, likely exceptional sailor, and skilled swordsman and pistol shot.
Height: "Tall"
Weight: "Broad shouldered"
Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Black
Summary: Blackbeard was and remains one of the most notorious English pirates of all time, despite his actual career as a buccaneer only lasting a couple of years.
History: The early years of the man later known as Blackbeard prior to his becoming a pirate remain speculative, though given his apparent age, eventual career choice, and the name he gave to his most famous vessel, it seems likely he was a Royal Navy sailor who served in Queen Anne's War (1702-1713). The first report of a pirate going by the name Edward Thatch (and later more commonly as Edward Teach) was in September 1717, when he led a sloop with a crew of around 70 to capture the cargo ship Betty off Cape Charles, Virginia. The lack of any earlier documentation on Edward Teach/Thatch suggests that like many pirates the name he went by was a pseudonym. In 1717 he was commanding the second ship in pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold's small fleet, operating out of the pirate haven of New Providence. In September that year, the same month he captured the Betty, Hornigold added a third ship to his squadron, commanded by Stede Bonnet; on 28th November Teach seized the French privateer vessel La Concorde, and made it his own new (and most famous) ship, renaming it Queen Anne's Revenge. On 5th December he captured the Margaret, and held its crew prisoner for several hours while he stole its cargo; the Magaret's captain, Henry Bostock, later provided a detailed description of him to the authorities, which included mention of his long black beard; later reports of his keeping lit fuses entwined in his beard and hair to make himself look more imposing led his famous nickname, Blackbeard.
With Hornigold having sought and obtained a pardon late in 1717, Blackbeard and Bonnet continued their piracy without him for most of 1718, even after losing the Queen Anne's Revenge when she ran aground on a sandbar on 10th June 1718. That same month, having heard that King George I of England was offering a pardon to all pirates who surrendered on or before 5th September that year, Teach apparently considered taking up the option, but wary that it might prove a double cross, he convinced Bonnet to hand himself in first. Bonnet did so, and was duly pardoned, but when he returned to his ship he found Blackbeard had stripped it of its stores and marooned its crew. Angry, Bonnet swore revenge, but never got it; having returned to piracy, Stede was captured and hanged later that year.
Blackbeard meanwhile headed to Bath Town in North Carolina, where (still in June 1718) he and his men received their pardons from Governor Charles Eden. During the next couple of months he allegedly married the daughter of plantation owner William Ormand, but by August he had returned to piracy aboard the Adventure, his replacement for Queen Anne's Revenge. In November 1718, having learned that Blackbeard was still based near Bath, the Governor of Virginia Alexander Spotswood sent a force to capture or kill him. Two ships commanded by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, the HMS Lyme and the HMS Pearl, attacked the Adventure on 22nd November, and despite heavy losses they boarded the pirate vessel. Maynard engaged Blackbeard in direct combat, in which the pirate looked likely to prevail, until Maynard's men joined the fray. Outnumbered, Blackbeard was slain, and his corpse was beheaded; the body was thrown in the sea, while his head was hung from the bowsprit of Maynard's ship until it was delivered to Spotswood, who had it placed on a pole outside Chesapeake Bay as a warning to other pirates.
Comments: Despite his surprisingly short career, after his demise Blackbeard's legend only continued to grow, helped along by his being featured in "Captain Charles Johnson's" 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (the source of the image to the left); Johnson was likely a pseudonym, and Johnson may himself have been a pirate, but whether the details it gives about Blackbeard's background (stating he was from Bristol for example) are based on personal encounters with Blackbeard or embellishments made up without foundation is impossible to say. Johnson's book influenced fiction authors including Robert Louis Stevenson (author of Treasure Island) and J.M Barrie (author of Peter Pan), meaning that Blackbeard and his fellows featured within were likely the sources of inspiration for Long John Silver and Captain Hook. Having captured the public's imagination, he has featured in numerous novels, comics, TV shows and movies, whether as the protagonist, antagonist or just a colourful guest star.
(Notable) appearance checklist (not including reprints): There are too many appearances of Blackbeard to cover them all, so I've had to restrict the lists below to those that stand out in some way, and with Blackbeard usually as the protagonist or main antagonist.
In prose: Sticking purely to fictional tales, not history books, since this site is meant to be about fictional tales:
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Blackbeard turns up as one of the damned jurors in Stephen Vincent Benet's 1936 short story The Devil and Daniel Webster, in Gregory Keyes' pseudo-historical SF series The Age of Unreason, and as a major character (and demi-god son of Ares) in Rick Riordan's The Sea of Monsters. As a main character, he headlines Ralph D. Paine's historical drama Blackbeard: Buccaneer (1922), is the undead lead in Ben Stahl's 1965 novel Blackbeard's Ghost, and hunts for the Fountain of Youth in Tim Powers' 1987 book On Stranger Tides. Both of the last two were later adapted into movies by Disney (see below), though the movie plots differ substantially from the books they are (loosely) based on.
In
comics
Blackbeard began appearing in comics at least as early as 1936, when Dell's The Funnies#13 strip Scribbly featured the titular schoolboy dreaming about battling the pirate. Fawcett's Slam-Bang Comics#3 (1940) saw time-traveller Rodney Kent capture Blackbeard in the strip "Mark Swift and the Time Retarder", albeit with the encounter taking place in 1699, nearly twenty years prior to Blackbeard's first recorded real-world exploit. Batman#4 (1941) saw the caped crusader take on a villain who had assumed the dead pirate's identity as a disguise, while in Fawcett's Pep Comics#51 the Black Hood fought a different criminal using Blackbeard's identity as his costume; in Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics#63 (1945) it was Miss America's turn to encounter a Japanese spy adopting Blackbeard's name, and Namor the Sub-Mariner ran into two different crooks using the name Blackbeard in Marvel Mystery Comics#70 (1946) and 85 (1948) respectively (although these last two at least didn't seem to be trying to claim to be the historical figure). The Blackhawks took their turn stopping a Blackbeard copycat in Modern Comics#72 (1948)
The real Blackbeard made the cover of Nedor's Exciting Comics#22 (1942), being punched by American Eagle, who fought the pirate in a story inside the issue after he and other historical villains were resurrected as unstoppable monsters by Doctor Ennis' resurrection machine. In Bell Features' Wow Comics#13-15 (1943) it was 18th Century swashbuckler Dart Daring's turn to run foul of Blackbeard. The Prince of Darkness brought Blackbeard back from the dead to fight Ibis the Invincible in Whiz Comics#52 (1944), while Fox's All-Top Comics#8 (1947) had the evil Sneer responsible for Blackbeard's revival, pulling him and fellow villains Doctor Hawley Crippen and Jack the Ripper back into existence with his eonscope to form the Treacherous Trio, until they were sent back to the beyond by the Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett). Kid Eternity summoned the ghost of Blackbeard and his pirates to assist him in Hit Comics#58 (1949), but Blackbeard proved mercenary and was bought off by gold given to him by the Communist operative he was meant to fight, so Kid Eternity called up the ghost of Lt Maynard to defeat the pirate again.
In the U.K. Blackbeard starred in 1954's Thriller Picture Library#66's historical adventure The Rogue's Moon, while back in the U.S.A. a pirate called Blackbeard, who may or may not have been intended to be the original, encountered the titular spook in Atlas' Homer the Happy Ghost#3 (1955). Marcel Remacle's Belgian series Le Vieux Nick et Barbe-Noire (Old Nick and Blackbeard) featured Blackbeard as the main antagonist during its run from 1958 to 1990. Via time travel Superboy ran into Blackbeard in Superman#161 (1963), but it was Blackbeard who did the time-travelling when it came to meeting with Richie Rich in Harvey Comics' Richie Rich Millions#26 (1967). Having been impersonated by the time-travelling Thing in Fantastic Four#5 (1962), Marvel's version of Blackbeard was spotted in Mephisto's realm in Thor#162 (1972); the vampire Barnabas Collins also spotted Blackbeard trapped by his own greed in Hell in Gold Key's Dark Shadows#13 (1972), but Dr. Sivana resurrected him in DC's Shazam#27 (1977), only for Kid Eternity to again summon Lt. Maynard to defeat him. Valiant's Eternal Warrior#46 (1995) revealed that the title's protagonist had slain Blackbeard two years after the pirate had faked his own demise using a lookalike, while Image's Tales of the Witchblade#1 (1997) claimed he'd died trying to prevent rival pirate Anne Bonney from claiming the Witchblade. Meanwhile Dark Horse's Adventures of the Mask#5 (1996) saw his ghost encounter the Mask, while in Hellboy: They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships (2007) it was Hellboy who confronted the undead Blackbeard.
After decades of mostly being a guest villain, Blackbeard got leading man status in Arcana's Dead Men Tell No Tales#1-4 (2005), where he sought to beat Captain Kidd and Black Bart Roberts to the Relics of Christ, and Dynamite's Blackbeard: Legend of the Pyrate King#1-6 (2009), which told his life story from cradle to grave.
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As with comics and books, Blackbeard has turned up many times on both the big and small screen, making guest appearances in TV shows such as Doctor Who, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Jack of All Trades, Once Upon a Time and Legends of Tomorrow. However, as with the other formats above, to make listing his appearances manageable, I'm going to only bother with covering more notable cases where he was either the lead or a main character. The earliest time Blackbeard appeared on screen, that I know of, was in the 1911 short Blackbeard, written and produced by Francis Boggs, where he was portrayed by Sydney Ayres; I'm not certain which one he is in the image to the right, but given his famous nickname I'm guessing he's probably the man on the floor with his sword raised. A pirate called Blackbeard was also the antagonist of the 1913 film The Buccaneers, but given that he's slain by the hero in the end this might only be a namesake, not intended to be the historical individual. Blackbeard was one of many historical pirates who appeared in the action comedy musical Double Crossbones (1951), where Louis Bacigalupi played the role; though his role is relatively minor, it's one of the first (that I know of) films where he appeared in both sound and colour. He was the title character of the next year's Blackbeard the Pirate, which had a very loose interpretation of his history, depicting him as murdering fellow pirate Charles Bellamy to steal his ship; in fact, Charles Bellamy outlived Blackbeard by two years, while the similarly named and oft-confused with Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy did begin his pirate career on Benjamin Hornigold's ship around the same time as Blackbeard, but then went on to command an unrelated vessel, and seemingly died when a storm sank his ship in 1717. The movie also shows Robert Maynard infiltrating Blackbeard's crew seeking to find evidence that privateer Henry Morgan is a pirate in league with Blackbeard, none of which is even close to what actually happened. It was actor Murvyn Vye's turn to play Blackbeard in 1960's The Boy and the Pirates, which depicted modern day youth Jimmy Warren finding himself trapped aboard Blackbeard's ship after making a careless wish in front of a genie, while in 1968 Peter Ustinov portrayed a spectral and altogether more genial incarnation of the pirate in Walt Disney's adaptation of Blackbeard's Ghost, a movie that strayed somewhat from the novel it was more inspired by than based on. Skipping forward to 2005 and James Purefoy took to the high seas in the BBC's Blackbeard, released in the U.S.A. by National Geographic as Blackbeard: Terror at Sea, which strove to be a more accurate account of the pirate's life. By contrast Hallmark's Blackbeard (2006), starring Angus MacFadyen in the role, saw Blackbeard hunting for earlier buccaneer Captain Kidd's lost treasure. In 2011 Disney again adapted a novel that had starred Blackbeard, this time shoehorning Tim Powers' story On Stranger Tides into their Pirates of the Caribbean franchise; needless to say, adding in Captain Jack Sparrow and other Pirates alumni to the narrative required some major digressions from the original version, though Ian McShane's version of Blackbeard was still excellent. In 2014 NBC did a series inspired by Colin Woodward's factual history book Republic of Pirates to create the very much fictional story of an island of pirates ruled by an aging Blackbeard some eleven years after his wrongly reported demise. Even more fictional was Pan's depiction of Blackbeard, revealing him to have become the lead pirate of Neverland and nemesis of Peter Pan in the years prior to Captain Hook ascending to that role. |
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CLARIFICATIONS:
Blackbeard should not be confused with:
First Posted: 22/04/2023
Last updated: 22/04/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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In
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