eel History
By Catherine T Carter
Blackbeard
On The Moratucke
The infamous pirate didn't limit his escapades
to the Outer Banks.
Stories about tile infamous pirate
Blackboard abound on the North
Carolina coast. Occasionally, but
not nearly so often, a story ol the fear-
less old pirate comes from farther
inland. Such Ls the case with the story
of Blackboard on the Moratucke.
Edward Teach, IxMter known as
Blackboard, was born sometime
around 1680 near Bristol, Kurland. I le
went to sea during England's war with
Spain and eventually found his way to
Jamaica, which was a home port for
pirates and privateers. Teach signed on
with the formidable Captain Benjamin
Hornigold, who gave him his formal
training in piracy. Bloodthirsty and
fearless, he soon became Hornigold's
right-hand man and was given his own
sloop to command. Outfitted with six
cannons and a crew of 70 men. Teach
became the terror of the West Indies.
( irecd led the two pirates up the east¬
ern coast of America in 1717. Traveling
together, they would attack unsuspect¬
ing ships and relieve them of their
cargo. Sometimes they would scuttle
the ship afterward, but occasionally
they would allow the craft and crew to
sail off unharmed. Hornigold and
Teach par ted company soon after leav¬
ing the Indies, but not before they cap¬
tured the prize French ship the Concord,
which Teach claimed for his own and re¬
named the Qtimi Amir's Rrtmgr.
The ship was armed with 40 guns and
300 men and, with its launching, the real
legend of Blackbeard began. Teach let his
bushy, smut-black beard grow until it cov¬
ered his entire face. It gave him the look
of a «lemon from hell and added im¬
mensely t«> his already vile reputation.
The North Carolina coast became famil¬
iar territory’ to Blackbeard and his cut¬
throat seamen. They knew every inlet, river
and tributary that could shelter them sifter
a raid. Fora brief time. Blackbeard retired
from the life of pirating and established a
home in Bath, where he married a young
girl. Soon, however, his money ran out. and
back to the sea he returned, looting and
terrorizing more unfortunate ships and
crews.
Perhaps it was his brief period of finan¬
cial woe that led the crafty pirate to begin
hoarding his treasures. Legend has it that
lifter each raid he would go ashore and,
under the black of die night sky. bury the
booty in a secret spot that only he knew.
Blackbeard was known to go as far in¬
land as Pitt County, where he had a sister
who often sheltered him at her secluded
farm. At least once, he was said to have
charted his course through the Albemarle
Sound and into the Moratucke River, now
the Roanoke River, and landed where the
town of Plymouth stands today.
Once ashore, the ship’s crew began leak¬
ing word of the alleged buried treasures.
Their enticing tales of silver and
gold whetted many an appetite for
the feel of the shovel handle. But
only the foolhardy tampered with
Blackboard's treasures while he
lived. Teach was a master of torture
and deceit, and no one knew who
his informers were in the coastal vil¬
lages. By the time he was killed in
1718, few remembered the rumors
of riches on the shores of the
Moratucke.
In the years that followed Black¬
board's death, the population of
coastal Carolina began to grow.
Small towns sprang where before
there was only forest. The rivers and
sounds became lifelines to the rest
of die world, and it was only natural
that villages should form along
their banks. One such town was Ply¬
mouth. built on the shores of the
Roanoke.
Then came the Civil War and,
with it, more rumors of buried trea¬
sure. Plymoudi became a thriving,
strategically located port town, one
of many that the Union blockaded.
Federal soldiers billeted near the
town's Grace Episcopal Church heard sto¬
ries that Blackboard's treasure was buried
in the church graveyard.
It didn’t take much to set idle minds
whirling. Some soldiers camped near the
church told of seeing a light that hovered
in the northeast corner of the graveyard at
night. The light, they said, began as a glim¬
mer and grew steadily brighter, as though
Blackbeard was said lo twist smoldering hemp rope
into his beard to add to his frightening appearance.
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