Ahoy, Matey

November brings cold winds, darker tides, and the anniversary of the most famous pirate death in all of history. This week we sail straight into the fury of November 22nd, 1718 — the morning Blackbeard the Pirate met his fate in a battle so ferocious that sailors still whisper about it by lantern light.

But what if the story didn’t end there?
What if the legend had only just begun?

Raise yer lantern, me hearties — it’s time to step aboard.

⚔️ This Week in Pirate History

Saturday, November 22, 1718 — The Day Blackbeard Died

The sun had barely climbed above the Carolina horizon when the Caribbean’s most feared pirate stood on the deck of his ship Adventure, braids of black hair tied with smoldering fuses, the smoke curling around his face like a demon risen from hell.

Edward Thatch — Blackbeard.
The devil of the West Indies.
The man whose very shadow could still a ship’s crew.

And on this day, his legend met its reckoning.

⚓ The Trap Is Set

For weeks, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia had plotted to end Blackbeard’s reign. His colonies were choking on fear, trade faltering under pirate menace. Civil order demanded a head — Blackbeard’s, preferably mounted on a pike.

He hired the perfect butcher:
Lieutenant Robert Maynard, commander of two small, fast sloops — Ranger and Jane — loaded not with cannons, but men. Silent killers armed for close combat.

In the early dark of November 22, Maynard slipped into Ocracoke Inlet, hidden by fog and fate.

⚔️ The Devil Awakens

Blackbeard, startled from a night of feasting, scrambled his crew. Only about 20 men answered — half drunk, half hungover. But Blackbeard didn’t need an army. He was one.

He cut anchor, hoisted sail, and roared across the shallows, firing a full broadside of grape and iron.

Maynard’s Ranger was shredded.
Dead floated upon the water.
But Maynard pressed on.

⚔️ The Silent Deck Trick

As Blackbeard closed in for the kill, he peered across the deck of Jane.

Empty.
Motionless.
No sailors. No gunners.

It looked abandoned.

“HA!” Blackbeard growled.
He ordered his men to board and finish them.

But Maynard had played the pirate’s own game:
His men were hiding below deck.

⚔️ The Clash

The moment Blackbeard leapt onto Jane’s deck, Maynard’s men erupted upward like a sprung trap. Pistols cracked. Steel flashed. Shouts drowned in cannon smoke.

Blackbeard fired first — his shot tearing through Maynard’s coat, grazing his ribs.
Maynard fired back — striking Blackbeard but not stopping him.

The pirate rushed forward.

They met in the center of the deck, two titans locked in a death dance of pistols, daggers, and cutlasses.

⚔️ “DAMNATION TAKE MY SOUL—IF I GIVE YOU QUARTER!”

Those were the pirate’s last words — a roar that chilled the blood of every man present.

Blackbeard fought like a beast of legend:

• He survived five gunshots

• Endured twenty deep cuts

• And still grappled Maynard blade-to-blade

But numbers overwhelm even legends.

A sailor slashed Blackbeard’s neck.
Another buried a sword into his spine.
And the man who had ruled the Caribbean finally collapsed forward, bleeding onto the planks of Jane.

⚓ The End of a Terror — And the Birth of a Legend

Maynard, ensuring the pirate stayed dead, severed Blackbeard’s head and hung it from his bowsprit like a trophy.

His body — weighted and stabbed — was thrown into Ocracoke inlet.

Locals swear the headless corpse swam three full laps around the ship before sinking beneath the black water.

From that moment on, sailors claimed the inlet was haunted.

Some still do.

To this day, November 22nd is whispered as the date the Devil of the Indies met his match.

⚓ SIDEBAR: 5 Things Blackbeard Did Better Than Any Pirate Alive or Dead

Even among the rogues, reavers, and sea-wolves of the Golden Age, Blackbeard stood apart like a thunderstorm among rain clouds. Here be the five reasons he ruled the waves:

1. Psychological Warfare

Blackbeard knew that fear won battles before steel ever clashed.
The burning fuses woven into his beard, the smoke wreathing his face — this wasn’t vanity.
It was terror as a weapon, and few captains could stand steady at the sight.

2. Master of Negotiation

He captured more ships through intimidation and presence than through cannon fire.
One glare from Blackbeard across the gunwales, and entire crews surrendered without a shot fired.

3. Strategic Brilliance

He didn’t fight fair — he fought smart.
Shallow water traps. Hidden coves. Quick, brutal strikes.
His tactics in the Carolinas show a mind far sharper than the cutlass he carried.

4. A Captain Beloved by His Crew

Men chose to sail with Blackbeard.
He divided loot fairly, treated his crew well, and rarely punished without cause.
A pirate king who knew loyalty came from respect, not cruelty.

5. Dying Like a Damn Legend

Five bullets. Twenty cuts.
Still fighting.
Still swinging.
Still trying to take Maynard with him in the final breath.
Even his enemies admitted he died as the fiercest they’d ever seen.

Blackbeard didn’t just live as a legend —
he engineered it.

💰 Plunder Pick of the Week — The Storm of Time Pirate Saga

What if Blackbeard didn’t die on November 22, 1718?

What if that final volley of musket fire…
that last clash of steel on Maynard’s deck…
that plunge of his headless body into the black waters of Ocracoke…

wasn’t the end at all?

What if the Devil of the Indies was swallowed by a roaring, impossible storm —
a storm that bends time itself,
a storm that drags the fiercest pirates ever known into worlds they never could’ve imagined?

⚡ Welcome to the STORM OF TIME.

A high-concept, swashbuckling, gunsmoke-scented epic written by your own Captain Blackquill, where:

• Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Bart Roberts are ripped from the Golden Age of Piracy

• hurled through a violent time-rending tempest

• and spit out into the Wild West, where six-shooters meet cutlasses

• and later into the inferno of World War II, where pirates clash with U-boats, Nazis, and lost civilizations

It’s Treasure Island meets Back to the Future meets Pirates of the Caribbean with a shot of Indiana Jones, and the world ye know will never be the same.

📘 Book 1 — Pirates of the Wild West

The storm is only the beginning.
The pirates awaken in 1870s San Francisco — a land of train heists, saloons, gunslingers, and a battle for survival in a world that has forgotten who they are.

📗 Book 2 — Pirates of World War II

Releasing now — the saga continues.
Nazi secrets.
Sunken treasure.
A cryptogram connected to pirate Olivier Levasseur’s real-world lost hoard.
And Blackbeard’s crew racing against time itself.

⚓ Start the adventure here:

👉Pirates of the Wild West

Be warned, me hearties — once ye sail into the Storm of Time,
ye won’t escape until the last page.

🪦 November 18, 1720 — The Hanging of Jack Rackham

Calico Jack Rackham — dandy pirate, lover of bright coats, smooth talker, and captain of the most infamous two-woman boarding crew in history — met his end on this grim November day.

After being captured in his drunken stupor by Jonathan Barnet, Rackham was hauled to Jamaica to face the gallows. His trial was quick. His sentence was quicker.

On the morning of November 18th, they marched him to Gallows Point, the noose swinging like a dead man’s grin. As the hangman tightened the rope, Jack had no clever speech, no last toast, no swagger left to spend.

Rackham swung at Port Royal, and his body was tarred and hung in a gibbet as a warning to others.

A warning pirates never heeded.

💍 1709 — Stede Bonnet Marries Mary Allamby

Before he became the “Gentleman Pirate,” before he abandoned Barbados for the sea, before Blackbeard used him like a pawn in a larger game… Stede Bonnet was a respectable landowner.

In 1709, he married Mary Allamby, daughter of a wealthy planter. The union was proper, polite, and profitable — everything a colonial gentleman could hope for.

But behind the plantation walls, something festered.

Some accounts whisper Stede’s marriage was strained.
Some say he was restless.
Others claim he was mocked by his peers, seen as learned but soft — a man unsuited to the expectations of his rank.

Whatever the truth, somewhere between the wedding vows and the birth of their children, Stede’s heart drifted to the sea.

And by 1717, he’d traded plantation linens for a crimson captain’s coat… and sailed straight into legend.

Mary Allamby remained behind, inheriting his lands, raising his children, and reading the strange reports of her husband’s new life — the first man to buy his own ship to become a pirate.

The marriage ended quietly.
The legend did not.

🏴‍☠️ Festival Forecast

⚔️ The Mobile Renaissance Faire & Pirate Festival

📅 November 15–30, 2025
📍 Robertsdale, Alabama
🔗 https://gcrf.us/fair-schedule.html

If yer boots be itchy for adventure, point yer compass toward Alabama this month — where the woods transform into a realm of knights, queens, merchants… and a whole blasted crew of pirates.

The Mobile Renaissance Faire & Pirate Festival isn’t just another jousting-and-turkey-leg affair. Nay — this one has cannon smoke curling through the trees, sea-rogue musicians roaring shanties, sword-clashing reenactments, pirate encampments, and enough mischief to keep even the saltiest old corsair entertained.

⚓ Why this one’s worth the voyage:

• A full Pirate Stage with music, storytelling, and rowdy sea-dog theatrics

• Live steel combat and cannon demonstrations

• Artisan vendors selling steel, spice, leather, trinkets, and treasure

• Food fit for a hungry boarding party

• A village atmosphere where renfolk and pirates roam free (and occasionally rum-drunk)

If ye be wanderin’ the Gulf Coast, drop anchor and spend a day among the rogues — it’s the perfect blend of Renaissance magic and pirate mayhem.

☠️ Captain’s Log

Another tide turns, and history still howls through the rigging. Blackbeard may have fallen 306 years ago… but his shadow still stalks the shores, and his legend sails on.

Fair winds, Captain Blackquill —
Signed with ink and saltwater

🗣️ Share the Spoils, Matey!

Know a landlubber who’d love tales of treasure, ghost ships, and real pirate history? Don’t keep the gold to yerself—send ‘em our way!

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Fair winds and full inboxes!

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🎖️ Thanks for Embarkin’ on the Voyage

We set sail every Friday, storm or shine. Keep yer spyglass pointed at the horizon...
and may yer week be full o’ plunder, parlay, and just the right amount o’ mutiny.

Share this letter with yer crewmates, an if ye find treasure or tales worth tell’n, send them to [email protected].

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