Edward Teach was one of the most famous and feared pirates of his time. He was a giant man, over 6 feet tall with long dark hair and a long dark beard. Most kitties and beans know him better by his nickname - Blackbeard.
One of the things Blackbeard would do to make himself look scarier was to braid hemp fuses into his hair and beard and then he would light them where they would smolder and smoke and encircle his head in a wreath of black smoke. And he deliberately went out of his way to make himself appear to be ruthless. He liked having a bad reputation. It must have been easier to plunder ships if people were too afraid to fight you for what was rightfully theirs.
Eventually, people were so afraid of him that even tho he was officially pardoned, the Virginia Governor decided to send the navy after him. The mission was commanded by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. Maynard found Blackbeard's ships in the coastal waters of the Carolinas and gave chase. They were fired upon and Maynard decided to have his men go below deck to lie in wait. Blackbeard and his men boarded Maynard's ship, thinking they had killed most if not all of the men, when suddenly Maynard and his men rushed up on deck and a fierce fight ensued.
Some say that it took over 5 gun shots and 20 stab or sword wounds before Blackbeard finally fell dead. Maynard chopped off his head and threw his corpse overboard where it was said to swim around the ship 3 times before finally sinking to meet Davy Jones.
Some say that Blackbeard's head was hung from a spike in Bath as a warning to other pirates. Eventually, it found it's way to Williamsburg, VA where the owner of a tavern that Blackbeard liked to frequent decided to turn his skull into a punch bowl. He gave the head to a silversmith who chopped the top off and covered it in silver and it was used in the tavern for many years and many parties until it disappeared one night. Some people say that since the time Blackbeard's head disappeared, a large, dark haired, giant of a man with a big, bushy beard wanders the streets of Colonial Williamsburg looking for something. So, let this be a warning to all you pirates out there, DON'T LOOSE YOUR HEAD, OR YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY LOOKING FOR IT!
