Edward Thatch or Teach -- alias Blackbeard
Sullivan’s Island, October 1718 ━ David Herriot sat perched atop a windswept dune, scanning the empty horizon while the misfortunes and mistakes of the last six months stewed in his mind. On the beach below him, his companion and fellow fugitive from the law stoked a large fire that had burned for more than a week. That April, Herriot had been an honest merchant and captain of the Adventure, an 80-ton sloop that sailed from Jamaica, bound for the Bay of Honduras to load cut logwood. Entering the lagoon at Turneffe Atoll (about 30 miles off the coast of Belize) on April 5 to take on fresh water, Herriot spied three ships lying at anchor, which he assumed were trading vessels like his own. But, when the largest of the three vessels fired a shot across the Adventure’s bow and hoisted the black flag, the crew of the Adventure quickly found themselves hauled onto the deck of the 40-gun Queen Anne’s Revenge as prisoners of history’s most infamous pirate: Edward Thatch or Teach – alias Blackbeard.
Blackbeard informed the crew of the Adventure that he had decided to add their sloop to his growing pirate armada and pressed Herriot and his shipmates with the damnable choice of either being marooned at Turneffe or signing “articles” and joining the pirates’ ranks. Herriot fatefully chose the latter and was moved onboard Revenge, the pirates’ smaller 10-gun sloop. It was here that he first met the man with whom he now shared the desolation of Sullivan’s Island ━ Stede Bonnet.
Laying siege to Charleston
History remembers Bonnet as the “Gentleman Pirate” who enjoyed a “liberal education,” wealth, and privilege from the vast sugar cane plantation he owned in Barbados prior to his descent into piracy. Bonnet’s unlikely career shift in the spring of 1717 began with the unprecedented steps of having his own pirate ship built ━ the 60-ton Bermuda sloop Bonnet named Revenge ━ and the hiring of his own salaried pirate crew.
Bonnet proved to be a wholly unsuccessful pirate captain, but a chance meeting with Blackbeard at the pirate refuge of Nassau in the autumn of 1717 launched an unlikely partnership and an eight-month piratical frenzy that took the pair north along the U.S. East Coast, down to the Windward Islands, across the Gulf of Mexico, and into the Bay of Honduras, where the Adventure was taken as a prize, and David Herriot became a pirate.
In the spring of 1718, Blackbeard appeared off the coast of Charleston with a fleet of four ships and a force of more than 400 pirates. In the most brazen act of piracy since Henry Morgan’s 1671 sacking of Panama, Blackbeard paralyzed commerce in and out of Charleston ━ blockading the city for nearly a week.
Charleston’s revenge
The October 1718 deposition of David Herriot from Charleston trial of Stede Bonnet and his crew.
Considered by many historians to be the high tide of the Golden Age of Piracy, Blackbeard’s blockade of Charleston was meant to be the swan song of his piratical career, and he sailed north from Charleston, intent on receiving a pardon from the governor of North Carolina. At Topsail Inlet ━ near present-day Beaufort, North Carolina, ━ Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground and was lost.
Herriot would later testify that the grounding was intentional and “was generally believed the said Thatch run his vessel aground on purpose to break up the companies, and to secure what moneys and effects he had got for himself."
”Before sailing from Topsail in a small Spanish sloop that had been taken as a prize off Havana a month earlier, Blackbeard marooned Herriot with two dozen others on a sand bank several miles offshore where Herriot described that they, “Remained two nights and one day, and expected to perish…” Rescued by Bonnet and back onboard the Revenge, Herriot had little choice but to return to a life of piracy.
In September 1718, news reached Charleston that a pirate ship lay at anchor in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. Still stinging from the humiliation of Blackbeard’s blockade a few months earlier, the Charlestonians armed two merchant vessels ━ the Henry and Sea Nymph ━ and placed them under the command of Col.William Rhett, with orders to sail north and capture the pirates. On October 3, Rhett arrived back in Charleston with Bonnet, Herriot, and three dozen other pirates “to the great joy of the whole province.”
In the Spring of 1718, Blackbeard appeared off the coast of Charleston with a fleet of four ships and a force of more than 400 pirates."
Historical tales of the high seas and the low country
Chris Downey recounts Stede Bonnet’s tale in his books “Stede Bonnet: Charleston’s Gentleman Pirate” and “Charleston and the Golden Age of Piracy.”Encompassing roughly the first quarter of the 18th century, the Golden Age of piracy produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. From its earliest days, Charleston was a vital port of call and center of trade, which left it vulnerable to seafaring criminals. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston’s waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the “Gentleman Pirate,” Stede Bonnet, to Edward “Blackbeard” Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas.View Downey’s complete works at captainbyrds.com
Turncoat pirate
Stede Bonnet hanged at White Point in Charleston on December 10, 1718
To avoid the noose, Herriot quickly agreed to testify against his former crew and signed a long deposition describing the pirates’ movements and illegal activities since he was “forced” to join their ranks at Turneffe six months earlier. For his own safety, Herriot was separated from the rest of the pirate crew held at the Court of Guard on the Half Moon Battery (present-day site of the Old Exchange) and was detained in the home of Nathaniel Partridge, the city’s provost marshall, where Bonnet was already confined. But curiously, on the night of October 24, despite having turned state’s evidence that very morning and all but certain of acquittal, Herriot joined Bonnet in a daring escape into the dark streets of Charleston.
Local merchant Richard Tookerman, who had made a fortune off of smuggled goods, had arranged a canoe and several slaves to paddle Bonnet and Herriot across Charleston Harbor. Landing at Sullivan’s Island, the fugitives’ plan after their bold escape is somewhat puzzling, but the news had reached Charleston a few days earlier that another pirate, Christopher Moody, was now lurking offshore, and it seems that Bonnet’s intention was to signal his fellow pirate to provide rescue.
Stede Bonnet's flag
For more than a week, the pair camped on Sullivan’s Island and fruitlessly tried to signal Moody. The consistent burning of a fire on the almost completely uninhabited Sullivan’s Island tipped off the authorities back in the city, and, on November 8, Rhett led a detachment of soldiers across the harbor and ambushed Bonnet and Herriot. There was an exchange of gunfire, and Herriot was killed and hastily buried in the Sullivan’s Island sand. Bonnet was returned to Charleston to stand trial and four days later was found guilty by Judge Nicholas Trott, who passed sentence, “That you, the said Stede Bonnet, shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck till you are dead.”
Bonnet was hanged at White Point on December 10, 1718.
There was an exchange of gunfire and Herriot was killed and hastily buried in the Sullivan's Island sand."
Engraving of Stede Bonnet, the "Gentleman Pirate" from Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of Pirates (published 1724).
