“Blackbeard enhanced his gruesome image by letting his beard grow even longer and shaggier and then, before a battle, he would braid it into long strands tied off at the ends with black ribbon extensions. He would loop some of these braids around his ears so that beneath the brim of his hat and his gruesome beard only his hollow, unforgiving eyes were visible. His eyes resembled those of a wild, crazed animal, devoid of any human emotion. The hollowness of his eyes has been well recorded but the cause, less so. Blackbeard was without doubt, both a devout drunkard … and a serious drug addict.
“His clothing, like his hair, was quite spectacular but certainly not coordinated.” Cynthia paused.
“Let me explain. In that era, people wore clothes according to their role in life. In England there were laws dictating that a man was not allowed to dress above his station. Doing so was akin to fraud and a man could go to jail for wearing clothes that depicted him as having a higher rank than he was born into.
“Imagine if that was the case today. A man could go to jail for putting on a suit to go for a job interview,” stated Cynthia.
“Or the president could go to jail for wearing a golf shirt and pretending he was the common man,” countered Langdon, making Cynthia laugh.
“Don’t let me interrupt again. This is a good story,” pressed Langdon.
“Pirates, by their very nature, were rebels. They hated authority and everything it stood for. Their clothing portrayed their rebellious nature and their unwillingness to submit to a culture they found restrictive and repulsive. In that era, a favorite trading commodity was cloth from exotic locales, packaged for transport in large bales. Some of this cloth came from the Far East. Silks and linens of very fine quality and exotic colors. Coincidentally, pirates were sailors and one of a sailor’s jobs was to mend sails ripped by winds or damaged in battle. Already proficient with a needle and thread, some became quite expert at tailoring. Given good material and a bit of spare time …. and there was no shortage of either commodity …. it was not unusual to see a pirate in a silk blouse, wearing fancy britches fastened with a stolen silver belt buckle. Flamboyant dress was reality. It was a statement of rebellion … not a figment of Walt Disney’s active imagination.
“Pistols, in that era, were single shot, cumbersome, muzzle loading weapons that took a long time, perhaps half a minute, to reload. Pirates developed the first generation of holster. It was a broad sash, worn like a bandolier. The guns themselves were a status symbol and the more a pirate wore, the more he could enhance his image and reputation. Blackbeard wore a brace of three pistols across his chest with a powder horn dangling from the bottom tip of the bandolier. On a second bandolier he slung an assortment of daggers and a cutlass which may have been a custom design because it was often described as a meat cleaver. From his imposing height, bellowing orders to his men, he was an easy man to fear.
“Dressed to the nines, Blackbeard’s final act of imagery was to tie under his hat, protruding out above his ears, two, slow burning matches which he lit just prior to battle. These matches did not flare like matches do today. They were slow burning matches, made of hemp rope dipped in lime and saltpeter. His men used identical matches for lighting cannons. In Blackbeard’s case, they surrounded his head in a swirl of smoke making him appear like the devil himself. Perhaps there was even a bit of cannabis in the hemp.
“Blackbeard, hundreds of years ahead of his time when it came to creating a public image, didn’t stop at clothing and theatrics. One widely repeated story is of a man who refused to give up a diamond ring. Blackbeard cut off his finger to get the ring but left the man alive, disfigured but well able to relate his terrible ordeal to anyone who listened. So the legend spread and with it, Blackbeard instilled a universal fear. He was a Master of Intimidation.
“After a battle or surrender of his opponents, with his opponent’s booty safely on board his ship, Blackbeard would sail freely into almost any town or city up and down the coast. He and other pirates were welcome figures in many ports. Often they had commodities that were not generally available and offered them for sale at wholesale prices. Few good citizens could ignore a bargain when it sailed right into their harbor with a favorable price tag. Everything had value and Blackbeard stole it all. Clothing, jewelry, cargos of sugar, rum, cloth, grain and if he was lucky, gold, silver, precious stones, valuable religious artifacts and weapons. During his career he is said to have captured over fifty ships but many of his encounters, using today’s equivalents, were more akin to hi-jacking a tractor trailer hauling a load of TVs down the interstate. The flow of gold back to Spain had dwindled by that era and it is difficult to ascertain exactly how large his fabled treasure trove really was. Some historians even claim it never existed.
“Though he was tyrannical with his crew of pirates and ruled them with an iron fist, each man received a fair share of the booty. It is noteworthy that as a successful captain, he was a source of great prosperity to his crew and beyond fearing him, this was the other half of the reason they never rebelled against him. He motivated both his crew and his customers with the same motivators used today …. fear and greed. It is obvious that it was no small feat, controlling a boatload of unruly thieves and murderers. One story persists that he even killed his first mate just to prove to the rest of the crew how terrible he could be if he was crossed.
“Ashore, Blackbeard was a perpetual drunkard. When his ship sailed into harbor, the majority of the local townsmen would flee. The tavern owners would warily open their doors and welcome the pirate crews and if things went well, the pirates would spend their money with reckless abandon, leaving behind huge profits. On the flip side, they could become disgruntled and burn the place down.
“But as the townsmen fled, women flocked to the tavern where the pirates drank. They always fared well from sailors, too long at sea. Blackbeard, a tyrant among his men, became weak in the knees at the sight of a pretty face. He would often woo one of the fairer sex back to his ship and once on board, would assemble his crew and have his first mate perform the wedding ceremony. He married fourteen times and when he sailed off, left at least some of his wives small fortunes. Of course he had numerous other female companions but the ones he married fared better financially than his more casual girlfriends. Perhaps his sense of chivalry, though undoubtedly jaded, was not entirely eradicated.”
Cynthia paused again and a tiny smile barely caught the corners of her mouth. “Perhaps a bit like yours, Langdon,” she teased.
“My generation’s chivalry has been jaded by outrageous divorce settlements,” Langdon replied a bit more harshly than he intended. He quickly tried to make amends. “I’m really enjoying your story. Please, continue.”
Cynthia took a sip of her drink and settled back in her deck chair.
“Blackbeard roamed the Caribbean from the Bahamas, to the Virgin Islands, and then northeast to Jamaica. In the spring of 1717 he left New Providence, in the Bahamas, bound for the Bay of Honduras where he met another pirate by the name of Stede Bonnet. Bonnet was an oddball, sailing under the traditional skull and crossbones. He was formerly a wealthy plantation owner from Barbados who claimed the dubious qualification of being the only pirate of the Caribbean ever known to have actually purchased his ship, instead of just stealing it. Some say he was driven to sea to escape his nagging wife. Nevertheless, in an age of classes, he was a gentleman, born and bred, and therefore commanded a certain amount of respect. Unfortunately he was a poor sailor with terrible navigational skills and a propensity for sea-sickness. He has gone down in history with the nickname, The Gentleman Pirate. Bonnet’s ship was named the Revenge and it was a name that appealed to our shaggy friend.
“Blackbeard