On the 22nd of May, 1718, Blackbeard would begin what many considered his boldest act of his time as a pirate; performing a blockade of the port of Charles Town in the Province of Carolina.
Blackbeard arrived in the harbor with four ships; The Queen Anne’s Revenge, a Jamaican logwood cutting sloop named Adventure, a Spanish sloop from Havana, and a “small turtler” they’d captured from the Cayman Islands. Among the ships were several hundred men under his command as ‘Commodore,’ a title he had recently given himself.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge had been outfitted with 40 guns, and Charles Town, as of 1718, had no guard ship stationed there by England; so acquiring control over the harbor was easily achieved. The first ship captured was a Captain Mark’s small pilot boat (boats captained by those familiar with local waters to safely lead other ships through shoals and sandbars into port), and afterwards, any vessels attempting to leave or enter the harbor, or pass by Charles Town, would be stopped and seized.
This blockade would last for nearly a week, and one ship captured early on (out of nine total) was the Crowley attempting to leave the harbor headed for London, with Samuel Wragg on board, who was a member of the Council of the Province of Carolina, as well as his son, William Wragg. Her crew were taken prisoner and interrogated about the vessels still in port, and they learned that the reason for the blockade was that the fleet was in need of medical supplies that Blackbeard intended on acquiring from the colonial government of South Carolina.
It is largely assumed that Blackbeard (and possibly other crewmembers) had syphilis, as one of the requests of the medicine was mercury, and in recent modern years, a urethral syringe was brought up from the wreckage of the Queen Anne’s Revenge near Beaufort NC; as a common (but often ultimately ineffective) treatment of the STD was mercury injected into the urethra.
One of the prisoners, Captain Marks, was selected to be sent into town, accompanied by five pirates, after moving the fleet out to about 6 leagues from land. Samuel Cragg offered to make the trip, but Blackbeard didn't want to potentially lose his most valuable hostage. Marks was to present Blackbeard’s demands, and he and the five pirates were to all return alive, with the medicine; or all those kept captive would be executed, their severed heads would be sent into Charles Town to the governor, and all the captured ships would be torched.
[to be continued on May 25th]
(Pictured is Blackbeard [played by Ray Stevenson] from Black Sails, the recovered urethral syringe from the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck, and a depiction of 1715 Charles Town Harbor also from Black Sails)
