Do Go On - Blackbeard the Pirate - Do Go On Mini

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

Before Long John Silver, before Captain Jack Sparrow, long before Captain Feathersword, one pirate ruled the seas with an iron hook and a black beard...Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ngs_W0SQ27IOur website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasReferences and further reading:https://www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-edward-blackbeard-teach-2136364https://www.qaronline.org/history/blackbeardhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/three-centuries-after-his-beheading-kinder-gentler-blackbeard-emerges-180970782/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeardhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Blackbeardhttps://www.history.com/news/blackbeard-pirate-killed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hey everyone, Jess here. We're just dropping into your feed a few days early to let you know that, well, you probably

know by now that we have been doing a web series over the last few weeks over at Stupid Old Channel on YouTube. And we've got one more episode coming out this week, this Friday. So we've been putting the audio versions into the feed because, you know, these stories still work just in audio form. But if you want to see them with an amazing set and some great animations as well as our faces, it's probably the third most important part, you can head over to Stupid Old Channel on YouTube. And we've got, yeah, I think eight episodes up, soon to be nine.

And we'd love to, you know, hear what you think of them because we've had a lot of fun making this web series and putting them out. Hopefully something we can do again in the future. But for now, please enjoy this audio version of the story. of Blackbeard. Before Long John Silver, before Captain Jack Sparrow, and long before Captain Feathersword,

one pirate ruled the Seas with an iron hook and a black beard. That's right, it's Blackbeard the pirate. So you actually had a black beard? I mean, that's the key bit of info already. Yeah. I would have held that back. Spoilers. Hello and welcome. My name's Jess Perkins,

and I'm here with Dave Warnikey and Matt Stewart. Hello, Jess. Matt. Thanks so much for having us here today. Pleasure. Thank you for joining me in my personal library. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right. Well, that's that then. Read us here. Oh, okay. Yeah, if only there was a book full of something to actually read. Finally, I had some kind of pre-prepared story for you. Yeah. Oh, well, I guess we'll all go home. Today I'm going to be talking about Blackbeard the Pirates. Oh. First of all, I did not know who. I thought that was.

was a myth. I thought that was a character. Yeah. Right. Right. You did just name three characters from children's stories at the start of the show. Captain Feather'sort is a character. I have said too much. Long John Silverston. And then you've got, who is the other one? Captain Jack Sparrow. Right. I think Jess has made up a name for it to have a third one. Yeah, I've never heard of three. I get it. Yeah. I just like little birds. So I thought, I'm going to name a pirate Sparrow. That's cute, isn't it? That is cute. A little bird wearing a, a captain's hat. Yeah, this is him. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a pirate. I'm a

Oh, look at me, I'm a pirate. Hello. Hello, I'm the pirate. Yeah, look at that. Isn't that fun we're having already? I was wondering why that was fourth? I wonder where this goes from here, because that's a great start. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've locked the comedy down for the episode. So now if we get some facts in here, that'd be really great, and we would have ticked all two boxes. Let's get into the info.

So Blackbeard is one of the most famous pirates in history, but little is known about his early life. Or about whether he existed, of coming to you. Yeah, well, I wasn't sure. Even his real name is actually uncertain. Most people believe that his name was Edward Thatch, but even his surname is noted a bunch of different ways. Thatch. The most common is either thatch or teach.

Ah. Because a lot of the time pirates habitually used fake names. Right. While they were pirating, so they didn't tarnish the family name. Those who can't pirate teach. Exactly. That's what I've always said. Exactly.

And those who can't teach. Thatch. Roves. And those who can't do any of them, Honestly, Darren, figure yourself out, mate. We've given you every opportunity. Your mother and I have worked tirelessly trying to get you a good education, trying to give you opportunities.

And honestly, mate, you're just not giving it a go. We've told you, if you can't do anything else, make a web series. Just do that. How hard could it be? Have you changed the name Dave to Darren in that situation? No. Could not help feel a little cold out there. That was not a thinly veiled intervention.

He's having a good hard look at himself right now. Look at him thinking about it. I'm trying to look at myself on the monitor. Yeah. If you see Dave wander, his eyes wandering, he's just looking at himself, like a bird on a mirror. Oh, there I am. Oh, who's a pretty bird? Oh.

Who's a pretty bird? Oh. Anyway, so pirates use fake names, so we may not ever get solid confirmation of what his name is. So that's not what we're here today? No, I definitely won't be giving you stone cold facts. Okay, you're going to give us two options for every fact? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

Everything will be allegedly. You may have been a pirate or he may have been a diver, I don't know. He knows, he could have been a beard model. So it's believed that Blackbeard was born in Bristol in the UK, around 1680-ish. Wow. Again, not fully sure. His father, Edward Sr., was a mariner who moved the family to Jamaica, which at the time was a British colony.

And record keeping wasn't amazing in Kingston at the time. So it's believed that Edward Jr., Blackbeard, married a woman and had a daughter, named Elizabeth, and it's assumed that his wife died sometime before 1721, which is when they started keeping records in Kingston. Right. And no wife was recorded, so they're like, oh, she must have died sometime before that. That's quite, so that's a few years, though, right? Has he pirated yet?

Time. Yeah, time is. Time is a few years. Murrah. Yeah, tell you what, how to keep up with it all. I just keeps moving. So it's quite possible as well that he served as a privateer during Queen Anne's War, which was 1701 to 1714. So privateering is when governments, mostly in Europe, would hire private warships to further their own interests. So think of it like pirates for hire. First, the governments would approach the owner of heavily armed vessels and give them legal permission to attack or plunder enemy nations.

They'd be like, here, you work for me, go blow up those guys. Thank you. I assume they talked like that. No, they took like, y'ar. Thank y'ar. Thank ye. Thank ye. I was wondering who y'ar was.

Yar over yonder. You got the crazy eyes down. I love it. Hey, man. Oh God, you don't break that. Thank ye. Over yonder, dear. Wow.

Thank you. So, yeah, if they are doing another one of those, pirate movies. Maybe you could replace Jeffrey Rush. Yeah, that'd be great. You know? In the movie. In the movie.

No. No, no. I want to be an imposter. Anyway, so they believe that Blackbeard went into privateering. And like many others, he turned to piracy sometime after the war ended. Oh. It feels like a good stepping stone. Yeah, totally. It's like a pirate apprenticeship.

Yeah. You're a privateer. You were a pirate. But you're like a legit pirate. Taking people's money is the thing to do. Looting and polluting is the way. Here what captain privateer is the pirate man has to say. Keep it up. Yarr.

That's a sexy pirate. I want to sub my son my son. out yeah but there's no one else here to sub in yeah you can't just go you can't you can't just go quiet for a bit yeah oh that's an option did you know that yeah just have a little time yet I'll just get through the first page maybe would be good and then you know when we get to like page three I'm having all of swings having a lot of swings and you're hitting a lot of misses I'm trying to be supportive here we can fix this in the edit right yeah yeah Evan can make you look good cut out all the shit I've

said leaving the gold. So yeah, it'd edit me out. Please do go on. Thank you so much. I want to hear about how he went from a legal pirate to an illegal pirate. To a pirate pirate. So he joined the crew of Benjamin Hornigold. Oh, I'm not going to talk, but... How good is that? They got my attention. And at that time, at that time, Hornigold was the most feared pirate of the Caribbean. I mean, I love when people's names come from what they're into. Thatcher, you're a Thatcher. Smith, you're a blacksmith. Hornie Gold, what's he doing with the gold?

What's he doing? Jizzing on it. Yeah, that's one thing about gold. It is a soft metal. Can mould it into... You can mould it into any show. Any. It also conducts hate really well.

Oh, yeah. Friction. It's a fraction too much friction. Oop, subtle little pub fire. That's why they called him pub fire. Red dick beard. Their earliest joint mission was in 1715 when a hurricane hit the coast of Florida and wrecked 11 ships dumping a fleet's worth of treasure into the ocean. Like all these ships have been ruined, but all of their good stuff is now just strewn everywhere.

I said he could have been a diver. Could have been a diver. So it's washing up on the shores of the coast and people are raiding the ship's wrecks and trying to recover whatever treasure they could. So the governor of Jamaica commissioned thatch and Hornigold to recover it for them. So he was like, go get that gold for me. That's my gold. I'm a governor. You go get it for me.

I'm paraphrasing. Hornagold saw great potential in Thatch or Teach and soon promoted him to his own command. Thatch or Teach or whatever your name is. Just go and get the gold. You there. You seem all right. You there, boy. What day is it today?

Gold day. Treasure fetch. Day, sir. So he gave him a ship basically. So with Hornigold in command of one and thatch in command of the other, they could capture or corner more victims. And from 1716 to 1717, they were greatly

feared by local merchants and sailors. I realize now that's one year. Maybe not even. For a while, they were feared. Will their reign of terror ever finish? It's been three months now. Yes. So they came across a man named Steed Bonnet

in around 1717. get that anymore. Steed Bonnet. Steed. Was he a horse? Steed's a great character too. So he was a wealthy gentleman from Barbados. Sorry, Matt. Am I saying that right? Well, I think the one you mean to say there is Babadoss. Babadoss. Thank you. He had a large estate. He had family money and he decided that he would quite like to be

a pirate captain. So he ordered a ship to be built and he named it Revenge. Oh. And he fitted out the boat and made it seem like he was going to head off and be a pirate hunter, you know, one of the good guys. He's like, I'm going to go catch all those naughty pirates, don't you worry. So as soon as he set sail and he's out of side of the port, he hoisted the black flag and starts looking for treasure. He's like, ah, I'm a little pirate. He's very cute. He's very cute. He knew nothing about sailing or boats in general, and it was an all-round terrible captain. By the time the revenge made it to the port where Hornigold and Blackbeard,

as he was now known, mostly because he had a long black beard. They were quite literal back then. Hornigold, fucked gold. So they get to the... Steed's ship arrives where Hornigold and Blackbeard are. The ship was battered and in a really bad way, because it turns out they had encountered a far superior pirate ship along their travels,

and Steed's 70 crew members basically begged Blackbeard to take over because they were so sick of working for such a terrible pirate captain. But don't worry if you feel bad because the eccentric millionaire slash wannabe pirate stayed on board reading his books and walking around the deck in his dressing gown. That's the real captain. Yeah, that's the way to live. You want to be a silent partner in a pirate ship, you know? None of the work, but some of the riches. Sounded a bit Hugh Heffnery.

Yeah, I'm imagining him in like a smoking jacket. Yeah. Filky number. Just reading books. Slightly parted. The other pirates like, whoa, captain. Can you put jocks on another? I know you're just on holiday, but.

We can see your peg leg, mate. Yeah. What's it away. They get two eye patches. They can't have to look at it anymore. The parrots like, oh. Oh, Jesus. I can't look away.

Long, shlong, silver. I mean, good on him, but he demanded people call him. Not true. Yeah, tiny. Like, we can literally see it. Try to create a rep here. Come on, help me out. So Blackbeard's buddy, Hornigold, made a point to only attack his old enemies.

But the crew got sick of seeing all these British vessels filled with valuable cargo passing by and not being able to attack them. Because he was like, no, no, I'm only going after my enemies. So at some point at the end of 1717, Hornigold was demoted. And not long after he retired from the pirate life, he took one ship with him, and he left Blackbeard with the revenge for Steed Bonnett's ship. On November 17, 1717, he came across La Concord, a large French slaving ship,

and the two ships fired their cannons at each other. Pretty cool. Several of La Concord's crew were killed and the captain was forced to surrender. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Death. Blackbeard captured the ship, mounting 40 guns on it and renaming it,

Queen Anne's Revenge. He mounted 40 guns on it. Maybe he's the one who should be called Horny Cannon. Oh, leave the guns alone, you pest. Leave some for the rest of it. 40 of them. Oh, my God. There's 50 men on this shirt.

He's like, no, uh-uh, I'm the captain here. I'm not getting your sloppy cannon seconds. That's why people were terrified of him. Yeah, he's a scary dude. He burned a lot of guns. So many guns. The 17th of November 17th, 17th, 17 was wild as well. Just need to underline that.

I know. It's a lot of 17. Too many. Imagine if November was actually called 17th. Then it would have been the 17th of 17, 17, 17. Can you imagine? Crazy. I can't imagine.

I'm struggling to. And I've got a powerful brain. So powerful. Yes. Yes, you do. Thank you. Yes. Yes, you do have a powerful brain.

Yes, that's what I mean trying to tell you. Love the name Queen Anne's Revenge. Yeah. Don't know what it means, but love it. That became his number one ship. He was like, get out of here, normal revenge. Queen's revenge for me Poor old revenge

And before long He had a fleet of three ships And 150 pirates And this is where the name Blackbeard became feared On both sides of the Atlantic And throughout the caribbean By the way

Let's take a moment as well To talk about his look And why he was so feared Right So he was tall, broad-shouldered And wore his hair long And had a long black beard Sounds like a dreamboat

He does sound like a dream boat Nothing terrifying about that I want to call him Captain and dreamy. Well, how about this? During battle, he put lengths of a slow-burning fuse in his beard and in his hair

so that it would kind of sputter and smoke. Wow, that is hot. Quite literally, yeah. It sounds like he just kind of burned his face. Yeah, it was supposed to give him a demonic look. And he dressed the part too. He wore either a fur cap or a wide hat, high leather boots and a long black coat.

Oh, wow. He sounds like the undertaker the wrestler. Yeah, or Neo from that movie. A perfect combination. of those two characters. The most terrifying man there is. Neo. He's a real cool guy.

He's out of red pill. He doesn't believe in, you know, all that bullshit on the internet anymore, whatever that thing was about. What a great message that film had. And he wrestles as well. Yeah, he does it all. On a pirate ship and he fucks guns. This guy does it all, and he smokes out of his hair.

I would have called him gunfucker. I would have called him smoky hair. That's just me. He also wore a modified sling that had six pistols on it Into combat So he just had this sling it like Rambo Pull them out, shoot them and then drop them Two more

I love that He doesn't drop them That to be honest Back then it was like Bang bang Well these are useless Bang bang That's still only six bullets

Yeah But he used them well All six bullets every time Do you think he would just throw away things A good fuck though Yeah Come on man I'll see you later

Love you. He also had his own distinctive flag. That's the dream. So it featured a white, horned skeleton on a black background, and the skeleton is holding a spear, pointing at a red heart. There are also blood drops near the heart. And the skeleton is holding a glass, making a toast to the devil. Making some toast.

And that's all being fired out of a cannon. And if you zoom out even further, You can actually see there's the devil's friend Jimmy. That's if you zoom out. But if you zoom in, it's also a mosaic made up of mostly pictures of people doing this. Yeah, but they're skeleton. They're skeleton bird fingers. So it's actually pretty full on.

It's pretty scary. And then if you zoom way out even further, it actually is the number six, repeated two more times after that, which is actually the deviless number of all of them. What's six, six? And then one more, sorry. That description you read out does sound like someone is high trying to describe a flag that they want. And then it's got this. And it's a toast and there's a love heart.

Either high or a toddler. One of the two. Hard to know. A high toddler. A high toddler. People see that fluttering in the breeze and they go, oh, oh, look at that horned skull, clearly cheering to the devil. With those little bits of red blood. They drop the blood.

I reckon they dropped the blood. We should be scared of this guy. Yeah. They were right to be. Captain Black, weird, more like it. So despite being a scary looking guy, he actually preferred not to resort to violence unless absolutely necessary.

Please, can we just have a conversation? Okay. He'd just use fear and intimidation to get them to surrender without a fight. He's a lover, not a fighter. It was probably actually that he was smart because if he violently attacked other ships, there'd be less loot for them,

and you'd mess up a perfectly good ship that you could add to your fleet. so why ruin a boat when I could just take the boat and then I've got free boat you know but there were exceptions to this rule as well so some pirates had been hung in Boston around this time so any ship

from Boston he would fuck it up oh no what's he doing to that shit all right guys just get me nice and close behind this ship oh no please stop you did say he was tall is he tall enough to fuck a whole shit

I think anything's possible you bring the mind to it and your dick to it. Yeah. What do you call the back of a boat? Stern. Just back that stern right up real close. Is that right? A little bump and grind with the stern.

I want to call the butt. Yeah. Boat butt butt. It's actually real thick. It's a bubble butt. It's like a peach. It's like a peachy bubble butts. And he loved that.

He loved it. They don't make boats like they're used to. They're so sleek these days. They're so sweet. Get a bit of meat in your bones, Bo. This was my hanged friends in Boston. So in the late part of 1717 and early part of 1718, Blackbeard and Bonnet went south to raid Spanish ships off Mexico

and Central America. Mexico. And they did really well in this region, and by the spring of 1718, he had several ships and close to 700 men when they arrived in Nassau to divvy up their plunder. So are they stealing... stealing the riches from the ship, but also basically enslaving their ships.

You can't, yeah. It sort of seems like you'd have a battle between two ships and whoever won was like, my ship now. Oh, you're playing for pinks. Kind of, yeah. With pinks. That's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen come out of your face. Like, someone like that shouldn't say playing for pinks.

Well, I mean, it was referencing a musical, to be fair. Good point. You're the one who hates musicals. I was actually referencing Fasten the Furious. Oh, sorry. So he's got all these ships and heaps of crew members, and he'd gained a reputation and another nickname as well, The Great Devil.

Ooh. Ooh, I like that. He realised that he could use this reputation for his own gain. So in April of 1718, he sailed north to Charleston, then a thriving English colony, and he set up right outside the Charleston Harbour, capturing any ships that tried to enter or leave the harbour. Please sign me that this is the story of how the Charleston day.

answer was created. I wish. Trying to get everyone's attention. Brum, brum, brum, brum, brum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. You know, just a bit of this, but just imagine done by a professional. On a boat. Yeah. We can only assume. Yeah, I mean, does it say anything in this book?

No. Okay. Where did you find that old dusty book? It's on the shelf. This feels like a pretty obvious. Where do you think I found it? I'd, well. At a cafe.

You fucking idiot. Should you at least? Found it on a bookcase. It's where books live. Right. up there on the old shelf. Don't look too close. Should you not be quoting the author then?

No. So in April. Out of copyright. Thank God. So they're set up around the harbour and he was taking, so every time they would sort of capture a ship, he would take the passengers hostage. He would take them prisoner.

And the people in Charleston were terrified because they'd heard of Blackbeard's reputation and they were scared that he was so close and he was taking their people prisoner. So he sent messengers to the people. the town demanding a ransom for his prisoners. His ransom, a well-stocked medicine chest. He's like, give me some medicine and I'll leave. Got a bit of a soft throat. Yeah, have you guys got any lozenges? I'll go get some lozenges or maybe a little, come to my tummy. Can I have some

gauze? His crew are like, mate, could you ask for the medicine and money? Because I'm not sick, but I need money. It says, like, doesn't that just telegraph to the, to the town? Hey, by the way, we're not doing so well. Yeah. If you were going to try and take us, now's probably the time. Half the crew of bedridden. We've all got the flu. But the people of Charleston were like, oh, yeah, okay, sure.

So they send them a medicine chest and Blackbeard left after about a week. That was it. He didn't hurt anybody. Seems like a weirdo. You started that story by saying he took advantage of his fierce and reputation. Yeah, because they were scared of him. He wasn't a particularly scary person. He could have asked for whatever he wanted.

But he just needed medicine. Listen. I like it. I love it. Back then though, like a well-stocked medicine chest though was like oh man that was like Wow, you know. Some of the best leeches in town. Yeah, yeah, only the best. That was truly racing for pigs. So after a busy year, Blackbeard decided to take a little break from piracy and on the 13th of June he grounded The Ship the Revenge and one of his smaller ships off the coast of North Carolina. He left the revenge there and transferred all the loot to a fourth and last ship of his fleet marooning most of his men on an island that was visible from the mainland so he took off with some of his stuff

do you leave them some leeches? Yeah they had like they were fine because steed bonnet ended up rescuing the marooned men and set off in search of black beard but never found him right so he'd like steed had sort of left and then he was coming back and he came back and found all the men on an island he was like okay well I'll pick you up and then they're like let's go get him and they never found him doesn't seem like he was that hard to find

but they were bad pirates yeah steed sucked Seeds really bad. You said North Carolina. Yeah. That actually, I know there's a little off-top, but that reminds me of this great fact I heard about recently. Do you know Michael Jordan, the basketball? Oh, yeah.

So he grew up in North Carolina and he played for their college team. And he was very good for them, right? And he wore like their light blue uniform, obviously. And then when he got picked up by the Chicago Bulls, oh, wow. He still wore those blue shorts while he played for the Bulls with his red Chicago Bull shorts over the top. But because he was playing with two pairs of shorts,

the second pair had to be bigger, which started a fashion in basketball of basketball was wearing bigger, baggier shorts. That's fascinating. All started in North Carolina. All because of his superstition. Yeah. Wow.

Isn't that fascinating? I've never heard that before. No. And it's a good fact. Thank you. Did Blackbeard wear baggy shorts? We can only assume, yes. A while later,

Blackbeard was one of many pirates who was granted a king's pardon by Charles Eden, the governor of North Carolina. So that's basically where pirates were like, like, away. Like all their crimes and stuff were pardoned. Right, because often I think if you got caught for that kind of piracy, they would hang you, right? Yeah. So I don't know how you qualify for a king's pardon, but he was given one. They're so terrified of you that they hope that they're, oh yeah, maybe you retire now. Or you just quietly have bribed them.

Or the other way round, because Charles Eden, the governor, was a bit of a crook. And he secretly had made a deal with Blackbeard. And they realized that working together they could steal far more than they could alone. So Blackbeard and his men lived in a nearby inlet on Ocacrokoak Island. Ocrokoak. Fair Ocrokoe. How I missed that. golden shores okra coke yeah picture you now beautiful isn't it fun setting those

golden shores mm-hmm the water glistening oh stop it take me back okra-coke you saucy bitch I didn't want to use those words I did right you are a saucy bitch so they just sort of settled at this little inlet and they would occasionally sail back and forth attacking passing ships. It was a very cruiser lifestyle for a while. Doing the Charleston. If anyone crosses this line, if you get in our way, it's not our fault. Oh, got you. Sorry. Sorry. I'm just going to shoot this cannon at this line. If you, if you sail into the cannon line, that's not on me. That's that my fault. They've actually steal your treasure and sell it at a market for a lot of money. That's not on me.

That is on you. That's on you. I'm just doing, I'm just doing it. I'm just, I'm just grabbing whatever's here. If your ship sails into my reach and I happen to pull off what I imagine is like a sort of a little cabinet chest. I was wondering who you were pulling off them. Well, what kind of chess? Let's find out. It doesn't matter.

It was a different time back then. People did some pretty questionable things, like stealing others' treasure. Why are they getting around with these big cabins of treasure? That's exactly what they did. Cabins, chest. He and his shipmates provided the town with cash, black market goods and manpower.

I don't know, they were like bounces? No, no, that was a strip show. Oh, that makes more sense. That does make more sense. Presenting manpower. I'll swab your poop deck in the nude. There was a guy called Charles Vane, who was the leader of the pirates who declined a king's pardon. So they were like, they were the real bad boy.

So thanks for life. Yeah, it was like, I want your pardon. pirate life for me. So on... Accepting the pardon. You can still accept it and then continue to do bad crimes, right? It's not stopping you from...

Yeah, it feels like you'd take the pardon, fresh start. Yeah, fresh start. And then if you want to keep doing crimes, you just do it. I guess so. But no, but like, you know, that's compromising your ethics. Yeah, so as you seem more like a badass if you're like, no. Don't want it.

Keep it. Every man has his price. True. But, yeah, maybe it's like, you know, when John Lennon sent back the knighthood. if that's the thing that happened it's just like that I think you can draw a very very close parallel

between those two events so Charles Vane he visited Blackbeard and tried to get him to come and join him to reclaim the Caribbean as a lawless pirate kingdom he was like come back to the dark side they always have one of those people in films if you join me we'll rule the galaxy forever

I'm talking about Star Wars that's the only film I'm talking about but Blackbeard was like hey man I got a good thing going here so thanks but no thanks I'm paraphrasing or he may have said exactly that I don't know he could have been the one who coined thanks no thanks I don't know sorry not sorry has blackbeard did he also find that wow yeah what a guy so many of our current vernacular is actually because of black beard sorry I'm thinking Shakespeare yeah it said black beer was actually the first one to say drain the main vein

as when his mate Charles Bain was having a piss off the side of the boat Wow. That's true. That phase that we all use every single day, even now. Yeah, can we wrap this? I've got to go drain the main brain. But Dave, all good things must come to an end. What's going to happen now? Something you always say. Local merchants were fed up with Blackbeard and his crew operating in the area,

and they complained to a different governor, Alexander Spotswood. Spotswood was like, Governor Eden's a bit of a dick. Let's get rid of Blackbeard. Let's get rid of both of them. What's what sounds like a nerd? He's a bit of a narc. So he hired a bunch of men from the English warships that were docked and put them under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard. And in November of 1718, Maynard and his men went looking for Blackbeard.

Not to like have a chat to him either. They're going to like... Have a chat to him. Bang, bang. What are they going to do? They're going to have a real hard word. Oh. Yeah.

So you stop fucking out. ship. Seriously, it's weird. Or our ship will fuck you. Yeah. All right, get this ship up nice and close. We've got new technology. I put a dick on the side of my ship.

I'm going to fuck you with it. We've got one extra main sale now and that's going up your weight. So they go looking for him. And they found him. Oh, these people actually were able to find him. Yeah, they found him. Exactly where he'd been living for a while. This is Blackbeard Island.

Yeah. Damn, the last place you look. And his house has a little letterbox out the front. He said, Blackbeard. They're like, letterbox has got a beard. I reckon this is him. So many of Blackbeard's crew were ashore. So when the two English ships approached, Blackbeard opened fire,

killing several of the British mariners and forcing one of the two ships, the Ranger, to bail on the battle. So now it's one-on-one. The other ship, the Jane. Come on. The Jane. The Jane. You could be anything.

Be more menacing, the Jane. So it's Sanan's Revenge versus... Jane. Jane. Oh, one and one. Evil Jane. Let's just call it that. Yeah.

Yeah, call it. Bleeding from her eyes, Jane. Yeah. Oh, Jane's going to kill you. Jane's got a butt on fire. Yeah, but on fire, Jane. Yeah. Now I'm worried.

That just sounds like diarrhea. Just call it... Yeah. Well, you're not... Oh, yeah, actually, that's pretty scary. My high seas. You want a jean? That sweeps through the old boat very quickly.

Jane the drain vein. Drain the drain vein. I couldn't get it. I couldn't get it out. You did. Well done. So the other ship of the Jane closed in, looking basically empty to Blackbeard and his crew

who figured they were in for an easy fight. They're like, easy. We outnumber them. Man, man. It's one-on-one. Full court press. Easy, peasy, peasy. No worries.

But then Maynard's men suddenly emerged from below the deck, shouting and firing their pistols. In the air. Like shoot at them They went up in the air It came back down That's gravity They hadn't discovered gravity yet

So the battle was on The two crews Maynard shot Blackbeard twice But he kept fighting Maynard later reported That Blackbeard had been shot No fewer than five times And had received at least

20 serious sword cuts Is he still refusing to fight at this point? No we can talk about it They're full on fighting at this point. Yeah, he was actually played by 50 cent. So that makes sense. He's trying to get Richard die trying. That's right.

That is true as well. Yeah. It actually links up better than I've got to. But in the final moments, just as Blackbeard was about to kill Maynard, even though he'd already been shot five times and cut at least 20, another soldier rushed in and cut Blackbeard across the neck. Did he cut the beard? Yeah, the beard was trimmed.

That's a source of power. The beard was trimmed. It was a devastating moment. Oh, that's the worst. But with one more blow, Blackbeard's head was no longer attached to his body. To his beard. Oh, look what you've done. Come on.

It took ages to grow. That took forever. I've got little bits of fizzling stuff in there. Yeah, now I've got to have bloody, a little peach fluff for a few months. Because he's really focusing on the beard. A man's just been decapitated. Decapitated. Yeah.

So his beard is still attached to his? his face. Oh, thank God. But the face is just on the ground. Oh, that is an ideal scenario. Sissing with the beard. It's so weird. Well, Dave's a bearded man.

Thank you. Presume in on that. Come on. I need this. Don't do it. All right. He relates. He relates.

Exactly. He's more of a bearded man than he's a headed man. You'd be okay with your head being cut off as long as your beard was intact. Yes. If you take my beard off, I'm no longer whole. Yeah. Take my beard. Take my life.

Dave always says, I'm fine. I'd shave tomorrow. Someone gave me some money. No one think... I don't know why anyone would, but if someone gave me money, I would shave off my... Because no one thinks of you as a bearded man.

Don't know me? Well, I'm not a bearded man. I'm a man with a beard, but you are inherently... Yes, thank you. It's intrinsic. Beard and man. Where does the beard finish,

and where does the man start? Okay, so blackbeard's been beheaded. But he's still bearded. Oh my God. It's all he's got. Yes? Yep. Jealousy's not a beautiful color on you.

Not a beautiful. That felt awful to say. jealousy's not a beautiful colour on you What are beautiful colours on me Matt List of them Blue and white stripes Um Jess brown hair

Just face skin colour Yeah actually I've copyrighted this hair colour Yeah It's called Jess brown You'll never see it on anybody else Except my brother That's just genetics I can't get him to change

I've tried to sue him I shaved his head all right I chopped his head off I chopped his head off That'll teach him So black beard did he recover from this injury? He did not.

Oh dear. He did not. So with their leader dead, the rest of Blackbeard's crew were pretty quick to surrender. So like, I don't want to. So Blackbeard's body was thrown into the ocean, and Maynard returned victorious to Virginia with Blackbeard's head proudly displayed on the front of the ship. Because he also would want the beard.

That's where the dick was. He'd also want the beard attached because otherwise people, he'd be like, look, I've killed him. That's just a dude. That's just a dude without a beard. You're just bragging you killed a dude, you psycho? You're psycho. Oh, you killed Blackbeard.

Cool. They're gluing fake feet onto a bed head. Now, sure, Maynard was hailed as a hero and would forever be known as the man who had killed Blackbeard, even if he didn't do it himself. But the legend of Blackbeard only grew more after his death, unlike the beard. That stopped growing because he was dead. I think hair grows a little bit after you die. Is that not true? Maybe it is?

I don't know. I'm just trying to fucking wrap this up. I'm sick of your fucking beard chat. There was a bank of the unicorns. Oh, for fuck's sake. They had one album it was called. Who's going to cut our hair once we're gone? Which is good fun.

That's a bit cute. Men who had sailed with him automatically found positions of honour and authority on any other pirate vessel they joined. It was like so good for your resume. Oh, wow. I went to get McDonald's when you're young. Yeah.

So they would like wander up to any other pirate room and be like, yeah, I worked with Black Piton. They were like, captain, my lord. I was like, well, I only work the drive-thru, but okay, I'll be a captain. Buckbeard's legend grew with every retelling of his story. According to some stories, his headless body swam around Maynard's ship several times after it was thrown into the water following the last battle. Like a headless chook.

It's super weird, but imagine if it was just the head was swimming around afterwards. Floating, I think is what it's called. I think it would float. No, it was actually. Swimming. Wow. That's why it's funny. It is. It's just starting to fly.

Like little runners. Do freestyle? Yuck. He had big ears. That's what they don't tell you about Blackbeard. Big ears. That's why he grew such a long beard. Yeah.

To distract for his big ears. He combed it up and around his head to cover his ears. Carted in a bun at the top. Don't look into it. Black weird, I'm telling you. Blackbeard is still, some 300 years later, the quintessential pirate. There were people who were better pirates than he was, taking more ships and looting more treasure.

But none had his personality and image. And many of them are all but forgotten today, but not our boy Blackbeard. And a fun fact, the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge was discovered in 1996, and many of the relics found there are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Wow. And despite little solid evidence, legends persist of Blackbeard's buried treasure, and people still search for it. I love it.

Love that. So this is basically my way of asking you guys if we can please go on a treasure hunt. Yes. Can we buy a metal detector? Don't we already have like three of them? Yeah, sorry, can we get another metal detector? Yes, we should get three more so that we can all go one in each hand.

Jewel. Jewel metal detector. Spread out around the park, find some treasure. Yeah, that would be really good. I had a taxi driver recently who, that's what he does, and he has a YouTube channel he says. We should find him. Wow.

I think, yeah, it's definitely the calling card of a guy's got everything together. Yeah. And it'll soon be our calling. We list him as our main inspiration for this web series. I actually think we're going to put him on our flag. Yeah, with little drops of blood. Driving taxi with two. Metal detectives out the window.

Yeah. Perfect. That's badass. The dream. Can we actually get a flag like that? Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. That's it for Blackbeard the Pirate.

And this web series is a spinoff of our podcast do go on with over 200 episodes to listen to. If you liked this topic, check out some of our other high-sea adventure episodes, like Mutiny on the Bounty, Shackleton's Endurance, the Halifax Explosion, and the Principality of Sealand. Subscribe for free on your favourite podcast app and be sure to subscribe to this channel to check out our other videos. Yeah, that was so good. Thanks so much.

You read those words one after the other in a way. Yeah, I didn't read them. Oh. So you thought those words one after another. You said those words one after another. Would have been weird if you said them not one after the other? Yeah, I said them all jumbled. Evans are very good at Edison.

That was seamless, Evan. Come on, he's good. He's so good. How does he do it? Ever had? Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later,

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