In search of truth. The ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" Queen Anne's Revenge in English

Added: 01/17/2012

Queen Anne's Revenge. Model from the North Carolina Maritime Museum

Queen Anne's Revenge

Thanks to the vigorous activity of the film industry, this ship has recently become widely known even in circles far from historians of sea piracy. However, unlike other ships of the pirate epic, Queen Anne's Revenge is a real ship, the flagship of the well-known pirate Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, nicknamed Blackbeard.

To be fair, it must be said that Blackbeard, as a fictional character, became widely known long before Pirates of the Caribbean. Both D. Defoe and Stevenson (the prototype of Flint) wrote about him. This is not to mention the countless myths and legends.

Everyone knows "...fifteen people for a dead man's chest...".
More correctly, “...on Dead Man’s Chest...” - an island in the Caribbean Sea measuring 200 square meters. meters, where, according to legend, Teach landed 15 people from his team, who rebelled against the cruelty and extravagance of the captain. Having provided them only with sabers and rum - a bottle per brother - Blackbeard hoped that the rebels would go crazy from thirst, hunger, heat and kill each other.
The legend says - everyone survived.
By the way, the English “Yo-ho-ho” is not our “O-ho-ho”, but rather “One-two-take”

Edward Teach, Antique engraving

Edward Teach (real name Edward Drummond) was born in England around 1680. During the Anglo-French "Queen Anne's War" (1702-1713) he traded in privateering, and later joined Benjamin Hornigold, who robbed French and Spanish ships in Caribbean Sea.

Queen Anne's Revenge Previously, it was a three-masted French ship, La Concorde, whose crew was actively involved in the slave trade.

In November 1717, a detachment of pirates under the command of Blackbeard on 2 small sloops captured Concord, a well-armed 300-ton ship.

A little later, when Hornigold, in the hope of an amnesty, retired, Blackbeard led the pirates who joined him, making Concorde his flagship and renaming her Queen Anne's Revenge. According to eyewitnesses, it was a ship that had excellent seaworthiness, initially having 26 guns, it was re-armed by Tich and carried up to 40 guns and 150 crew.

By the way, during the expropriation of Concord, the French suffered only “financial and moral losses” - they, along with their slaves, were landed on the nearest shore and, moreover, one of the pirate sloops was allocated to them as compensation.

Restored cannon. Exhibit at the North Carolina Maritime Museum

1717 and almost all of 1718 were very successful for Blackbeard - his flotilla grew to 4 ships (another famous ship of Edward Teach - "Adventure"), the crew numbered more than 300 pirates. They robbed over 40 ships, undertook coastal raids and naval blockades (the famous blockade of Charlestown in South Carolina). However, by this time, the governors of the Bohamian Islands and especially Virginia were taking a number of measures to combat coastal piracy.

In June 1718 Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground and then sank in Topsail Bay - the area of ​​​​present Beaufort Inlet. According to one version, Blackbeard tried to hide from his pursuers in secluded places in North Carolina and could not cope with the difficult shipping situation in this water area. According to another, Teach intentionally ran the ship aground, because... After this incident, abandoning his crew, he disappeared with a small group of pirates and all the loot on a small sloop. And he no longer needed Queen Anne's Revenge itself, since it was too noticeable and too famous in these waters.

In the summer and autumn of 1718, Blackbeard undertook a number of pirate forays, but on November 22, English Lieutenant Robert Maynard, hired by the Governor of Virginia, Spotswood, overtook Teach's ship. The pirate leader was killed in hand-to-hand combat.

Exactly 278 years later, on November 22, 1996, a rusted anchor was discovered under water in the Beaufort area, and then the remains of an ancient ship. Subsequent underwater work and laboratory studies of artifacts raised from the bottom allow us to assert with increasing confidence that the found ship was precisely Queen Anne's Revenge - Queen Anne's Revenge(although a huge number of ships and vessels - several hundred! - were wrecked in these waters at various times)

Work on this find continues to this day. Underwater research, laboratory research, work in archives... And as usually happens in such cases, a new discovery gives rise to new questions...

What did he look like? La Concorde - Queen Anne's Revenge?
The answer to this question has not yet been found. However, it is unlikely that his appearance corresponded to the cinematic one. Researchers such as David Moore, an employee of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, prefer an image more consistent with that presented in the monograph by J. Boudriot (J. Boudriot Monographie LE MERCURE - Navire marchand 1730)

If you would like to keep up to date with the latest research developments Queen Anne's Revenge We recommend visiting the site

"Queen Anne's Revenge"

The secrets and treasures of pirate ships buried in the depths of the sea still attract adventurers who are ready to devote their lives to searching for them.

In 1996, an expedition of researchers discovered the claw of the anchor of the ship of the famous pirate of the early 18th century: “Queen Anne's Revenge”, Edward Teach alias Blackbird (“Blackbeard”).

Fate of the ship

More than two and a half centuries ago, the flagship pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina. Blackbird, the ship's captain, abandoned the ship with his crew in June 1718 when the ship ran aground.

And on November 22, 1996, exactly the anniversary of Blackbird's death, divers from the Intersol research group discovered an anchor claw sticking out of the sand on the seabed off the coast of Beaufort (North Carolina).

They continued their search and found several more guns. Since then, the expedition has returned to this site several times and found hundreds of other items, including cannons, a bell and weapons. In the fall of 1997, researchers managed to discover part of the ship's skeleton.

Much indicates that the expedition found the ship Queen Anne's Revenge.

All that is known about Blackbird's early life is that he was born in England, probably in the 1790s in Bristol or London.

His real name is Edward Teach, although some sources call him Edward Thatch.

What is certain is that after becoming a pirate, he took the pseudonym Blackbird (“Blackbeard”).

He actually wore a long black beard, with black ribbons woven into it.

As his crew began the boarding, Blackbird calmly smoked and blew wisps of smoke through his beard: creating a demonic image of the “sea devil,” he hoped that the ship captains would surrender to him without a fight.

Probably, like many pirates, he started out as a privateer. In 1713 he settled by the sea and soon joined Ben Hornigold's crew of pirates.

After Hornigold received amnesty and gave up piracy in 1717, Blackbird took command of his flagship, a former French slave ship known as the Concorde.

Blackbird additionally armed it with cannons and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.

Together with his crew of three hundred people, he spent the next few years piracy in the Caribbean and off the eastern shores of America, robbing a total of 40 ships.

Blackbird was the most famous pirate to roam the North Carolina coast in the early 18th century.

How ferocious he was can be judged by the legends. So, according to one of them, he forced his captive to eat his own ears, and according to another, he cut off a finger of a prisoner who did not want to give up his ring.

After Blackbird lost the Queen Anne's Revenge, his ships continued to plunder throughout the summer and fall of 1718. It is known that in September of the same year, he and his crew organized a grand feast that attracted many pirates.

This was the last straw for Virginia Colonial Governor Alexander Spotswood, who decided to send two sloops under the command of Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard to finally deal with Blackbird.

On November 21, Lieutenant Maynard's ships overtook the pirate fleet near Ocracoke Bay, and the battle began the next day. Blackbird was the first to fire a cannon attack, which killed several people from the British ship. But Maynard was a worthy opponent.

He outwitted Blackbird by making him believe that most of the English crew had been killed, while the sailors were safely hidden. When Blackbird began to board the ship, he ran into an ambush. Sources say: a terrible fight ensued between Blackbird and Maynard, during which the lieutenant wounded the pirate with a pistol and pierced him with a sword.

But he did not give up until one of the members of the English team rushed at him with a knife and cut his throat. Maynard cut off Blackbird's head and placed it on the bow of his ship, setting off on his victorious return journey. A well-deserved death has finally found the ferocious “demon of the seas.”

There have always been disputes around pirate adventures - what is true and what is fiction. Many things are still hidden under a veil of mystery and uncertainty to this day, but there are also those that historians still managed to find. These few unique items include Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge!

More than two and a half centuries ago, the flagship pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina. Edward Teach, the ship's captain, left him with his crew in June 1718...
But first things first.

Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard, was a dashing captain of sea robbers. When his team began boarding, the captain calmly smoked and blew wisps of smoke through his beard: creating a demonic image of the “sea devil,” he hoped that the ship captains, out of fear, would surrender to him without a fight.

But a captain without a ship is nonsense. What can we say about the legendary flagship ship of Blackbeard, called “Queen Anne’s Revenge”... But here’s what: before becoming a pirate ship, this ship was called “Concorde”.

This ship was built in 1710, and had the beautiful name "Concord". First, the Spaniards sailed on it, then the ship was bought by France, and the last owner, who made the Concorde a real legend, was the great and famous pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach). This happened in 1717, the Concorde was then sailing its usual route under the command of French slave traders (it was for these purposes that the ship served), when, out of the blue, two light sloops filled to capacity with pirates appeared on the horizon. It is believed that the French could easily smash both pirate ships to smithereens, but everyone had already heard about Blackbeard and his reprisals, so the sailors were very intimidated. At the first order of the pirates, the Concorde crew laid down their arms.

Edward Teach renamed the ship Queen Anne's Revenge. It was a three-masted ship 36 meters long and 8 meters wide. The displacement was approximately 300 tons, and in terms of artillery, the ship carried 26 guns on board. Teach improved it, after which the ship began to carry as many as 40 guns! The team for Queen Anne's Revenge was made up of 150 notorious thugs.

Together with his crew, over the next few years he pirated in the Caribbean and off the eastern shores of America, robbing a total of 40 ships. How ferocious he was can be judged by the legends. So, according to one of them, he forced his captive to eat his own ears, and according to another, he cut off a finger of a prisoner who did not want to give up his ring.

Frankly, for historians this name of the ship “Queen Anne's Revenge” (Queen Anne's Revenge) sounds very mysterious. In addition, Teach's contemporaries testify that he often called himself the “Avenger of the Spanish Seas.” For whom did he take revenge on the British? For the executed queen Anne, the second wife of King Henry VIII? And thereby hinted that he was the bearer of the old English surname Boleyn? The French historian Jean Merien suggested that his real name was Edward Dammond. Perhaps this is so, perhaps not, while this is just another blank spot in stories.

On the Queen Anne's Revenge, Teach went to cruise around the island of St. Vincent, where he captured a large English merchant ship under the command of Christophe Taylor. The pirates removed everything that they might need from this ship, and, having landed the crew on the island, they set the ship on fire.

Defoe writes that a few days later Teach met the forty-gun ship Scarborough, with which he entered into battle. The battle lasted several hours and luck began to favor Teach. Realizing in time that they would lose in an open battle, the captain of the Scarborough decided to take advantage of the speed of his ship. He stopped the battle and, raising all sails, turned to Barbados, to his anchorage. Significantly inferior to the Scarborough in speed, Teach's ship stopped pursuing and headed towards Spanish America. Unfortunately, Teach does not report anything about the collision with the Scarborough either in the ship's log or in his letters, so the reliability of this information lies entirely on Defoe's conscience.

In December-January 1718, Edward Teach, having replenished the crew (now there were about three hundred cutthroats on board the Queen Anne's Revenge), Teach, cruising off the islands of St. Kitts and Crab, captured several British sloops. And at the end of January he arrived in Ocracoke Bay, near the city of Bath (North Carolina). The cunning captain understood that this town (at that time its population was just over 8 thousand people) was an excellent refuge for ships sailing from the Atlantic to Pimlico Bay, and the fighting colonists were willing to pay Teach more for pirate booty than professional buyers in the Bahamas .

Soon, Blackbeard plundered so much that he already had 4 ships under his command; naturally, the flagship was the Queen Anne's Revenge. Under his command, more than 35 robberies were carried out, not all of which were at sea. Recently, Teach actively began to “work on land”, and a little later he even blockaded the harbor of Charleston (this was in May 1718). And already in the early summer of the same year, the ship ran aground near North Carolina. There is an opinion that Edward Teach did this deliberately, as the ship became too recognizable...

After Edward Teach lost Queen Anne's Revenge, his ships continued to plunder throughout the summer and autumn of 1718. It is known that in September of the same year, he and his crew organized a grand feast that attracted many pirates.

During this feast, since everyone knew that tomorrow they would be attacked by enemy sloops, someone asked the captain if his wife knew where his treasures were hidden, because anything could happen during a battle. The captain replied, “Only me and the sea devil know this location and the last one left alive will take everything for himself.” Later, the pirates from his detachment, who were captured as a result of the battle, told a story that was ideally incredible: when going to sea with the aim of engaging in sea robbery, they noticed an unusual person among the crew, who for several days had been walking along the deck, then going down into hold, and no one knew where it came from; then the stranger disappeared shortly before the ship was wrecked. The pirates believed that it was the Devil himself.

Adventure Galley is the favorite ship of William Kidd, an English privateer and pirate. This unusual frigate galley was equipped with straight sails and oars, which made it possible to maneuver both against the wind and in calm weather. The 287-ton ship with 34 guns accommodated 160 crew and was primarily intended to destroy the ships of other pirates.

Queen Anne's Revenge is the flagship of the legendary captain Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard. This 40-gun frigate was originally called Concorde, belonged to Spain, then passed to France, until it was finally captured by Blackbeard Under his leadership, the ship was strengthened and renamed. "Queen Anne's Revenge" sank dozens of merchant and military ships that stood in the way of the famous pirate.

Whydah is the flagship of Black Sam Bellamy, one of the pirates of the golden age of sea robbery. The Ouida was a fast and maneuverable vessel capable of carrying a lot of treasure. Unfortunately for Black Sam, only a year after the start of his pirate “career” the ship was caught in a terrible storm and was thrown ashore. The entire crew, except two people, died. By the way, Sam Bellamy was the richest pirate in history, according to Forbes' recalculation, his fortune amounted to about 132 million dollars in modern equivalent.

"Royal Fortune" belonged to Bartholomew Roberts, the famous Welsh corsair, with whose death the golden age of piracy ended. Bartholomew had several ships during his career, but the 42-gun, three-masted ship of the line was his favorite. On it he met his death in battle with the British warship "Swallow" in 1722.

Fancy is the ship of Henry Avery, also known as Long Ben and the Arch-Pirate. The Spanish 30-gun frigate Charles II successfully plundered French ships, but eventually a mutiny broke out on it, and power passed to Avery, who served as first mate. Avery renamed the ship Imagination and sailed on it until his career ended.

Happy Delivery is a small but beloved ship of George Lowther, an 18th-century English pirate. His signature tactic was to ram an enemy ship with his own while simultaneously boarding it with lightning speed.

The Golden Hind was an English galleon that, under the command of Sir Francis Drake, circumnavigated the world between 1577 and 1580. The ship was originally named "Pelican", but upon entering the Pacific Ocean, Drake renamed it in honor of his patron, Lord Chancellor Christopher Hatton, who had a golden hind on his coat of arms.

The Rising Sun was a ship owned by Christopher Moody, a truly ruthless thug who took no prisoners as a matter of principle. This 35-gun frigate terrified Moody's enemies until he was safely hanged - but she went down in history with the most unusual pirate flag known, yellow on a red background, and even with a winged hourglass to the left of the skull.

Large and tiny, powerful and maneuverable - all these ships, as a rule, were built for completely different purposes, but sooner or later they ended up in the hands of corsairs. Some ended their “careers” in battle, others were resold, others sank in storms, but all of them glorified their owners in one way or another.

There are many legends surrounding pirate activities, which developed widely in the Middle Ages: which of them is true and which is fiction - let historians figure it out. But it should be noted that despite the fact that many details of pirate life still remain unknown, some evidence of the deeds of the gentlemen of fortune was still found. And one of them is the ship of the legendary pirate (Edward Teach), which was called Queen Anne's Revenge.

The beginning of the history of the great flagship

The flagship ship was built back in 1710. It was originally called Concorde. And first it was used by the Spaniards. However, the French soon bought the ship, and its last owner, who gave the ship worldwide fame, was Edward Teach, a cruel pirate who terrified sailors with just his name.

In 1717, the Concorde followed its usual route, carrying a crew of French slave traders. Suddenly, two light and fast pirate sloops appeared on the horizon, on board which the pirates were vigilantly looking out for their new victim.

There is an opinion that the French were quite capable of smashing into pieces the boats of the gentlemen of fortune, which were flimsy compared to the Concorde. But each of the crew members had heard about Teach’s tough temper and exorbitant cruelty, so no one wanted to get into battle with the most formidable pirate of that time. At the first order of Blackbeard, the French sailors laid down their arms, after which the ship was captured.

"Queen Anne's Revenge"

The flagship Concorde was renamed Queen Anne's Revenge immediately after Blackbeard took it over and installed his crew of notorious thugs on the ship. It should be noted that the ship was simply huge in comparison with most ships plowing the world’s oceans at that time.

"Queen Anne's Revenge" had three masts, and its length was as much as 36 meters with an 8-meter width. Edward Teach put a lot of effort into improving his new floating home and placed 40 artillery pieces on board. Such power was unheard of even for the Spanish navy, and the ship's capacity was 150 people, who served in Blackbeard's crew.

Within just one year after the capture of the Concorde, Teach captured 4 more ships on the newly renamed ship. Under the command of Blackbeard, who led his escort from the captain's bridge of Queen Anne's Revenge, he carried out about 35 predatory attacks, of which not all were carried out at sea.

In the last years of his life, Teach actively “worked” on land, and at the beginning of 1718 he even led the blockade of Charleston. At the beginning of summer, the ship ran aground near North Carolina. But there is an opinion that Blackbeard led him into shallow water deliberately - by that time, Queen Anne's Revenge was too recognizable to make sudden raids on it.

The sunken flagship on which the legendary pirate sailed was discovered in early 2012. And today, active work is underway to raise his remains from the seabed.