Stede Bonnet

The crews of Hornigold and Teach have by now probably developed a taste for Madeira wine, and on September 29 near Cape Charles, all they take from the Betty of Virginia is her cargo of Madeira, before they scuttle her with the remaining cargo.

It is during this cruise with Hornigold that the earliest known report of Teach is made, in which he is recorded as a pirate in his own right, in command of a large crew.

In a report made by a Captain Mathew Munthe on an anti-piracy patrol for North Carolina, "Thatch" is described as operating "a sloop 6 gunns [sic] and about 70 men".

Teach and Hornigold had earlier in September encountered Stede Bonnet, a landowner and military officer from a wealthy family who had turned to piracy earlier that year.

Bonnet's crew of about seventy are reportedly dissatisfied with his command, so with Bonnet's permission, Teach takes control of his ship Revenge.

The pirates' flotilla now consists of three ships; Teach on Revenge, Teach's old sloop and Hornigold's Ranger.

Another vessel has been captured by October and added to the small pirate fleet.

The sloops Robert of Philadelphia and Good Intent of Dublin are stopped on October 22, 1717, and their cargo holds emptied.

Hornigold, as a former British privateer, attacks only England's enemies in the War of the Spanish Succession, but for his crew, the sight of British-flagged vessels filled with valuable cargo passing by unharmed becomes too much, and in November 1717 a vote is taken among the combined crews to attack any vessel they choose.

Hornigold opposes the decision and is replaced as captain.

Whether Teach has any involvement in this decision is unknown, but Hornigold quickly retires from piracy.

With a token crew, he takes Ranger and one of the sloops, leaving Teach with Revenge and the remaining sloop.

The two never meet again.

Hornigold continues piracy operations from Nassau until December 1717, when word arrives of a general pardon for pirates offered by the King through Woodes Rogers.

Hornigold sails in January 1718 (the English had not yet accepted the Gregorian Calendar, so by their point of view, it is January 1717 with the new year of 1718 not starting until March) to Jamaica, where he takes the pardon from the island’s governor.

He later becomes a pirate hunter for the new governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers.

Rogers grants Hornigold's request for a pardon, but commissions him to hunt down other pirates, including his former lieutenant, Teach.

Edward Teach has awarded himself the rank of Commodore by May 1718 and is at the height of his power.

His flotilla blockades the port of Charles Town late this month.

All vessels entering or leaving the port are stopped, and as the town has no guard ship, its pilot boat is the first to be captured.

About nine vessels are stopped and ransacked over the next five or six days as they attempt to sail past Charleston Bar, where Teach's fleet is anchored.

One such ship, headed for London with a group of prominent Charleston citizens that includes Samuel Wragg (a member of the Council of the Province of Carolina), is the Crowley.

Her passengers are questioned about the vessels still in port and then locked below decks for about half a day.

Teach informs the prisoners that his fleet requires medical supplies from the colonial government of South Carolina, and that if none are forthcoming, all prisoners will be executed, their heads sent to the Governor and all captured ships burnt.

Wragg agrees to Teach's demands, and a Mr. Marks and two pirates are given two days to collect the drugs.

Teach moves his fleet, and the captured ships, to within about five or six leagues from land.

Three days later, a messenger, sent by Marks, returned to the fleet; Marks's boat had capsized and delayed their arrival in Charleston.

Teach grants a reprieve of two days, but still the party does not return.

He then calls a meeting of his fellow sailors and moves eight ships into the harbor, causing panic within the town.

When Marks finally returns to the fleet, he explains what had happened.

On his arrival he had presented the pirates' demands to the Governor and the drugs had been quickly gathered, but the two pirates sent to escort him had proved difficult to find; they had been busy drinking with friends and were finally discovered, drunk.

Teach keeps to his side of the bargain and releases the captured ships and his prisoners—albeit relieved of their valuables, including the fine clothing some had worn.

Teach had learned while at Charleston that Woodes Rogers had left England with several men-of-war under orders to purge the West Indies of pirates.

Teach's flotilla sails northward along the Atlantic coast and into Topsail Inlet (commonly known as Beaufort Inlet), off the coast of North Carolina.

Here they intend to careen their ships to scrape their hulls, but Queen Anne's Revenge runs aground on a sandbar, cracking her mainmast and severely damaging many of her timbers.

Teach orders several sloops to throw ropes across the flagship in an attempt to free her.

A sloop commanded by Israel Hands also runs aground, and both vessels appear to be damaged beyond repair, leaving only Revenge and the captured Spanish sloop.

Teach had at some stage learned of the offer of a royal pardon and probably confided in Bonnet his willingness to accept it.

The pardon is open to all pirates who surrendered on or before September 5, 1718, but contains a caveat stipulating that immunity is offered only against crimes committed before January 5.

Although, in theory, this leaves Bonnet and Teach at risk of being hanged for their actions at Charleston Bar, most authorities can waive such conditions.

Teach thinks that Governor Charles Eden is a man he can trust, but to make sure, he waits to see what would happen to another captain.

Bonnet leaves immediately on a small sailing boat for Bath Town, where he surrenders to Governor Eden, and receives his pardon.

He then travels back to Beaufort Inlet to collect Revenge and the remainder of his crew, intending to sail to Denmark's Caribbean colony of St. Thomas, where he plans to buy a letter of marque and go privateering against Spanish shipping.

Eden has granted Bonnet this clearance.

Bonnet returns to Topsail Inlet to find that Teach had beached the majority of their former crew on a small sandy island about a league from the mainland, robbed the Revenge and two other vessels of the squadron of most of their supplies, and sailed away two days earlier for parts unknown aboard the smaller sloop, carrying all the loot with him.

Bonnet now (probably late June or early July 1718) resumes command of the Revenge.

Few, if any, of his original crew from Barbados are still aboard.

Bonnet reinforces the Revenge by rescuing a number of men whom Teach had marooned.

Charles Eden, who had been appointed Governor of North Carolina on July 13, 1713, is best known for his actions to end piracy in the area.

Teach continues on to Bath, where in June 1718—only days after Bonnet had departed with his pardon—he and his much-reduced crew received their pardon from Governor Eden.

He settles in Bath, on the eastern side of Bath Creek at Plum Point, near Eden's home.

A bumboat's crew had told Bonnet, shortly after he resumed command, that Teach was moored in Ocracoke Inlet.

Bonnet sets sail at once to hunt down his treacherous ex-confederate, but cannot find him; Bonnet will never meet Teach again.

Although Bonnet apparently never discards his hopes of reaching St. Thomas and getting his letter of marque, two pressing problems now tempt him back into piracy.

First, Blackbeard had stolen the food and supplies he and his men needed to subsist (one pirate will testify at his trial that no more than ten or eleven barrels remained aboard the Revenge).

Second, St. Thomas is now in the midst of the Atlantic hurricane season, which will last until autumn.

However, returning to freebooting means nullifying Bonnet's pardon.

Hoping to preserve his pardon, Bonnet adopts the alias "Captain Thomas" and changes the Revenge's name to the Royal James, presumably a reference to the younger Prince James Stuart, and may suggest that Bonnet or his men had Jacobite sympathies.

One of Bonnet's prisoners will further reported witnessing Bonnet's men drinking to the health of the Old Pretender and wishing to see him king of the English nation.

Bonnet further tries to disguise his return to piracy by engaging in a pretense of trade with the next two vessels he robs.

Soon afterward, Bonnet quits the charade of trading and reverts to naked piracy.

He cruises north in July 1718 to Delaware Bay, pillaging another eleven vessels.

He takes several prisoners, some of whom join his pirate crew.

While Bonnet sets loose most of his prizes after looting them, he retains control of the last two ships he captures: the sloops Francis and Fortune.

Virginia's Governor Alexander Spotswood is concerned that the supposedly retired freebooter and his crew are living in nearby North Carolina.

Some of Teach's former crew have already moved into several Virginian seaport towns, prompting Spotswood to issue a proclamation on July 10, requiring all former pirates to make themselves known to the authorities, to give up their arms and to not travel in groups larger than three.

Spotswood, as head of a Crown colony, views the proprietary colony of North Carolina with contempt; he has little faith in the ability of the Carolinians to control the pirates, who he suspects will be back to their old ways, disrupting Virginian commerce, as soon as their money runs out.