Was Blackbeard really the terror of the seas, and what did his wrecked flagship reveal?

Blackbeard was certainly feared, but at least one account of him suggests that much of his terror was theatre. Edward Teach was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the east coast of Britain's North American colonies. He remains one of history's best-known pirates. His nickname came from his thick black beard and menacing look, and he was reported to have tied lit fuses, known as slow matches, under his hat to frighten his enemies. According to one account, he was a shrewd and calculating leader who spurned violence and relied on his fearsome image instead.

The image was backed by a floating fortress. Teach captured a French slave ship, La Concorde, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, gave her 40 guns and crewed her with over 300 men. He formed an alliance of pirates and blockaded Charles Town, South Carolina, ransoming its inhabitants. Then he ran the ship aground on a sandbar near Beaufort, North Carolina. Some suggest he did it deliberately, as an excuse to disperse the crew.

His end came after he accepted a royal pardon in North Carolina but was soon back at sea. That attracted the attention of Virginia's governor, Alexander Spotswood, who personally financed an operation to catch him, possibly believing Teach had fabulous treasures hidden away. On 22 November 1718, after the battle at Ocracoke Inlet, Teach and several of his crew were killed by a small force led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, and Maynard noted that Teach's body had been shot five times and cut about twenty.

The story did not end there. Intersal, a private firm, discovered the wreck believed to be Queen Anne's Revenge on 21 November 1996, and in 2011 North Carolina confirmed it. Inside a cannon, archaeologists found scraps of paper from a book about a voyage under Woodes Rogers, probably used as wadding.