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Pirate of the Day: Edward England

Edward England, born Edward Seegar in Ireland, was a famous African coast and Indian Ocean pirate from 1717 to 1720. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl and later the Fancy, for which England exchanged the Pearl in 1720.



His flag was the classic Jolly Roger with a skull above two crossed thigh bones on a black background.



He differed from many other pirates of his day in that he did not kill captives unless it was absolutely necessary. However, this ultimately led to his downfall, for his crew mutinied against him when he refused to kill sailors from the Cassandra, an English trading ship, captained by James Macrae. He was subsequently marooned on Mauritius with two other crew members, where they fashioned a small raft and made it to St. Augustine’s Bay in Madagascar. England survived for a short while by begging for food and died around the end of 1720.

From Wikipedia.com

Pirate of the Day: Blackbeard

Edward Teach or Blackbeard

Years active: 1716–1718
Location: East coast of North America and the Caribbean Sea.
Fate: Killed in battle against English Navy.

Successfully blockaded the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.  Also known for his flamboyant appearance and dark, full beard (to which he tied lit fuses as a method of intimidation during battle) which earned him his namesake.
Perhaps the most famous pirate ever, a claim that can likely be attributed as much to his catchy nickname as to his piratical prowess.  Much to his credit, however, was the fact that he managed to mobilize a rather large fleet of pirate ships which he led into various assaults.  Most notably, the flotilla under the leadership of Blackbeard (now referring to himself as Commodore) managed to blockade the harbor at Charleston, SC for several days.  During the blockade they captured several ships and took many hostages, all of which were eventually exchanged for various medicines required by his crew.  Teach terrorized the West Indies and the Atlantic coast for years at the helm of the Queen Anne’s Revenge before finally being bested by an English assault at the Battle of Ocracoke off the coast of North Carolina.  In his final moments, Teach is said to have fought off a multitude of Englishmen before succumbing to his wounds, which totaled at least five gunshots and over twenty sabre cuts.

SOURCE: AOM



Pirate of the Day: William Kidd

Years active: 1696-1701 Location: Indian Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and off the east coast of North America.
Fate: Hung and gibbeted over the River Thames in London, where his body remained for over twenty years as a warning to those considering piracy as a profession.
Claim to fame: Originator of the idea of “buried treasure.”
Truthfully, the exploits of the legendary Captain Kidd were not very extraordinary.  Kidd participated in several small skirmishes with pirates and other vessels as a privateer commissioned by the British government, but none would have any substantial impact on history.  The legend of Captain Kidd, interestingly enough, really begins when it ends.  Throughout his career, many of his counterparts and superiors had suspected that Kidd had gone beyond the call of his letter of marque and dabbled in piracy on occasion.  When the evidence seemed overwhelming, English men-of-war were dispatched to bring him back to London.  Knowing what was to come, Kidd purportedly buried a vast treasure off the coast of New York on Gardiners Island as an insurance policy and a bargaining tool.  Unimpressed by  tales of buried treasure, the British court ordered Kidd to the gallows.  There, with a short drop and a sudden stop, his story ended and his legend began.

Taken from AOM