Blackbeard's Demise

lackbeard naturally assumed his guns had killed most of her crew and decided to board Maynard's ship with ten of his pirates. They clambered aboard, and as they did so, the sailors emerged from hiding. The most complete account of what happened next appears in the Boston News Letter. It read:

Maynard and Teach themselves begun the fight with their swords, Maynard making a thrust, the point of his sword went against Teach's cartridge box, and bended it to the hilt. Teach broke the guard of it, and wounded Maynard's fingers but did not disable him, whereupon he jumped back and threw away his sword and fired his pistol which wounded Teach. Demelt struck in between them with his sword and cut Teach's face pretty much; in the interim both companies engaged in Maynard's sloop, one of Maynard's men being a Highlander, engaged Teach with his broad sword, who gave Teach a cut on the neck, Teach saying well done lad; the Highlander replied, if it not be well done, I'll do it better. With that he gave him a second stroke, which cut off his head, laying it flat on his shoulder.

According to Maynard, Blackbeard fell with five shot in him and twenty dismal cuts in several parts of his body. Like Rasputin, that other bearded monster of history, he seemed to defy death until the highlander's fatal slash with his broadsword. So it is not surprising to find that local legend has it that when Blackbeard's body was thrown overboard, the headless corpse swam around the sloop several times.