Benjamin Hornigold

Edward Teach was a Bristol man born, but had sailed some time out of Jamaica in privateers in the late French war.

Yet though he had often distinguished himself for his uncommon boldness and personal courage, he was never raised to any command till he went a-pirating, which, I think, was in the latter end of the year seventeen sixteen, when Captain Benjamin Hornigold put him into a sloop that he had made prize of, and with whom he continued in concertship till a little while before Hornigold surrendered.

In the spring of the year seventeen seventeen, Teach and Hornigold sailed from Providence for the main of America and took in their way a billop from the Havana with one hundred twenty barrels of flour, as also a sloop from Bermuda, Thurbar master, from whom they took only some gallons of wine and then let him go, and a ship from Madeira to South Carolina, out of which they got plunder to a considerable value.

After cleaning on the coast of Virginia, they returned to the West Indies and, in the latitude of twenty-four, made prize of a large French guinea-man bound to Martinico, which, by Hornigold's consent, Teach went aboard of as captain and took a cruise in her.

Hornigold returned with his sloop to Providence, where, at the arrival of Captain Rogers, the governor, he surrendered to mercy pursuant to the king's proclamation.

Aboard of this guinea-man, Teach mounted forty guns and named her the Queen Anne's Revenge and, cruising near the island of St. Vincent, took a large ship called the Great Allen, Christopher Taylor commander.

The pirates plundered her of what they thought fit, put all the men ashore upon the island above mentioned, and set fire to the ship.

Charles Vane was there.

Benjamin Hornigold was there.

The man history remembers as Blackbeard, Edward Teach or Thatch, depending on which record you consult, was there.

And so was Anne Bonny, one of the most famous female pirates in the historical record, whose story we will return to in a later segment because it deserves that space.

So, starting with Blackbeard.

He hung around with Hornigold for a long time, remember? Yeah, he did.

Yeah, we had him.

He was a privateer.

And this is the place where Blackbeard's life is going to take a critical turn.

It is in Nassau Harbor of New Providence, a place full of pirates, privateers, smugglers, and adventurers, that young Blackbeard meets a man named Benjamin Hornigold and goes full pirate.

Benjamin Hornigold would become Blackbeard's mentor, and he was a man who already had a distinguished career as a privateer.

He'd been seizing ships, operating under letters of marque while the war had been going on, and now that the war was over, he'd decided to continue doing exactly the same things.

But Benjamin Hornigold was kind of an edge case.

He was a guy who was now officially a pirate because he didn't have permission, but he still thought of himself as a privateer.

So he only wanted to attack Spanish ships, not English ones, because he still wanted to hold on to this veneer of legitimacy that had protected his privateering career up to this point.

even though conditions on the ground, or should I say in the water, had now changed.

Edward Teach was a Bristol man born, but had sailed some time out of Jamaica in privateers in the late French war.

Yet though he had often distinguished himself for his uncommon boldness and personal courage, he was never raised to any command till he went a-pirating, which, I think, was in the latter end of the year 1716, when Captain Benjamin Hornigold put him into a sloop that he had made prize of, and with whom he continued in concertship till a little while before Hornigold surrendered.

In the spring of the year 1717, Teach and Hornigold sailed from Providence for the Maine of America, and took in their way a billop from the Havana with 120 barrels of flour, as also a sloop from Bermuda, Thurbar master, from whom they took only some gallons of wine, and then let him go, and a ship from Madeira to South Carolina, out of which they got plunder to a considerable value.

After cleaning on the coast of Virginia, they returned to the West Indies, and, in the latitude of 24, made prize of a large French guinea-man bound to Martinico, which, by Hornigold's consent, Teach went aboard of as captain, and took a cruise in her.

Yeah, a couple of those were recycled, but most of them were new, and sometimes you want to build a scenario around an idea.

Like, one of those in there is how do we make a game for three players, okay? This is Hornigold and Blackbeard attacking the La Concorde, right? Uh, so that-

that-was conceived out of trying to build a game that works really well for three players 'cause that's a thing that happens a good bit with a smaller gaming community at a local store.

So there's lots of ways to start, but you kinda have to know enough history to kind of find the history that works for the idea you want.

She was actually a sloop of about ninety tons, recently purchased from a sugar trader and being pierced for twelve guns.

Her captain, a man named Benjamin Hornigold, who had already made several successful cruises, was hiring hands who could fight as well as sail.

Teach's size and quiet competence got him signed on as an able seaman with the promise of an extra quarter share if he proved useful at the guns.

The articles were read aloud on the deck before the ship cleared the dock.

By early one thousand seven hundred and sixteen, the harbor had become a genuine base for more organized activity.

New ships arrived almost weekly, some captured outright, others simply sailed in by crews tired of merchant wages.

Teach watched as Benjamin Hornigold returned from a cruise with two prizes and a crew that looked well-fed and confident.

The two men met again on the beach one evening, recognizing each other immediately from the old privateering days.

Jennings based himself here in Nassau.

He teamed up with another pirate, another former privateer, a man named Benjamin Hornigold.

Hornigold actually retired from piracy, which is something not every pirate did.

But before he retired, he took an aspiring young pirate under his wing, a man named Edward Teach.