The death of Blackbeard at Ocracoke
The pirate Blackbeard was killed at Ocracoke Inlet on 22 November 1718. Legend says his headless body swam around the ship.
On 22 November 1718 a naval force fought Blackbeard (Edward Teach) in Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. Planters in North Carolina had asked for help, so Alexander Spotswood, Virginia's governor, dispatched ships led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy. Blackbeard was killed and his crew defeated. A saying has it that he took five musket balls and twenty sword slashes before he fell.
The usual telling is that Maynard cut off the head and hung it from his sloop's bowsprit as a trophy for Bath, his home port. An article marking the 300th anniversary calls this the start of three centuries of myth.
The ghost story adds more. By one version the head called out to Edward as the body struck the sea, and the trunk circled the ship three times before sinking. By another, the pirates who lived through it stared as their captain circled Maynard's vessel. These details are legend and appear in no record.
"The Battle of Ocracoke, also known as the Battle at Ocracoke[1] or the Battle of Ocracoke Inlet,[2] was a naval engagement fought on 22 November 1718 in Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. It resulted in the death of the pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) and the defeat of his crew by a force commanded by Royal Navy lieutenant Robert Maynard.[1][3]"
- On Nov. 22 Blackbeard lost his head and launched 300 years of myth, Ocracoke Observer
- Blackbeard killed off North Carolina, History.com
- Blackbeard's Ghost, American Folklore
- Blackbeard / Teach's Hole, Ocracoke Navigator