Blackbeard’s Crib

Take a hilarious tour of Blackbeard’s famous ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, on Horrible Histories TV CRIBZ.

Buried Booty: Fact or Fiction?

Did pirates really bury their booty? Are maps and hints scattered across the globe? Is there any chance I could find buried treasure?

Good luck finding that shoebox.

Unless you happen to find a shoebox full of money that someone buried in your yard (and that’s unlikely enough), most likely, no you will not. The fact is, most pirates lived in the here now and did not concern themselves with saving treasure. Any loot received from sacking a ship was divided up, and quickly spent in taverns, brothels, and markets. These ongoing and constant adrenaline filled spending sprees would have made it difficult for even a fiscal pirate to save any amount of wealth. What’s more, is that these pirates were not obtaining their wealth from mostly coins and gems, but from trade goods like cloth, spices, and other perishables that would be ruined if buried.

Johnny Depp lied to you.

But, we are constantly shown by the media that pirates buried or hid their treasure, from Davy Jones’ heart in Pirates of the Caribbean toa huge planet of gold in Treasure Planet, and what Hollywood tell us, has to be true, right?

Wrong. So, so wrong. The Hollywood film industry has incorporated treasure maps and buried chests into many pirate movies for theatrical effect, nothing more.

Well, great, now my whole life was a lie.

The dashing Captain Kidd

Not exactly, there are a few accounts of pirates burying their 401k. Most notably, Captain Kidd, whom delayed his execution by telling authorities where he had buried some treasure. He was, in fact, telling the truth, and the government seized what they found, and hanged him anyway.

The cryptic message inside Levasseur’s necklace. Good luck!

Another is Oliver Levsseur, nicknamed La bouche (the buzzard) who was a very successful pirate up until his capture. As he was standing on the execution stage with a noose around his neck, he flung his necklace containing a cryptic message into the crowd and shouted, “Find my treasure, he who may understand it!”

People claim both treasures are still hidden around the world and those who have the means have been searching for them since their owners still walked the Earth.

-Lauren

Isla Mujeres

The Isla Mujeres is a small island of the coast of Cancun, Mexico. This island has a rich history as a Mayan ritual site, a pirate base, and a great place to eat and drink. I spent many of my summers in Cancun as a child, and my favorite place to go was tho this mysterious island. The island today has very few inhabitants, and very few roads. This makes it feel like you are back in the past. I asked on of the people that lived here why it was called the island of women, he told me that pirates would store there women and there treasure on the island while they were out on adventures. I recently did some research and i fount out that, it got its name from the finding of women shaped artifacts left from the mayans. I did find out that this was a place for pirates as well. there were no cool stories, it was just one of the many places that they would stop and gather supplies, but the fact that i have been in the same place as pirates,still makes me feel like a kid

John Snyder

Did Pirates Have Children?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney’s Jake and the Neverland Pirates

 

 

 

Plenty of questions arise about pirates due to their ever growing popularity in film, media, and entertainment. As I learn more about pirates and compare the facts to what I’ve seen or watched, I became interested in knowing whether some aspects of these stories are true and which ones are fictional. One topic that interests me most is whether pirates had families, such as wives and/or children. 

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean

The Adventures of Tin Tin

In films like Pirates of the Caribbean series and The Adventures of Tin Tin, both of which have been fairly recent films, there are characters who are either children of pirates or descendants of them. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End, Will Turner (played by Orlando Bloom) runs into his pirate father Bill Turner. It is also assumed that Will and Elizabeth, his lover (played by Keira Knightley), had a son together. Another example is in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides when Jack Sparrow discovers that Blackbeard has a daughter: Angelica. The last example I have is from Tin Tin. Tin Tin joins a man named Haddock on a treasure hunt to find a pirate ship called the Unicorn in which the captain was Haddock’s ancestor. With this in mind, my question is “Did Pirates Have Children?”

  

In the chapter A True Account of Three Notorious Pirates part 1 in Great Pirate Stories by Joseph Lewis French, Blackbeard is said to have had 14 wives. Did some of these women bare his children? Upon some research, I stumbled upon this website that claims that Blackbeard occasionally “shared” his wives with his crew. Could any of the children that came from these women, if there were any, be from the crew-members and told that they were Blackbeard’s? Or did the women who bared these children, in order to protect them, claim that they were not Blackbeard’s nor any other pirate’s? Hopefully as I continue my research I will find more about his lineage as well as other pirates’ lineage. http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/jun11_pirates.php 

 

The picture above is from last Halloween and those “Pirate Princesses” (as they like to call themselves) are my daughters. As a mother, I feel that this topic suits me well. My children are my biggest motivators so why not incorporate them into my research? 

 

-Mai

 

 

Blackbeard and Governor Eden

Map of the coast of North Carolina, where Blackbeard would hide and attack incoming vessels

WHAT FAVOR DID THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA DO FOR TEACH?

Artist’s drawing of Blackbeard’s ship.

– North Carolina Governor Eden gave him the right to the vessel (Queen Anne’s Revenge) which he pirated earlier and also married Blackbeard and his 14th wife.

– Historical Fact: Blackbeard’s entire career as a pirate captain of Queen Anne’s Revenge only lasted 2 years, from 1717 to 1718.

– Controversial issue: When the crown was making pardons for any pirate who gave themselves up, Teach was among those who surrendered to Eden.